Quality Matters Standard 3
Assessment and Measurement
Specific Review Standards
3.1 The assessments measure the achievement of the stated learning objectives or competencies.
3.2 The course grading policy is stated clearly at the beginning of the course.
3.3 Specific and descriptive criteria are provided for the evaluation of learners’ work, and their connection to the course grading policy is clearly explained.
3.4 The assessments used are sequenced, varied, and suited to the level of the course.
3.5 The course provides learners with multiple opportunities to track their learning progress with timely feedback.
Alignment
Learning objectives form the foundation of your course and should drive your selection of materials, assessments, activities, and technology tools. Keep in mind that module learning objectives should support the course level objectives.
Alignment occurs when course components are consistent with your learning objectives, so that materials, activities, and assessments work together to ensure that learners are achieving the stated outcomes.
By clearly stating the connection between objectives and assessments, you can ensure that you are appropriately assessing the right skills and knowledge at the right time, and that your students are demonstrating they have learned what we want them to learn.
Toolkit
- Provide a variety of assessments for students to demonstrate learning. Check our workshop offerings for assessment strategies.
- Sequence assessments to build on earlier concepts and pace them to allow students sufficient time for mastery.
- Provide frequent opportunities for students to receive feedback on their progress and performance from instructors, other learners, or self-checks such as practice or multiple attempt assessments. Participate in a Feedback workshop or view our on-demand training materials for help.
- Clearly state the relationships between assessments and both course and module level learning objectives.
- Create a numbering system for course level objectives to include in assessment descriptions and/or instructions, to demonstrate alignment.
- Create rubrics for all assessments or groups of assessments (e.g. one rubric that applies to all discussions). See this example that illustrates the steps in rubric creation.
- Be sure your grading policy clearly explains how assessments will be graded, how course grades are calculated, and how quickly feedback/grades will be posted.
- Provide a link to Blackboard help that shows students how to view grades and get notifications about their activity.
Next Steps
How can you be sure your instructional materials contribute the the achievement of your learning objectives or competencies? Visit Course Quality Checklist and Toolkit 4 – Assessment and Measurement.
See our other Course Quality Checklists for more information:
The University of Alabama College of Continuing Studies | Adapted from Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning 6/27/2020 | © 2014 New Mexico State University Board of Regents | Quality Matters https://www.qmprogram.org | Revised 4/14/2021