Assessment



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What Is Authentic Assessment?

Instructor watching video of learner demonstrating a musical instrument
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Often, teachers will just default to what is familiar: essays and exams! But there is a whole world of assessment beyond this small corner, and in many cases these assessments have been proving to be more effective. Let's look at one important type of alternative assessment now… authentic assessment.

The goals of authentic assessment are to:

How would you design authentic assessment for each scenario?

A learner in an RPN program must know how to don personal protective equipment properly.

Rather than having the learners take a quiz on the steps, you could consider having them video record themselves donning personal protective equipment and submit the video.

An HVAC learner needs to learn how to deal with difficult customers.

Rather than asking learners to write an essay on what they have learned, you could pair learners and have them demonstrate a role-playing exercise over Microsoft Teams where one learner is the difficult customer, and the other must apply their conflict resolution skills. This session can be recorded and shared with the instructor.

A graphic design learner must achieve this learning outcome:

  • Plan, create and use photography, illustration and typography in design layouts to meet the requirements of the creative brief.

Rather than asking the learner to discuss what they would do in theory, ask them to go online and find a real brief in the area where they are interested in working, and to create a design that meets the brief. In a senior-level course, you can even encourage them to apply for the job if they are ready.

Consider This

Position learners as stakeholders in their own learning to get buy-in, and to promote lifelong learning. What does this look like?

  • learners co-construct teaching and assessment materials (i.e., assignment rubrics)
  • Try a flipped classroom or problem-based learning
  • Use peer instructions strategies like “pair and share” or “each one, teach one”
  • Use rewards that are not grades-based (i.e. learners can vote on their favourite idea, or you highlight a group or learner for their contribution)
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