Assessment Literacy for Academic Excellence

Key takeaways

Assessment literacy is the knowledge, beliefs, and skills that allow you to interpret institutional assessments and make data-driven decisions. 

• Higher education assessments often focus on whether programs and courses have met student learning outcomes (SLOs). 

• Formative assessments take place during a semester to indicate real-time progress, while graded summative assessments typically occur at the end of the semester to measure student achievement.

• You can build assessment literacy among campus leaders and instructors to help collect key data about student learning.

Explore the role assessment literacy plays in academia, including why building assessment literacy may help you effectively meet student learning outcomes. Then, learn more about how Coursera for Campus can help empower your students’ employability by giving them access to more than 10,000 courses available from 350+ leading companies and universities.

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What is assessment literacy in higher education?

Assessment literacy refers to the set of knowledge, beliefs, and skills needed to accurately perform and interpret assessments to make data-driven decisions. This involves understanding each component of an assessment, how it fits into the bigger picture of your institution’s goals, and which insights can be accurately derived from your data. Assessment literacy goes beyond knowledge and includes core beliefs about the importance of assessments and their role in effective strategy development.

In higher education, assessment involves collecting and interpreting data on student learning to inform decision-making. Assessments help universities identify whether students have met the student learning outcomes for a course or program, defined as what they should know or be able to do after completing it. Equipped with assessment literacy, you can use findings to refine student learning and determine the effectiveness of your institution’s academic programs.

The importance of assessment literacy

Assessment literacy offers several benefits to your university. 

Assessment literacy equips university leaders with the skills required to conduct valid assessments and draw accurate inferences from their data sets, which can guide decision-making and support continuous improvement efforts. Students benefit from assessment literacy because findings can help shape student learning across campus. You can use assessment findings to adjust teaching and learning methods, reinforce course content, or refine course sequencing or prerequisites.

Assessments allow you to track relevant metrics to gain insights into:

• How well students have learned to think critically and analytically

• How well students can apply basic, scientific, and quantitative reasoning

• What course topics are most challenging for students

• How well your curriculum design aligns with student employment objectives

Read more: Enhancing Learning through Effective Student Engagement

Components of assessment literacy

Assessment literacy is a multifaceted concept. When evaluating your school’s assessment literacy, consider your ability to do the following.

1. Understand the bigger picture.

You must know how assessment fits into the bigger institutional picture to derive the most value from your data set. This involves clearly understanding who will use the results of your assessment, what you hope to accomplish with your assessment, and what information you need to collect to meet your desired outcomes.

2. Design high-quality assessments.

When you are assessment literate, you understand how to create and define assessments meaningfully. This involves understanding the context of the assessment and structuring it to accurately evaluate student learning outcomes. The assessment should be fair to people of varied backgrounds and cultural norms, and every student should clearly understand the instructions. Biased or inaccurate results will mislead your subsequent decisions. 

3. Conduct ongoing assessments and adapt in real-time.

While periodic assessments are important, conducting ongoing assessments can help you gather feedback throughout the academic year. For example, your instructors might collect ongoing information about student knowledge retention throughout the semester. Using this information, instructors can adjust the curriculum to align with SLOs. 

4. Determine clear assessment targets.

To achieve assessment literacy, you’ll need to develop learning targets that align with your institutional goals. These targets can relate to the percentage of students meeting or exceeding SLOs. You can determine appropriate assessments to measure student progress and achievement based on these learning targets.

Types of assessments in a corporate setting

Within your organization, you’re likely to use several types of assessments. Each type of assessment has a different role in an organizational assessment plan and requires specific literacy to maximize its effectiveness. These include:

1. Skill gap analysis

A skill gap analysis is an important step in strategic workforce planning. An accurate skill gap analysis can help you recruit the right talent and create informed employee development plans aligning with your organizational objectives. 

A skill gap analysis generally involves several information sources, including assessments of high-demand industry skills, skill-gauging workshops, and employee surveys. Literacy here involves understanding how to accurately gauge specific skills and ensuring the assessment methods are directly relevant to the tested skills. 

2. Performance reviews

Performance reviews generally focus on individual employee performance within their job position. They may be conducted annually or semi-annually and involve conversations around employee strengths, areas of development, and the individual's next steps within the company. 

Performance reviews keep communication open between managers and employees to create a culture of transparency and recognition. By continually monitoring employee performance, any concerns are addressed early, and goals or strategies can be realigned. Assessment literacy helps human resource professionals and managers design performance assessments that are reliable, valid, and aligned with the company’s strategic goals.

3. Psychometric tests

Companies often use psychometric tests in the hiring process to evaluate potential employees' cognitive abilities and personality traits. Psychometric tests help predict whether a candidate is suitable for a role based on their capabilities and character.

Assessment literacy in psychometric testing includes knowledge of test design, reliability, and validity. Professionals must understand which tests are appropriate for different purposes, such as selecting candidates or developmental assessments, and how to interpret the results in the context of the job and organization.

Read more: What Is a Performance Improvement Plan?

Types of assessments in higher ed

Within your institution, you’re likely to use several types of assessments. Each type of assessment has a different role in an assessment plan and requires specific literacy to maximize its effectiveness. These include:

1. Formative assessments

Formative assessments measure student progress while learning is taking place. Instructors can use periodic assessments, such as homework, in-class assignments, reflective journals, and student-instructor conferences, to evaluate learning progress. These assessments can also provide insight into instructor effectiveness.

2. Summative assessments

Summative assessments take place at the end of the instructional period. They evaluate student learning and proficiency through end-of-semester projects, papers, or final exams. Unlike formative assessments, which do not receive a grade, summative assessments are typically graded. 

3. Institution-wide assessments

As a university leader, you can implement institution-wide assessments to collect student learning data across programs. Each academic unit can conduct assessments of student learning and achievement, and you can analyze the data to gain insight into program success institution-wide. Often, these assessments take place in conjunction with an external review by an accrediting organization.

Strategies for building assessment literacy

To effectively build assessment literacy within your university, you can take steps to foster an understanding of assessment practices across all programs. To do this, consider implementing the following strategies: 

1. Implement instructor collaboration and learning time. 

Encourage collaboration among your instructors to share best practices and insights on assessment design and application. Organize regular meetings or workshops where instructors can discuss assessment strategies and explore new ideas to enhance the effectiveness of their assessment tools.

2. Offer ongoing education around assessment design and interpretation.

Invest in continuous professional development opportunities focused on assessment literacy. Provide clear learning targets related to assessment literacy, and give feedback to encourage growth and development. Provide resources that chart an actionable pathway for your leaders and instructors to build assessment literacy. 

3. Build a culture of learning.

Promote a learning-oriented culture among faculty that values and supports ongoing education around assessments. Encourage your instructors to continually seek out knowledge and stay updated with the latest trends in assessment practices. 

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