At the beginning of this new semester, let us evaluate our use of assessments and grading.
Many educators argue that frequent, low-stakes assessment can be extremely beneficial to college-level students. Such assessments may include quizzes, activities, games, writing exercises, presentations, or any other method of determining what students have learned and what they need to learn. They can also address misconceptions and gaps between instructor and student perception of learning. For example, an instructor may believe that the class has understood a lesson or assignment, but a short assessment may prove otherwise. The frequency of the assessment should correlate to significant learning outcomes and provide students with feedback prior to high-stakes assessments, such as module tests, speeches, or exams.
Proponents of low-stakes assessment contend that students build confidence through both practice and instructor feedback, making them more successful long-term and more aware of expectations and success criteria. Low-stakes assessments are typically identified as formative assessments, intended to help students construct the necessary knowledge along the way. High-stakes assessments are usually regarded as summative, occurring at the close of an instructional unit or course to test what students have learned and retained. For more information on formative versus summative assessments, please click here.
One challenge of frequent assessment is the course syllabus/grade distribution. If you teach a course where the majority of the grade is devoted to several high-stakes assessments, which is typical in an ENG course, then you have very few percentage points left for such assessment methods. However, homework, online quizzes, prewriting, seminars, and drafts are often used as low-stakes, formative assessments in these courses.
Another challenge is the extra grading that comes along with frequent assessment. Some instructors opt to use completion grades (a 100 if the student did the assignment, for example) or online tools that automatically grade the work to avoid adding to an already heavy grading load. On the other hand, some instructors use the low-stakes assessments to build the students up to a larger assignment, therefore making final grading of the larger assignment an easier task.
If frequent, low-stakes assessment sounds like a viable option for your students, we encourage you to explore options that may work in your classes. If you already use such assessment methods, then please feel free to share ideas and results with colleagues and supervisors.
