what is assignment evaluation

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

43 8.1 Assessment and Evaluation

Assessment, as defined by  www.edglossary.org , “ refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students.”   It is analogous to  evaluation, judgment, rating, appraisal, and analysis. (Great Schools Partnership, 2015)

Although the terms assessment and evaluation are often used synonymously, they are distinctive and different. The intent of assessment is to measure effectiveness; evaluation adds a value component to the process.  A teacher may assess a student to ascertain how well the individual successfully met the learning target. If, however, the measurement is used to determine program placement, such as a special education program, honors club, or Individual Educational Program documentation, the assessment constitutes an evaluation.  

Goals of Assessment  

Assessment is two-fold in nature. It enables the teacher to gather information and then determine what the learner knows or does not know and concurrently drives the planning phase. To meet the needs of all learners, the teacher may need to differentiate the instruction.

The teacher is then responsible for providing positive feedback in a timely manner to the student. This feedback should include whether the student met the learning target, specifically what needs to be improved upon, and who and how these goals will be met.

The intent of assessment has traditionally been to determine what the learner has learned. Today, the emphasis is on authentic assessment. While the former typically employed recall methods, the latter encourages learners to demonstrate greater comprehension.  (Wiggins, 1990)

7 Keys to Effective Feedback

Methods to assess  .

Within an academic setting, assessment may include “the process of observing learning; describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and interpreting information about a student’s or one’s own learning http://www.k12.hi.us/atr/evaluation/glossary.htm .”

It can occur by observations, interviews, tests, projects, or any other information-gathering method. Within the early childhood and early primary elementary grades, observations are used frequently to assess learners. Teachers may use a checklist to note areas of proficiency or readiness and may opt to use checkmarks or some other consistent means for record-keeping.

It is helpful for a teacher to include the date, day, and time. This record-keeping may result in emerging patterns. Does the learner exhibit certain behaviors or respond to learning activities because of proximity to lunchtime, morning, or afternoon? The aspect of understanding how individuals learn can be noted within the affective domain. (Kirk, N/D) This may influence how a student learns and behaves within a classroom setting. Seating, natural and artificial lighting, noise, and temperature all influence how students feel and interact within the environment and affect cognitive behaviors.

Interviews can be used on the elementary or secondary levels as an assessment tool. Like any other well-planned assessment tool, they necessitate careful planning and development of questions, positive rapport with the student, and an environment free from distractions, outside noise, and time constraints. Interviews may or may not be audiotaped or videotaped, and scoring rubrics may be used to assess (Southerland, ND).

Tests offer yet another venue for assessment purposes. They may take the form of essay or short response, fill-in-the-blank, matching, or true or false formats. Like any of the other methods, they should be valid and reliable. Carefully thought-out test questions need to be tied to learning standards, and a clear and fair scoring measure needs to be in place.

Typically, assessment has been viewed as the result; the letter or point assigned at the end of an assignment; however, assessment can and should come at the beginning, end, and throughout the teaching and learning process. While assessment should drive instruction, it often falls short when determining instructional decisions.

Danielle Stein eagerly anticipated the upcoming parent-teacher conferences of the day. She had studied hard as a Childhood Education major and had worked diligently in her first year as a third-grade teacher at Maplewood Elementary School.  Danielle had planned interdisciplinary lessons, employed inquiry-based learning centers, and regularly met individual students to ensure that they had mastered the skills as determined by the state standards.

Each student had a portfolio filled with dated representations of their work. Ms. Stein understood the importance of specific and timely feedback and had painstakingly provided detailed written feedback on each work sample. She meticulously arranged the portfolios and anecdotal notes and looked forward to sharing the students’ accomplishments with their family members.

As last-minute jitters began to set in, Danielle realized that she had no grades for any of the students. Despite doing all the right things, she had no way to assign a grade to any of the work the students had done. How would she respond when guardians asked what grade their child would earn on the first report card? How would she accurately tell them how they compared with their peers in reading? In math? In social studies and science?

Danielle quickly realized she was not as prepared as she had anticipated.

Discussion Questions

How do teachers assess student work? Is there a certain number of assignments that the teacher should grade within a  9-week session? Are there  alternatives to  letter grades? Reflect on how you were graded as a student. 

