LEARNING ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES
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Learning Assessment Techniques
Rebekah Reed
Capella University
ED7712 Classroom Assessment in Education
Dr. Cheryl Bullock
February 28, 2021
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Assessment
Learning Assessment
Our goal as teachers should be to help students learn specific information related to their
field and become lifelong expert learners. Assisting the students to become expert lifelong
learners can be accomplished with teaching assessments. Learning assessments can help
students recognize what they know, what they do not know, the ability to identify what they need
to learn and how they can accomplish the identified learning activities. Feedback and evaluation
are inseparably related to both instructional objectives and classroom learning activities and are
indispensable elements in the learning process. A scoring rubrics and Learning Artifact
Questionnaire are two learning assessment techniques that can help students enhance their
learning capabilities and evaluate both learning and teaching effectiveness and efficiency.
Purpose of Learning Technique
Many foundations for learning organizations, the desirability of encouraging informal
learning owe much to the Knowles theory of adult learning. Some of the principles of adult
learning can be environment for learning, mutual planning, need and interests, goals and
objectives, designing and implementing the program and involvement of learners in evaluation
of the program (Dasgupta, 2020). Learning materials and activities from the teachers should,
therefore, allow for varying levels or types of previous experience depending on the subject
being taught. Moreover, with adult learning being self-directed, the instructions by the teachers
should be strategised with an aim to allow the learners discover knowledge and things for
themselves without depending on others (Dasgupta, 2020).
Inclusion is a philosophy that is heavily used in today’s society. It encourages
individuals, schools, and regions to accept and give worth to everyone in spite of their
differences. In line with this philosophy are the certainties that each individual has a place,
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diversity is appreciated, and that we can all learn from each other. These beliefs are kept in mind
when working in the education system, the Universal Design for Learning framework (UDL)
shows how all students can access and engage in learning, no matter how severe the disability
(Capp, 2017). With UDL being a guided principle in special education, students with severe
disabilities are able to access the general education curriculum, engage with regular education
peers, and are regarded as respected individuals in the their schools and community. Universal
Design for Learning framework is defined as flexibility in presentation, how students respond or
demonstrate knowledge and skills, and in also student engagement (Griful-Freixenet, 2017).
UDL also reduces barriers in instruction, provides appropriate accommodations, supports, and
challenges, and maintains high achievement expectations for all students, including students with
disabilities (Griful-Freixenet, 2017).
Two learning assessment techniques will be conducted to help students evaluate their
competencies, including a reaction assessment and a learning assessment. The reaction
assessment is a Learning Artifact Questionnaire that allows the instructor to identify learning
activities that are working and help students identify the learning techniques they struggle with
or excel at to utilize in future self-directed lifelong learning pursuits (Barkley & Major,
2016). The second learning assessment is a scoring rubric used to guide a student's learning by
reducing uncertainty, identifying what the instructor expects the student to understand, and what
must be done to accomplish the desired outcome (Alsina, Ayllón, & Colomer, 2019).
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Learning Assessment Technique
Rubric
Rubrics ought to remove the speculation of assessment, giving learners lucid and brief
awareness for their evaluations (Stanley et al, 2020). Rubrics are regularly utilized by writing
teachers to score writing. Rubrics consist of set criteria and rules which determine the grade
acquired by a student. Rubrics are intended to counteract the grading of writing and present
effective feedback to the students for improvement(Alsina, Ayllón, & Colomer, 2019). Rubrics
were used by students as guidelines to work towards teacher’s expectation. The criteria and
performance-level descriptions in rubrics helped students to understand what the desired
performance is and what it look like (Alsina, Ayllón, & Colomer, 2019).
Questionnaire
The Learning Artifact Questionnaire (LAQ) is a formative reaction classroom assessment
that will shape the next week's class structure. The reaction evaluation process helps plan, assess
and act as a troubleshooting tool (Barkley & Major,2016). The LAQ helps to adapt the course
content to either move ahead with content or go back to basics based upon the learner's
responses(Barkley & Major,2016). This questionnaire will request the student to submit brief and
honest answers at the end of each week. Examples of questions on the reaction classroom
assessment critical incident questions include: What time in class this week did you feel you
most engaged as a learner? What time in class this week did you think you were distracted as a
learner? Was there an action that another student did that seemed helpful or affirming to you?
Was there anything this week that surprised you in the class?
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Monitor Teaching Effectiveness
The evaluation of a students’ performance provides the educator with knowledge of
learners’ skills and attributes in effectively completing coursework of an academic program.
Learning evaluations are essential throughout the course because the assessment of content
competency helps make sure students build knowledge of the subject (Oermann & Gaberson,
2016). Assessment of a learner, completed by an educator, enhances student learning and
performance, and remains an important aspect of the evaluation process. An effective, goaloriented, teaching-learning sequence contains clearly understood objectives, productive
classroom activities, and a sufficient amount of feedback to make students aware of the strengths
and weaknesses of their performances (Suskie, 2018). In addition to the LAQ, the hypothetical
course was designed with performance rubrics that would help evaluate and provide feedback for
learner competency for assignments. An example performance rubrics were created for the
presentation assignment (Appendix 1).
Administrator Instructions
Utilize the scoring rubrics to evaluate the quality of work produced by each student. Did
the learner provide exceptional work or bare-bones attempt at the assignment related to how they
retell their experiences, critical self-reflection, the relevance of personal experiences to the
subject of stress and coping skills, and their ability to analyze their responses compared to
classroom resources? Add the point totals for all four of the criteria and divide by 100 (the total
possible points) to assign a percentage and grade for the assignment.
Learner Instructors
Assignment – Presentation
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
Due – Last day of the week Sunday by 1159pm EST , Please name your file
presentation1_lastname.

