Here are some additional assessment tools:
- Primary Trait Analysis: instructor identifies ideal student achievement on an assignment, unit, course or curriculum, then measures student achievement against it using a single, holistic grade.
- Directed Paraphrasing: students summarize in well-chosen (own) words a key idea presented during the class period or the one just past.
- Muddiest Point: students write one or two ideas that were least clear to them from the current or preceding class period.
- Minute Paper: students identify the most significant (useful, meaningful, disturbing, etc.) things they learned during a particular session.
- Characteristic Features: students summarize in matrix form those traits that help define a topic and differentiate it from others; useful for determining whether students separate items or ideas that are easily confused.
- Transfer and Apply: students write down concepts learned from the class in one column; in another column provide an application of each concept.
- RSQC2: in two minutes, students recall and list in rank order the most important ideas from a previous day’s class; in two more minutes, they summarize those points in a single sentence, then write one major question they want answered, then identify a thread or theme to connect this material to the course’s major goal.
There are many other techniques for assessment. For more information on other methods, visit the assessment websites of Swarthmore College and Kutztown University.