As illustrated by constructive alignment (Biggs, 2003), once you have identified the outcomes you want students to achieve (Intended Learning Outcomes), you need to align assessments to them. If an assessment doesn’t fit with an outcome you should ask whether you’re missing a learning outcome you care about and, if not, whether your assessment is really necessary.

A hands-on example

ilo - The student will be able to organize and conduct a meeting, starting with a specific agenda, and in the assigned time frame, facilitate making a strategic decision within the project team.

A consistent Assessment Task could be - Argumentative essay:
Students, in groups, are required to explore and critically review evidence in the literature on effective meetings, and reflect this understanding through demonstrating effective meeting outcomes in a role play simulation. The soft skills are assessed through direct observation of the role play.

Now we will explore further what good assessment is, its characteristics and what to emphasise.

what is assessment?

Fit-for-purpose assessment is able to determine what has been learned and taught. In other words, it is able to determine whether a student has achieved the ilos in terms of subject-matter knowledge, soft and digital skills. It is a continuous process in which the teacher and other actors monitor the development of the skill, collecting data at key points throughout the process.


benefits of fit-for-purpose assessment for teachers benefits of fit-for-purpose assessment for students
Fit-for-purpose assessment utilises methods that measure students’ levels of achievement against the assessment criteria to determine how well their learning matches with ilos. Fit-for-purpose assessment enables students to learn through preparing for and undertaking the assessment and from feedback on their performance in the assessment.
Fit-for-purpose assessment enables instructors to understand how students are responding to their teaching. Fit-for-purpose assessment enables students to benchmark their current level of skills or knowledge and the overall progress made and to identify areas for improvement.
Fit-for-purpose assessment is explicit and accessible to staff and students involved in the process (e.g. the teacher shares the purpose and requirements of each assessment task and the standards expected). Fit-for-purpose assessment provides students with focused, relevant and guiding feedback so that they recognise how future performance can be improved.


principles of assessment

  • Clarity - Assessment has to have a well-defined purpose/objective;
  • Accurate measurement - Assessment should measure performance against a fixed set of standards or criteria;
  • Relevance and transferability - Assessment tasks should focus on doing rather than knowing, with emphasis on skills development;
  • Reliability - Assessment should have learning outcomes and criteria by which the student is being judged, that make it possible to generate stable and consistent results over time and across multiple student classes;
  • Validity - Assessment should effectively measure the students’ abilities in the exact learning outcome for which it is designed;
  • Transparency - Assessment should be clearly and consistently communicated to students in a timely manner and made available to them.


What is the process that should be followed?

  • ilo selection: selecting ilos you want to assess;
  • Test choice: selection of the test (questions to answer or actions to perform) that is appropriate in assessing the defined ilos;
  • Criteria and indicators identification: system on which you base the performance expressed in the test;
  • Assessment task: the enactment of assessment activity;
  • Feedback: message to the participants to explain their level of performance in the test/task and suggestions about how to improve it.


assessment for learning

The two main functions of assessment we would like to explore are:

  • Formative assessment
    Formative assessment is aimed at monitoring student learning by providing ongoing (usually non-graded) feedback that students can use to improve their learning e.g. by identifying their strengths and weaknesses. Formative assessments happen throughout the course and make students aware of their performance in relation to the course’s learning outcomes. To this end, they need to be administered in a timely manner, so that students are able to correct their learning deficiencies and misconceptions and the instructor can adapt teaching.
  • Summative assessment
    Summative assessment is aimed at evaluating student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark (e.g. through a midterm exam or a final project). Summative assessment at the end of a course, or of a course section, enables students to determine if they have achieved the learning outcomes and if their study strategies were effective.



    assessment for learning



When working with soft and digital soft skills development, it is often useful to increase formative assessment sessions proposing self-reflection and feedback exchange activities (peer assessment might help reduce the instructor's workload). Feedback on how to learn, on the difficulties and obstacles to be overcome, and on the errors to be corrected is at the core of improvement. Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2005) indicated seven principles of good feedback:

  • it clarifies what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards);
  • it facilitates the development of self-assessment in learning;
  • it provides high quality information to students about their learning;
  • it encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning;
  • it encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem;
  • it provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance;
  • it provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape teaching.


What to consider when re-designing assessment tasks to assess soft skills?

  • Soft skill performance worth in the course assessment: even if soft skills are not the core of the course, as it is focused on the subject matter, you should assign some reward for the activity students are asked to perform. For example, a bonus or some points to be added in the final evaluation. Consider that grading can be assigned to group work as well (see an example from Carnegie Mellon university, retrieved December, 2020, from Carnegie Mellon university).
  • use a rubric: is a tool that articulates the expectations for assignments and performance tasks by listing criteria, and then for each criterion, describing the levels of quality (see the example which is about assessing information literacy from the Association of American Colleges and universities (aac&u), Retrieved December, 2020, from Association of America College & universities).
  • Don’t forget to assess the process, not only the product: for example, if it is needed to assess management skills, a rubric may help. See management and leadership rubric, retrieved December, 2020, from RCampus.
  • Communicate clearly to students: provide valuable information about what is being assessed and how to direct learning making the intended skills visible.
  • Encourage student engagement: involve students in developing criteria and indicators, for example, asking them to create a rubric, or in the assessment of other students’ work through peer assessment.
  • Schedule informal feedback sessions: at the end of the activity collecting feedback from students after classes can provide meaningful input. In large classes traditional backchannel communication is difficult due to the number of students; classroom response systems can be used also for collecting students’ feedback, hence creating options for learners who would otherwise avoid interacting during group discussions.

key message

The assessments should provide a window into students’ understanding and the conceptual strategies a student uses to conduct an activity, to solve a problem or to evaluate performance.

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REFERENCE

For additional references and supporting research please visit Bibliography page.