Introduction to Education Copyright © 2021 by Shannon M. Delgado and Sarah Mark is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Assessment Rubrics

A rubric is commonly defined as a tool that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing criteria, and for each criteria, describing levels of quality (Andrade, 2000; Arter & Chappuis, 2007; Stiggins, 2001). Criteria are used in determining the level at which student work meets expectations. Markers of quality give students a clear idea about what must be done to demonstrate a certain level of mastery, understanding, or proficiency (i.e., "Exceeds Expectations" does xyz, "Meets Expectations" does only xy or yz, "Developing" does only x or y or z). Rubrics can be used for any assignment in a course, or for any way in which students are asked to demonstrate what they've learned. They can also be used to facilitate self and peer-reviews of student work.

Rubrics aren't just for summative evaluation. They can be used as a teaching tool as well. When used as part of a formative assessment, they can help students understand both the holistic nature and/or specific analytics of learning expected, the level of learning expected, and then make decisions about their current level of learning to inform revision and improvement (Reddy & Andrade, 2010). 

Why use rubrics?

Rubrics help instructors:

Provide students with feedback that is clear, directed and focused on ways to improve learning.

Demystify assignment expectations so students can focus on the work instead of guessing "what the instructor wants."

Reduce time spent on grading and develop consistency in how you evaluate student learning across students and throughout a class.

Rubrics help students:

Focus their efforts on completing assignments in line with clearly set expectations.

Self and Peer-reflect on their learning, making informed changes to achieve the desired learning level.

Developing a Rubric

During the process of developing a rubric, instructors might:

Select an assignment for your course - ideally one you identify as time intensive to grade, or students report as having unclear expectations.

Decide what you want students to demonstrate about their learning through that assignment. These are your criteria.

Identify the markers of quality on which you feel comfortable evaluating students’ level of learning - often along with a numerical scale (i.e., "Accomplished," "Emerging," "Beginning" for a developmental approach).

Give students the rubric ahead of time. Advise them to use it in guiding their completion of the assignment.

It can be overwhelming to create a rubric for every assignment in a class at once, so start by creating one rubric for one assignment. See how it goes and develop more from there! Also, do not reinvent the wheel. Rubric templates and examples exist all over the Internet, or consider asking colleagues if they have developed rubrics for similar assignments. 

Sample Rubrics

Examples of holistic and analytic rubrics : see Tables 2 & 3 in “Rubrics: Tools for Making Learning Goals and Evaluation Criteria Explicit for Both Teachers and Learners” (Allen & Tanner, 2006)

Examples across assessment types : see “Creating and Using Rubrics,” Carnegie Mellon Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and & Educational Innovation

“VALUE Rubrics” : see the Association of American Colleges and Universities set of free, downloadable rubrics, with foci including creative thinking, problem solving, and information literacy. 

Andrade, H. 2000. Using rubrics to promote thinking and learning. Educational Leadership 57, no. 5: 13–18. Arter, J., and J. Chappuis. 2007. Creating and recognizing quality rubrics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. Stiggins, R.J. 2001. Student-involved classroom assessment. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Reddy, Y., & Andrade, H. (2010). A review of rubric use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation In Higher Education, 35(4), 435-448.

Ohio State nav bar

The Ohio State University

• BuckeyeLink
• Find People
• Search Ohio State

Designing Assessments of Student Learning

Image Hollie Nyseth Brehm, ​​​​​Associate Professor, Department of Sociology  Professor Hollie Nyseth Brehm was a graduate student the first time she taught a class, “I didn’t have any training on how to teach, so I assigned a final paper and gave them instructions: ‘Turn it in at the end of course.’ That was sort of it.” Brehm didn’t have a rubric or a process to check in with students along the way. Needless to say, the assignment didn’t lead to any major breakthroughs for her students. But it was a learning experience for Brehm. As she grew her teaching skills, she began to carefully craft assignments to align to course goals, make tasks realistic and meaningful, and break down large assignments into manageable steps. "Now I always have rubrics. … I always scaffold the assignment such that they’ll start by giving me their paper topic and a couple of sources and then turn in a smaller portion of it, and we write it in pieces. And that leads to a much better learning experience for them—and also for me, frankly, when I turn to grade it .”

