authentic assessments

Authentic Assessments

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn."

Benjamin Franklin

Authentic Assessing for Student Learning

 

  • What are authentic assessments?

    An authentic assessment enables students to put what they have learned into practice and requires them to use their judgment to decide what information and skills are important, and showcase how to use them. Students develop their own meanings of the material covered in the class and how it applies to their own lives, which helps them demonstrate their learned knowledge increasing both material retention and engagement. Authentic assessments are designed for students to demonstrate the application of their knowledge and for faculty to hear and see their understanding of the course concepts. They explore a variety of options (a choice), by putting what they have learned into practice.

    Assessments are essential to a course in that they are the tools instructors use to collect evidence of student growth and learning. Ideally, assessments used in a course would reflect a students true understanding of the material, they would reproduce essential objectives without imitation, and they would improve students skills and understanding of course content. Strictly speaking, an assessment would be an authentic measurement of learning and unique to each individual. An authentic assessment is a student-centered method used to demonstrate and collect evidence of student growth.

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