Glossary

Assessment - An on-going cycle of goal setting, measurement of outcomes, interpretation of results, and subsequent improvement of programs and activities. Assessment can be used in any setting.

Academic assessment - A type of assessment that is focused particularly on improving student learning, so the goals addressed in academic assessment are student learning goals and the measurements are measurements of learning.

Course-embedded assessment - A method in which evidence of student learning outcomes for the program is obtained from assignments in particular courses in the curriculum.

Course-level assessment - Assessment to determine the extent to which a specific course is achieving its learning goals. (For comparison, see Program assessment and Institutional assessment.)

Course mapping - A matrix showing the coverage of each program learning outcome in each course. It may also indicate the level of emphasis of each outcome in each course.

Direct assessment - Assessment to gauge student achievement of learning outcomes directly from their work. (For comparison, see Indirect assessment.)

Formative assessment - The assessment of student achievement at different stages of a course or at different stages of a student's academic career. The focus of formative assessment is on the documentation of student development over time. It can also be used to engage students in a process of reflection on their education. (For comparison, see Summative assessment.)

Indirect assessment - Assessment that deduces student achievement of learning outcomes through students' reported perception of their own learning or other measures that are not evidence of a student's own work in the program. (For comparison, see Direct assessment.)

Institutional assessment - Assessment to determine the extent to which a college or university is achieving its mission. (For comparison, see Course-level assessment and Program assessment.)

Learning outcomes - Knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students should be able to demonstrate upon graduating from the program.

Portfolio - A purposeful collection of artifacts that demonstrate a student's development or achievement.

Program assessment - Assessment to determine the extent to which students in a departmental program can demonstrate the learning outcomes for the program. (For comparison, see Course-level assessment and Institutional assessment.)

Reliability - An assessment tool's consistency of results. This may be consistency of results over time (i.e., multiple administrations of the instrument) or internal consistency of results at a single administration (e.g., split-half reliability).

Rubric - A set of criteria specifying the characteristics of a learning outcome and the levels of achievement in each characteristic.

Self-efficacy - Students' judgment of their own capabilities for a specific learning outcome.

Summative assessment - The assessment of student achievement at the end point of their education or at the end of a course. The focus of summative assessment is on the documentation of student achievement by the end of a course or program. It does not reveal the pathway of development to achieve that endpoint. (For comparison, see Formative assessment.)

Validity - The degree to which an assessment tool measures what it purports to measure.

Last Modified: February 22, 2010