Teaching Techniques: Creating Effective Learning Assessments

From the report cards we get in kindergarten to our college midterms, assessments are an inescapable part of student life; however, not all learning assessments are created equal. The best ones give valuable feedback to learners and provide a solid indication to instructors about who is learning what, what’s working, and what isn’t. In this course, John-Paul Ballard—an instructional design expert who specializes in leveraging technology for the education market—shows you how to create such assessments. To begin, John-Paul provides you with an overview, explaining the three sides of learning assessments, referencing Bloom’s taxonomy and Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation. Next, learn about the different assessment formats—for example, online exams, classroom-written exams, and observational assessments—and how to choose the best format for your assessment. He also covers how to make your assessment realistic and your test environment fair. Last, he explains how to plan and design your exam and shows you, by example, how to create a rubric.