Reflect  

Have you ever planned a big assignment that didn’t turn out as you’d hoped? What did you learn, and how would you design that assignment differently now? 

What are students learning in your class? Are they meeting your learning outcomes? You simply cannot answer these questions without assessment of some kind.

As educators, we measure student learning through many means, including assignments, quizzes, and tests. These assessments can be formal or informal, graded or ungraded. But assessment is not simply about awarding points and assigning grades. Learning is a process, not a product, and that process takes place during activities such as recall and practice. Assessing skills in varied ways helps you adjust your teaching throughout your course to support student learning

Research tells us that our methods of assessment don’t only measure how much students have learned. They also play an important role in the learning process. A phenomenon known as the “testing effect” suggests students learn more from repeated testing than from repeated exposure to the material they are trying to learn (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). While exposure to material, such as during lecture or study, helps students store new information, it’s crucial that students actively practice retrieving that information and putting it to use. Frequent assessment throughout a course provides students with the practice opportunities that are essential to learning.

In addition we can’t assume students can transfer what they have practiced in one context to a different context. Successful transfer of learning requires understanding of deep, structural features and patterns that novices to a subject are still developing (Barnett & Ceci, 2002; Bransford & Schwartz, 1999). If we want students to be able to apply their learning in a wide variety of contexts, they must practice what they’re learning in a wide variety of contexts .

Providing a variety of assessment types gives students multiple opportunities to practice and demonstrate learning. One way to categorize the range of assessment options is as formative or summative.

Formative and Summative Assessment

Opportunities not simply to practice, but to receive feedback on that practice, are crucial to learning (Ambrose et al., 2010). Formative assessment facilitates student learning by providing frequent low-stakes practice coupled with immediate and focused feedback. Whether graded or ungraded, formative assessment helps you monitor student progress and guide students to understand which outcomes they’ve mastered, which they need to focus on, and what strategies can support their learning. Formative assessment also informs how you modify your teaching to better meet student needs throughout your course.

Technology Tip

Design quizzes in CarmenCanvas to provide immediate and useful feedback to students based on their answers. Learn more about setting up quizzes in Carmen. 

Summative assessment measures student learning by comparing it to a standard. Usually these types of assessments evaluate a range of skills or overall performance at the end of a unit, module, or course. Unlike formative assessment, they tend to focus more on product than process. These high-stakes experiences are typically graded and should be less frequent (Ambrose et al., 2010).

Using Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a common framework for thinking about how students can demonstrate their learning on assessments, as well as for articulating course and lesson learning outcomes .

Benjamin Bloom (alongside collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl) published Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in 1956.   The taxonomy provided a system for categorizing educational goals with the intent of aiding educators with assessment. Commonly known as Bloom’s Taxonomy, the framework has been widely used to guide and define instruction in both K-12 and university settings. The original taxonomy from 1956 included a cognitive domain made up of six categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as “skills and abilities,” with the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these skills and abilities into practice. 

A revised Bloom's Taxonomy from 2001 updated these six categories to reflect how learners interact with knowledge. In the revised version, students can:  Remember content, Understand ideas, Apply information to new situations, Analyze relationships between ideas, Evaluate information to justify perspectives or decisions, and Create new ideas or original work. In the graphic pictured here, the categories from the revised taxonomy are imagined as the layers of a cake.

Assessing students on a variety of Bloom's categories will give you a better sense of how well they understand your course content. The taxonomy can be a helpful guide to predicting which tasks will be most difficult for students so you can provide extra support where it is needed. It can also be used to craft more transparent assignments and test questions by honing in on the specific skills you want to assess and finding the right language to communicate exactly what you want students to do.  See the Sample Bloom's Verbs in the Examples section below.

Diving deeper into Bloom's Taxonomy

Like most aspects of our lives, activities and assessments in today’s classroom are inextricably linked with technology. In 2008, Andrew Churches extended Bloom’s Taxonomy to address the emerging changes in learning behaviors and opportunities as “technology advances and becomes more ubiquitous.” Consult Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy for ideas on using digital tools to facilitate and assess learning across the six categories of learning.

