Developing your own assessment instruments may be the best option

Madison, Wis.—December 11, 2008 — Developing a local assessment may be your best option when your learning goals don’t match the published tests’ goals, according to Linda Suskie, Vice President of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Another reason to develop your own local assessment is when published tests don’t provide the needed diagnostic information. In this final seminar in a three-part series, Suskie discussed her favorite local assessment tools: rubrics, multiple choice tests and reflective writing.

Suskie said that good local assessments can be used to improve teaching, and assess important learning goals, as well as use resources effectively.

Rather than seeking out new assessment tools, she suggests organizing and documenting what you already do. This also helps to keep the assessment cost-effective.

One difficulty with assessment is motivating students to take the test seriously. You can easily overcome this by embedding your assessment tools within program courses. This provides a powerful motivator for students.

During this seminar, Suskie pointed out the benefits of locally developed multiple choice tests. They’re efficient, fast, easy to score and can help diagnose problem areas. Multiple choice questions can also get at thinking skills when students identify the correct application of a principle. Students also can identify the correct cause, effect or element with multiple choice tests. Suskie provided a dozen tips on how to write good multiple choice questions.

She summed up the presentation with five “rules” of assessment that can guide your development process. The presentation comes complete with handouts including a sample holistic scoring guide, interpretive exercises and prompts for self-reflection on a course or program.

If you missed the seminar and would like to purchase it for your institution, you can order the program in CD or print transcript format, both of which include the presenter's handouts.

Magna Publications is a leading publisher of newsletters and other information products in the higher education segment. Magna also manages onsite and online conferences on topics of interest to higher education.

For more information please contact David Burns, Publisher, Magna Publications, Inc., at 608-227-8109, or dburns@magnapubs.com.