Background on Assessment

Why do we assess students? What are the goals and what do we hope to accomplish? 

When thinking about assessment in any class, and large classes in particular, it is important to recognize that assessment does many things: it can measure learning, track progress, provide feedback, identify teaching gaps and provide opportunities to apply learning. Talking about assessment in relation to courses and course work often means we focus on assignments (the various tasks which students complete to receive a grade in a course) as a substitute for assessment (which sees what our learners can do, but also allows students to practice and reflect on their learning), but this does not need to be the case (see for example additional material from the Cambridge Assessment Network).  

Assessment can be categorized into three types. Assessment of Learning (AOL) refers to the high-stakes summative assessments often thought of in courses, like exams. Assessment for Learning (AFL) refers to the low-stakes formative assessments which support learning and build towards the skills and knowledge needed to be successful on AOLs such as weekly quizzes and discussions. Assessment as Learning (AAL) refers to the metacognitive assessments which have students consider and track their learning such as reflection activities. See this resource for further details: Assessment of/for/as Learning 

Designing a strategic assessment ecosystem throughout your course, which supports learners in achieving and demonstrating the learning outcomes of your course requires careful consideration and alignment. 

Aligning Your Assessments 

In thinking about your assessments and what to include, follow a backwards design approach to consider what your course needs, rather than starting with what assignments you want to integrate.  

Figure 1: Constructive curriculum alignment

You can do this by starting with your course learning outcomes and determining what you need evidence of with each assessment. You can then decide which AOLs you need to assess these and determine which AFLs and AALs you need to support students in completing your AOLs effectively. Importantly for your AALs and AFLs, you want to focus on the practice of key skills needed to succeed on the AOL, comments focused on identifying why students achieved the grade they did and identifying what could have been improved (often called feedback), as well as opportunities to provide students with comments to improve future work (often called feedforward: actionable steps for improvement targeting upcoming assessments). Some key questions to consider are:

• What assessments are needed to know your learning outcomes are met?
• What assessments will scaffold towards these necessary assessments?
• How can other activities and assessments be designed to allow practice and comments with limited marking capacity?

Examples creating a backwards designed ecosystem for assessment are outline below following the backwards design approach (i.e. starting at what we want students to achieve and working them up to that outcome):

• Course learning outcome reads: by the end of this course students will be able to design and answer a research question in an area of interest in their choice
• Final assessment of learning is a 2,500 word research report with clear research question, methods and findings, graded using a rubric and comment bank
• Students prepare to write the full report by completing an in-class small-group critique of an example submission
• Students complete a peer review of another student’s work using a standardized form and checklist
• Students submit a draft research question with an outline of their report and an annotated bibliography to be reviewed by a peer using a standardized form and checklist
• Students submit a draft research question which is marked by the TA using a one-point rubric
• Students practice in-class in small groups reviewing example research questions and then developing their own, receiving instructor feedback in class. Students then practice identifying sources which would help answer their research question 

Feedforward vs. Feedback on Assessments

Where feedback explains strengths and weaknesses in completed work and justifies a grade or evaluation, feedforward (see resources in this article from Education Science and Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education) focuses on what students should do next and provides actionable steps for improvement, targeting future assessments. Feedforward shifts the focus from identifying what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ on each assignment towards moving students from where they are to where they need to improve on the next assignment. The goal then becomes helping students make incremental improvements that are within reach (i.e. moving from work that earns a 65% to work that earns a 70%), rather than identifying everything that is wrong with a submission compared to a perfect submission. Both feedback and feedforward are necessary for students to improve, and deciding when and how each of these will be offered to students across their various assessments is important to support students learning and achievement of your learning outcomes. 

Additional Resources

Beadle, J. (2025, January 10). What and why do we assess in the classroom? Cambridge Assessment Network and Research. https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/blogs/what-and-why-do-we-assess-in-the-classroom/

British Columbia Institute of Technology. (2010). Developing checklists and rating scales. Learning and Teaching Centre. https://www.bcit.ca/files/ltc/pdf/ja_developchecklists.pdf

Centre for Teaching and Learning, Western University. (n.d.). Backward course design. Western University. https://teaching.uwo.ca/resources/curriculum-iqap-support/course-design/backward-course-design.html

Earl, L. M. (2003). Assessment of learning, for learning, and as learning (Chapter 3). In Assessment as learning: Using classroom assessment to maximize student learning. Corwin Press. https://web.uvic.ca/~thopper/iweb09/GillPaul/Site/Assessment_files/Assessment.pdf

Elkhoury, E. (2021). A guide to large classroom assessments (Version 1.2). Teaching Commons, York University. https://www.yorku.ca/teachingcommons/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2021/02/Guide_large_classroom_assessments_FINALa.pdf

Fleckney, P., Thompson, J., & Vaz-Serra, P. (2025). Designing effective peer assessment processes in higher education: A systematic review. Higher Education Research & Development, 44(2), 386–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2024.2407083

Foster, S. (2023, October 31). Effective assessment methods for large enrolment classes. Times Higher Education Campus. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/effective-assessment-methods-large-enrolment-classes

Levy-Feldman, I. (2025). The role of assessment in improving education and promoting educational equity. Education Sciences, 15(2), 224. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020224

Moss, P. (2024, February 23). Cut down your marking time by using whole-class feedback. Times Higher Education Campus. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/cut-down-your-marking-time-using-wholeclass-feedback

Orsmond, P., Maw, S. J., Park, J. R., Gomez, S., & Crook, A. C. (2013). Moving feedback forward: Theory to practice. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(2), 240–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2011.625472

Prozesky D. Assessment of learning. Community Eye Health. 2001;14(38):27-8. PMID: 17491913; PMCID: PMC1705919. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1705919/

Saeed, N., & Mohamedali, F. (2022). A Study to Evaluate Students’ Performance, Engagement, and Progression in Higher Education Based on Feedforward Teaching Approach. Education Sciences, 12(1), 56. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12010056

Schellekens, L. H., Bok, H. G. J., de Jong, L. H., van der Schaaf, M. F., Kremer, W. D. J., & van der Vleuten, C. P. M. (2021). A scoping review on the notions of Assessment as Learning (AaL), Assessment for Learning (AfL), and Assessment of Learning (AoL). Studies in Educational Evaluation, 71, 101094. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2021.101094

Teaching and Academic Programs, McGill University. (n.d.). Use exemplars to clarify assessment expectations. McGill University. https://teachingkb.mcgill.ca/tlk/use-exemplars-to-clarify-assessment-expectations