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Assessment

There are two types of assessment: (1) summative assessment; and (2) formative assessment. Summative assessment is used to grade students; summative assessment is generally carried out towards the end of a course. Formative assessment is used to aid learning; it is not used for grading and is normally carried out in the early stages of a course.

A common form of formative assessment is diagnostic assessment. Diagnostic assessment measures a student's current knowledge and skills for the purpose of identifying a suitable program of learning. Self-assessment is a form of diagnostic assessment which involves students assessing themselves.

Assessment (either summative or formative) can be objective or subjective. Objective assessment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. Subjective assessment is a form of questioning which may have more than one current answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer). There are various types of objective and subjective questions. Objective question types include true/false, multiple-choice, multiple-response and matching questions. Subjective questions include extended-response questions and essays. Objective assessment is becoming more popular due to the increased use of online assessment (e-assessment) since this form of questioning a well-suited to computerisation.

Assessment should be valid and reliable. A valid assessment is one which measures what it is intended to measure. For example, it would not be valid to assess driving skills through a written test (alone); the most valid way of assessing driving skills would be through a combination of practical assessment and written test. Teachers frequently complain that some examinations do not properly assess the syllabus upon which the examination is based; they are, effectively, questioning the validity of the exam.

Reliability relates to the consistency of an assessment. A reliable assessment is one which consistently achieves the same results with the same or a similar cohort of students. Various factors affect reliability -- including ambiguous questions, too many options within a question paper, vague marking instructions and poorly trained markers.

A good assessment is valid and reliable. Note that an assessment may be valid but unreliable or reliable but invalid or unreliable and invalid. In practice, an assessment is rarely completely valid or entirely reliable.

Although validity and reliability are the main measures of an assessment, there are other considerations such as practicality (which relates to the feasibility of the assessment), fairness (which relates to its application across various cohorts - such as males and females) and authenticity (which relates to its realism).

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