Assessment Strategies

Assessment Design Strategies

Assessment is more than grading; it is a powerful tool that helps you guide and improve student learning. Whether you are building a new syllabus or redesigning course materials, effective assessments help reveal what students are learning and how well they are progressing. By observing students’ behaviors and outputs, instructors can make evidence-based judgments about growth, understanding, and mastery. There is no universal formula, but understanding the types and purposes of assessment can help instructors design meaningful and transparent measures of learning.

What is the purpose of our assessments?

Assessments serve to measure observable learning through student behaviors. They are not just checkpoints for grading but opportunities to:Gauge prior knowledge and misconceptionsSupport growth through feedbackMeasure progress against learning outcomesEncourage reflective learningAssessments reveal changes in behavior and understanding, helping instructors adjust strategies and support students' development.

Here is a quick overview of the different types of assessments: 

From: 6 Types of Assessment of Learning

Formative assessments often provide plenty of feedback that the student can implement as part of their learning.

Common Assessment Formats

Assessment types can take many forms to support diverse learning styles and course goals:

Quizzes and Tests     

• Formats: Multiple choice, true/false, open-ended, short answer, essays·
• Use: Quickly check comprehension or mastery

Papers and Essay Assignments

• Formats: Analytical essays, reflection papers, research writing
• Use: Encourage deeper thinking and application of knowledge

Presentations

• Formats: Individual or group oral presentations
• Use: Develop communication skills and knowledge synthesis

Creative Assignments

• Formats: Podcasts, visual projects, infographics, recorded videos
• Use: Promote creativity and multimodal learning

High-Impact Practices

• Formats: ePortfolios, service-learning projects, peer review
• Use: Encourage reflection, engagement, and applied learning

Getting Started

The resources below will help you get started with your assignments. If you are creating a new course development, we recommend starting with Backward Course Design and the Student Learning Outcomes, which will help you align your assignments to your goals. 

Transparent Assignment Design clarifies the purpose, task, and criteria of assignments to support student understanding. By making the assignments more transparent, students recognize the connection between what they are being assigned to complete and how that will measure their progress toward meeting the student learning objectives.

• Transparent Assignment Design Quicksheet
• Transparency Frameworks from (TiLT) 

Formative & Summative Assessments

As briefly mentioned above, formative and summative assessments are two of the main ways in which you can measure student learning. Formative assessments are useful for providing ongoing feedback during the assessment process and gives the student a chance to refine and update their assignment in progress.

Summative assessments are closed processes in which the assessment is used as the final determination of learning and whether the student reached the intended outcomes. You can begin exploring these concepts with the following resources.

• Formative vs. Summative Assessments with examples
• Cross Currents Library

Rubrics

For students to grow during the assessment process, they will need to know your expectations, which is where Transparent Assignment Design is helpful, as well as how they measured up to your expectations. Rubrics are a great way to provide the grading criteria in advance so that students can use that information to inform how they work.

A good rubric is more than a box for the student to check off, however. It balances providing the student with enough information to be successful while balancing it with not being too restrictive.

• Rubric Best Practices 
• AAC&U VALUE Rubrics 

Feedback

Likewise, feedback is the verbal and written evaluation that you give on a work. This is going to be of most value to students when they can put your feedback into immediate practice, such as during a formative assignment. Keep in mind that feedback doesn’t just have to come from you, either: peer review feedback, tutors, and other forms of feedback can be just as valuable.

There are many different formats that your feedback can take. Perhaps you’ve heard of the sandwich method, in which you provide constructive criticism between two compliments. What is the most effective way to deliver feedback that students will heed? Here are some ideas to try:

• Edutopia: Providing Students Meaningful Feedback (2014). 
• 15 Time-Saving Tips & Techniques for Providing Student Feedback (2021). 

Problem-Solving

• Alternative Solutions to Traditional Testing
• Alternative Solutions to Traditional Exams and Papers
• Assessment in Higher Education: Reframing Traditional Understandings and Practices. (2015). Rhodes University. 54 pages.

Deep Dives

Ajjawi, R; Tai, J; Bearman, M; Boud, D; Dollinger, M; & Hayes, A.M. (2025). The Multiplicity of Authenticity in Higher Education Assessment. Teaching in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives. (30:3). 

Barra, L., & Lockee, B. (2025). Flexible Assessment in Higher Education: A Comprehensive Overview of Strategies and Implications. 69: 301-309. 

Middendorf, J., & Shopkow, L. (2017). Overcoming Student Learning Bottlenecks: Decode the Critical Thinking of Your Discipline. Routledge.

Walker, S. (2025, 27 Jan.). Trends in Assessment in Higher Education: Considerations for Policy and Practice. JISC.