Did you know that the cognitive domain (commonly referred to simply as Bloom's Taxonomy) was only one of three domains in the original Bloom's Taxonomy (1956)? While it is certainly the most well-known and widely used, the other two domains— psychomotor and affective —may be of interest to some educators. The psychomotor domain relates to physical movement, coordination, and motor skills—it might apply to the performing arts or other courses that involve movement, manipulation of objects, and non-discursive communication like body language. The affective domain pertains to feelings, values, motivations, and attitudes and is used more often in disciplines like medicine, social work, and education, where emotions and values are integral aspects of learning. Explore the full taxonomy in  Three Domains of Learning: Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor (Hoque, 2017).

In Practice

Consider the following to make your assessments of student learning effective and meaningful.

Align assignments, quizzes, and tests closely to learning outcomes.

It goes without saying that you want students to achieve the learning outcomes for your course. The testing effect implies, then, that your assessments must help them retrieve the knowledge and practice the skills that are relevant to those outcomes.

Plan assessments that measure specific outcomes for your course. Instead of choosing quizzes and tests that are easy to grade or assignment types common to your discipline, carefully consider what assessments will best help students practice important skills. When assignments and feedback are aligned to learning outcomes, and you share this alignment with students, they have a greater appreciation for your course and develop more effective strategies for study and practice targeted at achieving those outcomes (Wang, et al., 2013).

Provide authentic learning experiences.

Consider how far removed from “the real world” traditional assessments like academic essays, standard textbook problems, and multiple-choice exams feel to students. In contrast, assignments that are authentic resemble real-world tasks. They feel relevant and purposeful, which can increase student motivation and engagement (Fink, 2013). Authentic assignments also help you assess whether students will be able to transfer what they learn into realistic contexts beyond your course.

Integrate assessment opportunities that prepare students to be effective and successful once they graduate, whether as professionals, as global citizens, or in their personal lives.

To design authentic assignments:

• Choose real-world content . If you want students to be able to apply disciplinary methods, frameworks, and terminology to solve real-world problems after your course, you must have them engage with real-world examples, procedures, and tools during your course. Include actual case studies, documents, data sets, and problems from your field in your assessments.
• Target a real-world audience . Ask students to direct their work to a tangible reader, listener or viewer, rather than to you. For example, they could write a blog for their peers or create a presentation for a future employer.
• Use real-world formats . Have students develop content in formats used in professional or real-life discourse. For example, instead of a conventional paper, students could write an email to a colleague or a letter to a government official, develop a project proposal or product pitch for a community-based company, post a how-to video on YouTube, or create an infographic to share on social media.

Simulations, role plays, case studies, portfolios, project-based learning, and service learning are all great avenues to bring authentic assessment into your course.

Make sure assignments are achievable.

Your students juggle coursework from several classes, so it’s important to be conscious of workload. Assign tasks they can realistically handle at a given point in the term. If it takes you three hours to do something, it will likely take your students six hours or more. Choose assignments that assess multiple learning outcomes from your course to keep your grading manageable and your feedback useful (Rayner et al., 2016).

Scaffold assignments so students can develop knowledge and skills over time.

For large assignments, use scaffolding to integrate multiple opportunities for feedback, reflection, and improvement. Scaffolding means breaking a complex assignment down into component parts or smaller progressive tasks over time. Practicing these smaller tasks individually before attempting to integrate them into a completed assignment supports student learning by reducing the amount of information they need to process at a given time (Salden et al., 2006).

Scaffolding ensures students will start earlier and spend more time on big assignments. And it provides you more opportunities to give feedback and guidance to support their ultimate success. Additionally, scaffolding can draw students’ attention to important steps in a process that are often overlooked, such as planning and revision, leading them to be more independent and thoughtful about future work.

A familiar example of scaffolding is a research paper. You might ask students to submit a topic or thesis in Week 3 of the semester, an annotated bibliography of sources in Week 6, a detailed outline in Week 9, a first draft on which they can get peer feedback in Week 11, and the final draft in the last week of the semester.

Your course journey is decided in part by how you sequence assignments. Consider where students are in their learning and place assignments at strategic points throughout the term. Scaffold across the course journey by explaining how each assignment builds upon the learning achieved in previous ones (Walvoord & Anderson, 2011). 

