Assessment Milestone

This teaching milestone focuses on assessment of student learning at the course level, and on assessment of your teaching effectiveness. Choose from a variety of workshop and consultation options, with topics ranging from learning outcomes and artificial intelligence, to rubrics and course evaluations. The assessment milestone allows you to shape an experience that caters to your needs as an instructor. In addition to the requirements for each training, faculty and staff are welcome to request additional consultations as needed.

How Do I Earn This Milestone?

To earn the assessment milestone, you will complete the requirements for Tiers 1, 2 and 3 listed below, resulting in completion of training on 7 assessment-related topics. Please note that to earn the milestone, you must complete/attend the training and submit relevant assessment material for each topic you select.

Tier 1

Complete both foundational workshops:

- Creating Student Learning Objectives
- Assessment Fundamentals: Designing Assessments to Meet Learners' Needs

Tier 2

Complete Four (4) workshops/learning experiences that expand upon what you learned in the Assessment Fundamentals.

Design Powerful Multiple Choice Tests and Questions
Generative AI in Higher Education: A Deep Dive Into Assessment Redesign
Making Assessment More Authentic
Mastering the Art of Effective Feedback
Reflective Teaching: Peer Class Visits and Feedback
The Online Assessment Toolbox: Expanding Options for Evaluating Student Learning
Formative Assessment as a Means to Student Engagement and Active Learning
Aligning Course Outcomes and Assessment with Program Outcomes

Tier 3

Complete (1) workshops/learning experiences from options below. This tier allows you to focus on assessment of learning (rubrics) or assessment of teaching (evaluations). If you are interested in completing both topics, the second training you complete may count towards the Tier 2 requirement:

The Power of Rubrics: A Comprehensive Training on Creation and Usage
Enhancing Instructional Impact with Course Evaluations

Descriptions

This session will review and define the foundation of assessment in higher education. Basic concepts to be covered will include the importance of assessing learning, the levels at which assessment occurs, types of assessment, and an overview of the assessment process. Participants completing this training will be able to: define different types of assessment, articulate the steps in the cyclical assessment process, and select appropriate assessment strategies for their courses.
This training will review best practices for composing multiple choice questions and exams. Concepts to be covered will include multiple choice exam and question structure, and tips for preparing your multiple choice quiz/exam. Participants completing this training will be able to: create a blueprint for their multiple choice exam according to Bloom’s Taxonomy, identify the structural components of a multiple choice question, and apply best practices to the composition of their multiple choice questions.
This interactive training will focus on redesigning course assessments in response to Generative AI. We will review examples of how faculty have modified/can modify their assessments, introduce active learning strategies for assessment in the classroom, and provide the opportunity to brainstorm ways to redesign sample assessments. There will be time at the end to ask questions about redesigning your own assessments!
Authentic assessment methods ask students to apply their knowledge and skills in meaningful and relevant ways, and allow you to evaluate their skills and performance in a real life context. This module will review the key differences between authentic and traditional (e.g. tests) assessment methods, introduce the steps to creating an authentic assessment and overview potential options for authentic assessments. Participants completing this training will be able to articulate the advantages of authentic assessment, and create their own authentic assessments in their course(s).
Quality feedback is clear, constructive and timely. This training will review the characteristics of effective feedback, how to use feedback to facilitate students' reflection on their learning and ways to incorporate peer and/or group feedback into your assessment strategy. Participants completing this training will be able to: identify the qualities of effective feedback, employ strategies to make feedback more efficient while maintaining quality, and incorporate group and/or peer feedback into their course(s).
Engage with department/program peers and/or CELT to get formative feedback on your teaching and course design using CELT’s informal checklists or validated tools for in-person and online courses. Request one or more class visits or course reviews in order to set teaching goals, self-reflect, and get targeted suggestions. There is the option to add student feedback survey(s) and video recording where applicable.
During this workshop, participants will explore a wide range of assessment options suitable for the online learning environment. We will delve into the unique challenges faced when assessing online students and strategies to promote academic integrity. We will explore assessments that promote the application of course content and discuss the value of timely feedback.
This interactive workshop will review and demonstrate some Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) and Active Learning strategies that can be used to engage students and gauge their ability to remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create (based on) course material in your learning outcomes. The workshop will highlight techniques including classroom polls, role-plays, documented case solutions, and uses for generative AI in your classes!
This training will focus on connecting course-level to program-level assessment. This connection will help instructors understand how their course(s) fit into the bigger picture of what students are learning in their degree/certificate program. Participants will be able to list their program’s learning outcomes (PLOs), identify how their course's student learning outcomes (SLOs) link to these PLOs, and align their assessment methods with both SLOs and PLOs.
This training will cover types of rubrics, the benefits of using rubrics, the steps to creating and using a rubric, as well as an overview of the rubric norming process. Participants completing this training will be able to: Distinguish between a holistic and analytical rubric to determine which is most appropriate for their assessment(s), create and use a rubric for one of their course assignments, and articulate the steps to a rubric norming session.
Student feedback is critical to enhancing teaching effectiveness, however course evaluations are most useful when you maximize your response rates, and students submit specific and constructive critiques to help you make adjustments to your course(s). This series of modules will review tips and tricks for getting students to respond with meaningful feedback, the potential for adding custom questions to your course evaluation(s) based on your developmental goals, and the process for accessing and interpreting your results. Participants completing this training will have a personal consultation to review their course evaluation results and discuss strategies for improvement in course design and/or teaching approach based on student input.