How does assessment planning promote teaching excellence?
In brief
Assessment is an important and influential factor in shaping the student’s learning focus. As an instructor, you probably get asked, “Will this be on the exam?” Students tend to make decisions on what to learn, when to learn, and how much time to spend on certain topics based on how they will be assessed. Therefore, your assessments should convey the most important areas you want students to focus on, and the way to achieve this is to ensure they are directly aligned with your course learning outcomes.
Course alignment
In an aligned course, each learning outcome has at least one (but preferably more) ways of assessing student learning. This alignment process also helps focus the design of assessments so that you are measuring exactly what you intend to measure and that there are no unnecessary assessment tasks. Table 1 is an example alignment table from a Business Information Technologies Course where students have to explore the role of information technology in business organizations. This table exemplifies how each learning outcome is assessed with each of the course assignments and final exam. Note that, as a best practice, each learning outcome should be evaluated a minimum of two times in a course. In this example, we can see that each assessment evaluates at least one course outcome. Depending on how many learning outcomes your course has and how specific they are, each assessment can evaluate a single outcome or multiple outcomes, as you see fit.
| Learning outcomes | Assignment 1 | Assignment 2 | Assignment 3 | Final exam |
| Describe the main concepts of information systems and related concepts | Business process modelling and notation
Use an ERP software |
Database design for a business case | Theory-based multiple-choice questions and application-based questions | |
| Describe the relationship between information systems and competitive advantage | Use an ERP software | Use of business analytics with Excel and Tableau | as above | |
| Identify the major trends in IS technologies such as SCRM, SCM, and ERP and their use to improve business efficiency, increase profits and support other business functions | as above | as above | ||
| Identify how to use E-commerce and E-business to create new or improve existing business | Business process modelling and notation | Use of business analytics with Excel and Tableau | as above | |
| Demonstrate how systems can enhance business decision-making and help create business partnerships | Use an ERP software for procurement | Implementation of a database system and reports | as above | as above |
| Describe how organizations analyze, develop, acquire and implement information systems | Business process modelling and notation | Design and implementation of a database system | as above | as above |
| Discuss issues related to computer crime and security, and information systems ethics | as above | Implementation of a database system and reports | as above | as above |