Be transparent about assignment instructions and expectations. 

Communicate clearly to students about the purpose of each assignment, the process for completing the task, and the criteria you will use to evaluate it before they begin the work. Studies have shown that transparent assignments support students to meet learning goals and result in especially large increases in success and confidence for underserved students (Winkelmes et al., 2016).

To increase assignment transparency:

• Explain how the assignment links to one or more course learning outcomes . Understanding why the assignment matters and how it supports their learning can increase student motivation and investment in the work.
• Outline steps of the task in the assignment prompt . Clear directions help students structure their time and effort. This is also a chance to call out disciplinary standards with which students are not yet familiar or guide them to focus on steps of the process they often neglect, such as initial research.
• Provide a rubric with straightforward evaluation criteria . Rubrics make transparent which parts of an assignment you care most about. Sharing clear criteria sets students up for success by giving them the tools to self-evaluate and revise their work before submitting it. Be sure to explain your rubric, and particularly to unpack new or vague terms; for example, language like "argue," “close reading,” "list significant findings," and "document" can mean different things in different disciplines. It is helpful to show exemplars and non-exemplars along with your rubric to highlight differences in unacceptable, acceptable, and exceptional work.

Engage students in reflection or discussion to increase assignment transparency. Have them consider how the assessed outcomes connect to their personal lives or future careers. In-class activities that ask them to grade sample assignments and discuss the criteria they used, compare exemplars and non-exemplars, engage in self- or peer-evaluation, or complete steps of the assignment when you are present to give feedback can all support student success.

Technology Tip   

Enter all  assignments and due dates  in your Carmen course to increase transparency. When assignments are entered in Carmen, they also populate to Calendar, Syllabus, and Grades areas so students can easily track their upcoming work. Carmen also allows you to  develop rubrics  for every assignment in your course. 

Sample Bloom’s Verbs

Building a question bank, using the transparent assignment template, sample assignment: ai-generated lesson plan.

Include frequent low-stakes assignments and assessments throughout your course to provide the opportunities for practice and feedback that are essential to learning. Consider a variety of formative and summative assessment types so students can demonstrate learning in multiple ways. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to determine—and communicate—the specific skills you want to assess.

Remember that effective assessments of student learning are:

• Aligned to course learning outcomes
• Authentic, or resembling real-world tasks
• Achievable and realistic
• Scaffolded so students can develop knowledge and skills over time
• Transparent in purpose, tasks, and criteria for evaluation
• Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty (book)
• Cheating Lessons (book)
• Minds online: Teaching effectively with technology (book)
• Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning (video)
• TILT Higher Ed Examples and Resource (website)
• Writing to Learn: Critical Thinking Activities for Any Classroom (guide)

Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., Lovett, M.C., DiPietro, M., & Norman, M.K. (2010).  How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching . John Wiley & Sons. 

Barnett, S.M., & Ceci, S.J. (2002). When and where do we apply what we learn? A taxonomy for far transfer.  Psychological Bulletin , 128 (4). 612–637.  doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.612  

Bransford, J.D, & Schwartz, D.L. (1999). Rethinking transfer: A simple proposal with multiple implications.  Review of Research in Education , 24 . 61–100.  doi.org/10.3102/0091732X024001061  

Fink, L. D. (2013).  Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses . John Wiley & Sons. 

Karpicke, J.D., & Roediger, H.L., III. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning.  Science ,  319 . 966–968.  doi.org/10.1126/science.1152408  

Rayner, K., Schotter, E. R., Masson, M. E., Potter, M. C., & Treiman, R. (2016). So much to read, so little time: How do we read, and can speed reading help?.  Psychological Science in the Public Interest ,  17 (1), 4-34.  doi.org/10.1177/1529100615623267     

Salden, R.J.C.M., Paas, F., van Merriënboer, J.J.G. (2006). A comparison of approaches to learning task selection in the training of complex cognitive skills.  Computers in Human Behavior , 22 (3). 321–333.  doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.06.003  

Walvoord, B. E., & Anderson, V. J. (2010).  Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment in college . John Wiley & Sons. 

