About Assessments

Principles of Effective Assessment

• Transparency: Students perform better when expectations are clear. Provide rubrics, sample responses, or grading criteria.
• Validity & Reliability: Make sure tasks truly measure your learning goals, and that you grade consistently.
• Fairness & Equity: Design assessments with diverse learners in mind.
• Accessibility: Use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to allow multiple ways of demonstrating knowledge.

Quick Tip: In Moodle 4.5, use Assignment settings to attach rubrics or marking guides directly, so students see them before starting.

Types of Assessment

• Traditional: quizzes, essays, exams
• Alternative: projects, portfolios, presentations, debates, simulations
• Authentic: real-world tasks (e.g., creating a marketing campaign instead of a multiple-choice quiz)
• Low-stakes: short, frequent checks that encourage practice without high pressure

Quick Tip: Moodle’s Quiz activity supports low-stakes assessments with randomized questions to reduce test anxiety and academic dishonesty.

Designing Assessments

• Start with outcomes (“What do I want students to be able to do?”).
• Align assessments to Bloom’s Taxonomy levels — e.g., “explain” (understanding) vs. “analyze” (higher order).
• Scaffold big projects into smaller parts with checkpoints.
• Incorporate self-reflection to deepen learning.

Quick Tip: Use Moodle’s Workshop activity to let students practice peer review — great for developing critical thinking.