Introduction
What is assessment?
Many people use assessment and evaluation interchangeably. For the purpose of this site, we will use the word assessment to refer the act of judging student learning.
Who benefits from assessment?
Students benefit: Findings from cognitive psychology on the nature of meaningful, engaged learning support the use of alternative assessments that are tied to course content and teaching and that emphasize higher-order thinking skills and authentic tasks. Alternative assessments often have high fidelity for the goals of instruction and require students to solve complex, real-life problems.
Faculty benefit: Assessments provide information that can inform teaching practices and course content choices.
Society benefits: Without going into all the accreditation issues... society benefits because assessments help assure us that our tax dollars were used wisely, students are adequately prepared, etc.