Wang, X., Su, Y., Cheung, S., Wong, E., & Kwong, T. (2013). An exploration of Biggs’ constructive alignment in course design and its impact on students’ learning approaches.  Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 38 (4). 477–491.  doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.06.003  

Winkelmes, M., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K.H. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students’ success.  Peer Review , 18 (1/2). 31–36. Retrieved from  https://www.aacu.org/peerreview/2016/winter-spring/Winkelmes

Related Teaching Topics

A positive approach to academic integrity, creating and adapting assignments for online courses, ai teaching strategies: transparent assignment design, designing research or inquiry-based assignments, using backward design to plan your course, universal design for learning: planning with all students in mind, search for resources.

6. Assessment

6.1 assessment and evaluation.

Assessment, as defined by  www.edglossary.org , “ refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students.”   It is analogous to  evaluation, judgment, rating, appraisal, and analysis. (Great Schools Partnership, 2015)

Although the terms assessment and evaluation are often used synonymously, they are in fact distinctive and different. The intent of assessment is to measure effectiveness; evaluation adds a value component to the process.  A teacher may assess a student to ascertain how well the  individual  successfully met the learning target. If, however, the measurement is used to determine program placement, for example with a special education program, honors club, or for Individual Educational Program documentation, the assessment constitutes an evaluation.  

Goals of Assessment  

Assessment is two-fold in nature. It enables the teacher to gather information and to then determine what the learner knows or does not know and concurrently drives the planning phase. In order to meet the needs of all learners, the teacher may need to differentiate the instruction.

The teacher is then responsible for providing positive feedback in a timely manner to the student. This feedback should include specifically whether the student met the learning target, specifically what needs to be improved upon, and who and how these goals will be met.

The intent of assessment has traditionally been to determine what the learner has learned. Today, the emphasis is on authentic assessment. While the former typically employed recall methods, the latter encourages learners to demonstrate greater comprehension.  (Wiggins, 1990)

7 Keys to Effective Feedback

Methods to assess  .

Within an academic setting, assessment may include “the process of observing learning; describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and interpreting information about a student’s or one’s own learning  http://www.k12.hi.us/atr/evaluation/glossary.htm .”

It can occur by observations, interviews, tests, projects or any other information gathering method. Within the early childhood and early primary elementary grades, observations are used frequently to assess learners. Teachers may use a checklist to note areas of proficiency or readiness and may opt to use checkmarks or some other consistent means for record-keeping.

It is helpful for a teacher to include the date, day, and time. This record-keeping may result in emerging patterns. Does the learner exhibit certain behaviors or respond to learning activities because of proximity to lunchtime, or morning or afternoon? The aspect of understanding how individuals learn can be noted within the affective domain. (Kirk, N/D) This may influence how a student learns and behaves within a classroom setting. Seating, natural and artificial lighting, noise, and temperature all influence how a student feels and interacts within the environment and can have effect cognitive behaviors.

Interviews can be used on the elementary or secondary levels as an assessment tool. Like any other well- planned assessment tool, they necessitate careful planning and development of questions, positive rapport with the student, and an environment that is free from distractions, outside noise, and time constraints. Interviews may or may not be audiotaped or videotaped and scoring rubrics may be used to assess (Southerland, ND).

Tests offer yet another venue for assessment purposes. They may take the form of essay or short response, fill-in-the-blank, matching, or true or false formats. Like any of the other methods, they should be valid and reliable. Carefully thought out test questions need to be tied to learning standards and a clear and fair scoring measure needs to be in place.

Typically, assessment has been viewed as the result; the letter or point assigned at the end of an assignment; however, assessment can and should come at the beginning, end and throughout the teaching and learning process. While assessment should drive instruction, it often falls short when determining instructional decisions

Danielle Stein eagerly anticipated the upcoming parent-teacher conferences of the day. She had studied hard as a Childhood Education major and had worked diligently in her first year as a third-grade teacher at Maplewood Elementary School.  Danielle had planned interdisciplinary lessons, employed inquiry-based learning centers, and met regularly with individual students to ensure that they had mastered the skills as determined by the state standards.

