Aligning assessment with unit outcomes

Assessment plays a major role in measuring how your students can demonstrate their achievement of desired learning outcomes.

Aligning assessment with the unit is vital because:

• assessment influences what and how students learn, so assessment is the trigger that encourages students to learn and succeed in your unit of study
• it communicates to students why the assessments is important for the unit and for professional practice
• feedback on assessment helps students improve their work and, thus, improve how they achieve the desired outcomes you set for your unit of study
• it ensures the unit contributes to the program by measuring students’ achievement of desired unit and program learning outcomes

Why

Assessment plays a major role in ensuring that students can demonstrate their achievement of the desired unit learning outcomes. It is the vehicle for student progression in your unit of study, and in the program. Aligning your assessment with your desired learning outcomes (and ensuring you can align them up to your program learning outcomes) ensures that your students are learning the right skills and knowledge to achieve those outcomes.

Examples

1. Section 2.4 of the unit of study outline asks how will each form of assessment enable students to develop and or demonstrate their achievement of specific learning outcomes?
2. Consider what level of thinking you expect your students to demonstrate. Unit learning outcomes can be pitched at various levels of thinking, such as:
   Lower order thinking skills – asks students to demonstrate knowledge and comprehension
   Higher order thinking skills – requires students to demonstrate application, analysis, evaluation and creation.

Further Resources

• Assessment Principles
• Setting learning outcomes: Macquarie University’s Bloom’s Taxonomy guide