Review the scoring rubric for guidance

Produce a presentation explaining your motivations to take this course and desired
outcomes of the three-session mini-course on self-care (i.e., video, PowerPoint
presentation, essay, etc.). You can utilize examples from your self-assessment survey
results or video resources relevant to your situation to justify your motivations within the
presentation assignment any results that were surprising to you. Be creative and try to be
critically self-reflective when completing the surveys and worksheets. It will help you
create a presentation that provides transformative learning opportunities based upon real
experiences.

In your presentation, address the following questions:
o What has been occurring in your personal or professional life that has motivated
you to participate in the course?
o Analyze any results of the surveys within this session that was surprising to you.
o Utilize the results of the surveys to justify your motivations for taking the course.
o Describe three stressors identified in the survey that have been experienced in the
past but were not current reasons for taking the course.
o Share three coping skills that you have used in the past that have been successful.
Conclusion
Ongoing learning assessments identify if students are learning and if a teacher's methods
are effective. Without learning, assessments instructors are assuming that the students understand
the material. Instructors can then be surprised with less than stellar outcomes and apparent lack of
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knowledge or understanding when learning is only assessed at midterm and finals. The lack of
regular learning assessments does not allow instructors to adapt their classroom activities or
presentations for more effective and efficient learning. By implementing formative and peer
feedback on discussion posts, the instructor can observe the learner's comprehension of the
knowledge.
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References
Alsina, Á., Ayllón, S., & Colomer, J. (2019). Validating the Narrative Reflection Assessment
Rubric (NARRA) for reflective narratives in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation
in Higher Education, 44(1), 155-168. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1486391
Barkley, E. F., & Major, C. H. (2016). Learning assessment techniques : A handbook for college
faculty : a handbook for college faculty. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentralproquest-com.library.capella.edu
Capp, M. J. (2017). The effectiveness of universal design for learning: A meta-analysis of
literature between 2013 and 2016. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 21(8),
791-807. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2017.1325074
Dasgupta, A. (2020). Problem-based learning: its application in Medical Education. J West
Bengal Univ Health Sci, 1(2), 11-18. https://wbuhs.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/3.MEU-article-Arunava-Dasgupta.pdf
Griful-Freixenet, J., Struyven, K., Verstichele, M., & Andries, C. (2017). Higher education
students with disabilities speaking out: perceived barriers and opportunities of the
Universal Design for Learning framework. Disability & Society, 32(10), 1627-1649.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2017.1365695
Oermann, M. H., & Gaberson, K. B. (2016). Evaluation and testing in nursing education.
Springer Publishing Company.
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Stanley, D., Coman, S., Murdoch, D., & Stanley, K. (2020). Writing exceptional (specific,
student, and criterion-focused) rubrics for nursing studies. Nurse Education in
Practice, 49 http://dx.doi.org.library.capella.edu/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102851
Suskie, L. (2018). Assessing student learning: A common sense guide. ProQuest Ebook
Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.library.capella.edu
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Appendix 1
Rubric for Final Presentation:
Criteria
Discussion of
personal
experience
Basic 10 points


Reflections


Proficient 20 points
A vague
explanation of
experience.
Nonobjective
observation

A little
reflection on
own work
Provides few
or no examples



Somewhat
clear on the
explanation
of experience
Somewhat
objective on
experience
Some
reflection on
own work
Provides few
examples
Distinguished 30
points
 A detailed
explanation
of experience
 Writing is
organized
and easy to
follow.
 Reflects on
own work
 Provides
many
examples.
Relevance to
Classroom
concepts

No reference
to class
concepts

Minimal
references to
class concepts

Analysis of
experience

Little or no
evidence of
critical
thinking

Some
inferences
and critical
thinking are
expressed.

Relates
observations
to different
context or
class concepts
A high level
of critical
thinking is
expressed.