Each student had a portfolio filled with dated representations of their work. Ms. Stein understood the importance of specific and timely feedback and had painstakingly provided detailed written feedback on each work sample. She meticulously arranged the portfolios along with anecdotal notes and looked forward to sharing the accomplishments of the students with their family members.

As last-minute jitters began to set in, Danielle realized that she had no grades for any of the students. Despite doing all the right things, she had no way to assign a grade to any of the work the students had done. How would she respond when guardians asked what grade their child would earn on the first report card? How would she accurately tell them how they compared with their peers in reading? In math? In social studies and science?

Danielle quickly realized she was not as prepared as she had anticipated.

Discussion Questions

How do teachers assess student work? Is there a certain number of assignments that should be graded within  a  9-week session? Are there  alternatives to  letter grades? Reflect on how you were graded as a student.   

• Foundations of Education. Authored by : SUNY Oneonta Education Department. License : CC BY: Attribution

Privacy Policy

• Try for free

Assessment vs. Evaluation: What's the Difference?

Successful teachers know the difference. Do you?

Assessment vs. evaluation.

Assessment is, most likely, not a new concept for you; however, in most previous assessment situations, you were probably the one being tested. As you move into your teaching position, you will assume the responsibilities of an evaluator and an assessor. You will be required to determine how well your students are learning, gauge their performance, and measure the appropriateness of the content and the effectiveness of the methods and techniques utilized in your classroom.

Jabberwocky

When you assess your individual students, you gather information about their level of performance or achievement. Evaluation is comparing a student's achievement with other students or with a set of standards.

Effective assessment is a continuous process. It's not simply something that's done at the conclusion of a unit of study or at the end of a lesson. Effective assessment and evaluation are integrated into all aspects of the curriculum, providing both teachers and students with relevant and useful data to gauge progress and determine the effectiveness of materials and procedures.

Here are some criteria to consider for your own classroom:

Effective evaluation is a continuous, on-going process. Much more than determining the outcome of learning, it is rather a way of gauging learning over time. Learning and evaluation are never completed; they are always evolving and developing.

A variety of evaluative tools is necessary to provide the most accurate assessment of students' learning and progress. Dependence on one type of tool to the exclusion of others deprives students of valuable learning opportunities and robs you of measures that help both students and the overall program grow.

Evaluation must be a collaborative activity between teachers and students. Students must be able to assume an active role in evaluation so they can begin to develop individual responsibilities for development and self-monitoring.

Evaluation needs to be authentic. It must be based on the natural activities and processes students do both in the classroom and in their everyday lives. For example, relying solely on formalized testing procedures might send a signal to children that learning is simply a search for “right answers.”

Evaluation is intrinsically more complex than writing a test, giving it to a group of students, scoring it, and handing it back with some sort of letter grade. Indeed, it involves a combination of procedures and designs that not only gauge students' work but also help them grow in the process.

Featured High School Resources

Related Resources

About the author

TeacherVision Editorial Staff

The TeacherVision editorial team is comprised of teachers, experts, and content professionals dedicated to bringing you the most accurate and relevant information in the teaching space.

• About Meera

Search form

My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant

Evaluation: what is it and why do it.

• Planning and Implementing an EE Evaluation
• Step 1: Before You Get Started
• Step 2: Program Logic
• Step 3: Goals of Evaluation
• Step 4: Evaluation Design
• Step 5: Collecting Data
• Step 6: Analyzing Data
• Step 7: Reporting Results
• Step 8: Improve Program
• Related Topics
• Sample EE Evaluations
• Links & Resources

Evaluation. What associations does this word bring to mind? Do you see evaluation as an invaluable tool to improve your program? Or do you find it intimidating because you don't know much about it? Regardless of your perspective on evaluation, MEERA is here to help! The purpose of this introductory section is to provide you with some useful background information on evaluation.

Table of Contents

What is evaluation?

Should i evaluate my program, what type of evaluation should i conduct and when, what makes a good evaluation, how do i make evaluation an integral part of my program, how can i learn more.

Evaluation is a process that critically examines a program. It involves collecting and analyzing information about a program’s activities, characteristics, and outcomes. Its purpose is to make judgments about a program, to improve its effectiveness, and/or to inform programming decisions (Patton, 1987).

