Learning Assessments: Boon to the Education System
Assessment is a mirror that provides important data on the breadth and depth of student learning. It is more than grading and a tool to measure the progress of student learning. Assessments determine how students will approach the learning task and what study behaviours they will use; it depends on their thinking pattern as well.
A basic assessment has all the factors of integrating grading, learning, and motivation for your students. Implementing this in every educational system like school, colleges or universities provides valuable information about what students learned, how well they learned it, and where they struggled. Even it offers critical information on the process and context that enable learning, and on those that may be hindering learning progress. Thus, learning assessment then becomes a lens for understanding learning patterns, identifying invisible barriers, and also improving the teaching approaches.
Additionally, learning assessments play a key role in the governance and management of the national education system. They provide valid evidence on the structure of learning patterns and gives an opportunity to improve the quality of learning for individuals, communities and society.
Nowadays there are different types of learning assessment used by:
- Learners to learn
- Teachers to improve their instruction
- Planners to decide on resource allocations
- Policy-makers to evaluate the efficiency of education
- Enhance better governance among a range of stakeholders
Learning Assessment gives proper decisions on different domains of a student which includes:
- Grades obtained,
- Advancement in levels
- Instructional needs
- Placement factor and
- Curriculum
There are three types of Learning Assessments
Needs driven assessment
Need driven assessment basically identifies with the deficiencies in the performance and think of ways to solve them. Examples of needs-
Normative need
Identified by comparing the target group with high standards.
Comparative need
Compared to an equivalent peer group.
Felt need
This assessment is done to improve his or her own performance or the performance of the audience and between the current situation and the desired situation.
Expressed need
A felt need that has been expressed.
Future need
The assessment identified that can occur in the future.
Goal assessment
Goal assessment starts with an identified problem and addresses a solution. It also takes help from the data generated by needs driven assessment to determine which are the priorities.
Performance assessment
Before starting any type of training, it is essential to determine whether doing training will actually solve the problem. Performance assessment focuses not only on the symptoms of the problem but also on the problem itself. It identifies performance issues accurately and finds the source of the problem. Performance-driven problems are due to the lack of knowledge or skills, lack of motivation, environmental factors and interpersonal relationships.
Janison Insights is one of the few platforms that facilitates and enables educational institutions and measure the effectiveness of their teachings. An ideal system provides digital assessment and caters to every needs and challenge of a variety of sectors. The assessment generated is useful feedback to both instructors and students about the extent to which students are successfully meeting course learning objectives.
Some people often conflate assessment with grading. A learning assessment is more than just grading and provides useful information to instructors and students about student achievement. While as the traditional grading system is incompetent to provide the level of detailed and specific information essential to link student performance with improvement. Thus Implementing learning assessment has become critical and an essential part of developing as an educator and enhancing the learning experience of students.