Learning Science Lab | Assessment and feedback

Assessment is more than just a way to measure student learning; when implemented thoughtfully, it can be a powerful tool to support and enhance the learning process. Let’s explore various forms of assessment, including formative, summative, peer, and expert feedback, and how they can be used to improve both teaching and learning outcomes.

• Summative assessments
• Formative assessments
• Peer assessment and feedback
• Expert / real world feedback

Summative assessments

Summative assessments are what most people think of when they hear "assessment." They include exams, final projects, and other graded assignments that evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit or course. Well-designed summative assessments can also foster engagement and reinforce learning.

Characteristics of summative assessments

• Evaluated at the end of instruction: Summative assessments are conducted at the conclusion of a unit to measure how well students have learned the material.
• Graded and outcome-focused: They are graded and intended to evaluate how well students have achieved the course learning outcomes.
• Comprehensive in scope: These assessments are often comprehensive, covering a wide range of material, and are used to assign final grades.
• High stakes: Summative assessments are typically high stakes, meaning they carry significant weight in determining a student's overall performance. However, avoid relying too heavily on a single assessment; instead, conduct multiple summative assessments throughout the course.
• Aligned with learning objectives: Effective summative assessments are aligned with the course's learning objectives, ensuring they accurately evaluate the knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire.

Tips for employing summative assessments

• Provide ongoing, varied assessment: Use a mix of projects, exams, and presentations to give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding.
• Grade classroom participation: Assessing classroom participation helps ensure students stay engaged with the material, motivating them to participate actively throughout the course.
• Align assessments to learning outcomes: Summative assessments should be designed to reflect the course's learning outcomes. For example, a final project might require students to apply key concepts covered in the course, reinforcing these learning objectives.

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Formative assessments

Formative assessment differs from summative assessment because it occurs throughout the learning process, providing immediate feedback that can be used to enhance instruction and learning. Formative assessments help instructors gauge how well students are grasping new material and offer opportunities to make adjustments before the final evaluation.

Characteristics of formative assessments

• Low-stakes and process-focused: Formative assessments can be graded or ungraded, but their primary purpose is to support learning, not evaluate performance. They allow both instructors and students to practice important skills, identify areas of misunderstanding or difficulty, and address them before they become entrenched.
• Frequent: To be effective, formative assessments should be used frequently throughout the learning process to monitor student understanding. Ideally, formative assessments should be incorporated in every session or module, allowing for ongoing adjustments to instruction and fostering a supportive learning environment.
• Timely: They are learning activities designed to provide students with timely feedback they can incorporate immediately.
• Varied: These assessments can take various forms, ranging from short quizzes, to problem sets, to in-class knowledge checks.

Tips for employing formative assessments

• Maintain low stakes: Though formative assessments may be graded, their primary purpose is to provide students with actionable feedback. Keeping them ungraded, or graded but low-weight, reduces student anxiety and encourages genuine participation.
• Integrated throughout the course: Formative assessments are conducted alongside learning activities to gauge student understanding in real-time. Examples include asking students to answer questions, solve problems, or participate in discussions—all of which are relatively easy to implement and can be seamlessly integrated into class time. Structured approaches like one-minute papers or annotated problem-solving exercises can reveal students’ reasoning and give you opportunities to offer feedback.
• Use tools to offer immediate feedback: Tools like video quizzes, H5P, and ungraded quizzes in Learning Management Systems can automate student feedback, allowing them to immediately see areas for improvement and practice. In person, techniques like polls or clickers allow you to provide timely feedback to larger groups.

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Peer assessment and feedback

Peer assessment and feedback provide unique benefits. They allow students to present their work to an audience beyond the instructor, synthesize diverse perspectives, and develop critical assessment skills. Peer assessment also encourages self-reflection, as students compare their work with that of their peers.

Take an active role in facilitating peer feedback. Though students will generate a lot of useful feedback, you will help organize it and provide a framework to ensure its relevance. You can offer checklists and rubrics to guide peer participation.

Beware of the pitfall of having all students review each other. Quality is greater than quantity, and you may want to organize students into groups to maintain a manageable level of feedback for both contributors and recipients.

Characteristics of peer feedback

• Respectful: The tone of feedback should be direct and honest, but also professional and considerate to foster a supportive learning environment.
• Peer perspective: Includes the perspective of others who have completed the same work and can relate to its challenges.
• Play multiple roles: Students not only get the benefit of peers’ feedback on their work, but get to practice offering feedback and constructive critique, which is a valuable skill in its own right.

Tips for implementing peer assessment

• Set up clear criteria: To ensure peer assessment is effective, clear criteria should be established. This helps students understand what is expected of them and how to provide constructive feedback. Rubrics can be particularly useful for this purpose.
• Constructive, specific, and balanced: Feedback should focus on specific aspects of the work, offering actionable suggestions for improvement and avoiding vague comments. It should include both positives and negatives, helping encourage peers while identifying areas to improve.
• Incorporate via group work/projects: Peer assessment works well in group settings, such as projects or presentations. For instance, students can review each other's contributions in a group project, providing feedback on both the content and the collaboration process.

Check out our Activities section for some specific frameworks for implementing peer feedback.

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Expert/Real-World feedback

Expert feedback involves inviting guest experts to provide insights and feedback on student work, tying course activities to real-world applications. This type of feedback is highly valuable as it brings external perspectives and practical relevance to students' learning.

Characteristics of expert feedback

• Outside perspective: External experts bring a fresh viewpoint, enriching students’ understanding of how their work is perceived in professional contexts.
• Diverse perspective: Experts from specific roles and backgrounds, such as finance, marketing, or engineering, provide feedback that helps students better grasp how their work interacts with others in larger teams and institutions.
• Expanded expertise: Including another expert voice helps students recognize that knowledge and authority extend beyond the instructor.
• Learning community: Incorporating expert voices reinforces the concept of learning as a collaborative, community-driven process that extends beyond the classroom.

Tips for expert feedback

• Prepare the guest: Provide your guest with the context they need to contribute to the class. If they’re offering feedback for a specific assignment, ensure they know the details and offer a rubric to keep feedback consistent and aligned with learning outcomes.
• Offer real-world context: Seek guest experts who can provide insights that represent industry expectations, helping students understand how their work would be perceived outside the classroom.
• Involve guests remotely: In an online or hybrid course, experts can join virtually to review student presentations or participate in discussions. This makes it easier to integrate real-world perspectives, even if the experts cannot be physically present.
• Review learner work: Experts can review group presentations or projects, offering feedback that helps students understand the strengths and areas for improvement in their work from a professional standpoint.

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Conclusion

Assessment is not just about assigning grades; when used effectively, it becomes a powerful learning tool. Formative assessments provide opportunities for immediate feedback and adjustments during the learning process, while summative assessments ensure that learning objectives are comprehensively evaluated. Peer and expert feedback add additional layers of engagement and real-world relevance, helping students understand course content and see its application in professional settings. By thoughtfully implementing a variety of assessment strategies, faculty can create a learning environment that supports continuous growth and prepares students for success in their future careers.