Experts stress that evaluation can:

Improve program design and implementation.

It is important to periodically assess and adapt your activities to ensure they are as effective as they can be. Evaluation can help you identify areas for improvement and ultimately help you realize your goals more efficiently. Additionally, when you share your results about what was more and less effective, you help advance environmental education.

Demonstrate program impact.

Evaluation enables you to demonstrate your program’s success or progress. The information you collect allows you to better communicate your program's impact to others, which is critical for public relations, staff morale, and attracting and retaining support from current and potential funders.

Why conduct evaluations? approx. 2 minutes

Gus Medina, Project Manager, Environmental Education and Training Partnership

There are some situations where evaluation may not be a good idea

Evaluations fall into one of two broad categories: formative and summative. Formative evaluations are conducted during program development and implementation and are useful if you want direction on how to best achieve your goals or improve your program. Summative evaluations should be completed once your programs are well established and will tell you to what extent the program is achieving its goals.

Within the categories of formative and summative, there are different types of evaluation.

Which of these evaluations is most appropriate depends on the stage of your program:

Make evaluation part of your program; don’t tack it on at the end!

Adapted from:

Norland, E. (2004, Sept). From education theory.. to conservation practice Presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Pancer, s. M., and Westhues, A. (1989) "A developmental stage approach to program planning and evaluation." Evaluation Review (13): 56-77.

Rossi R H., Lipsey, M. W., & Freeman. H. E. (2004). Evaluation: a systematic approach Thousand Oaks. Call.: Sage Publications.

For additional information on the differences between outcomes and impacts, including lists of potential EE outcomes and impacts, see MEERA's Outcomes and Impacts page.

A well-planned and carefully executed evaluation will reap more benefits for all stakeholders than an evaluation that is thrown together hastily and retrospectively. Though you may feel that you lack the time, resources, and expertise to carry out an evaluation, learning about evaluation early-on and planning carefully will help you navigate the process.

MEERA provides suggestions for all phases of an evaluation. But before you start, it will help to review the following characteristics of a good evaluation (list adapted from resource formerly available through the University of Sussex, Teaching and Learning Development Unit Evaluation Guidelines and John W. Evans' Short Course on Evaluation Basics):

Good evaluation is tailored to your program and builds on existing evaluation knowledge and resources.

Your evaluation should be crafted to address the specific goals and objectives of your EE program. However, it is likely that other environmental educators have created and field-tested similar evaluation designs and instruments. Rather than starting from scratch, looking at what others have done can help you conduct a better evaluation. See MEERA’s searchable database of EE evaluations to get started.

Good evaluation is inclusive.

It ensures that diverse viewpoints are taken into account and that results are as complete and unbiased as possible. Input should be sought from all of those involved and affected by the evaluation such as students, parents, teachers, program staff, or community members. One way to ensure your evaluation is inclusive is by following the practice of participatory evaluation.

Good evaluation is honest.

Evaluation results are likely to suggest that your program has strengths as well as limitations. Your evaluation should not be a simple declaration of program success or failure. Evidence that your EE program is not achieving all of its ambitious objectives can be hard to swallow, but it can also help you learn where to best put your limited resources.

Good evaluation is replicable and its methods are as rigorous as circumstances allow.

A good evaluation is one that is likely to be replicable, meaning that someone else should be able to conduct the same evaluation and get the same results. The higher the quality of your evaluation design, its data collection methods and its data analysis, the more accurate its conclusions and the more confident others will be in its findings.

Consider doing a “best practices” review of your program before proceeding with your evaluation.

Making evaluation an integral part of your program means evaluation is a part of everything you do. You design your program with evaluation in mind, collect data on an on-going basis, and use these data to continuously improve your program.

Developing and implementing such an evaluation system has many benefits including helping you to:

• better understand your target audiences' needs and how to meet these needs
• design objectives that are more achievable and measurable
• monitor progress toward objectives more effectively and efficiently
• learn more from evaluation
• increase your program's productivity and effectiveness

To build and support an evaluation system:

Couple evaluation with strategic planning.

As you set goals, objectives, and a desired vision of the future for your program, identify ways to measure these goals and objectives and how you might collect, analyze, and use this information. This process will help ensure that your objectives are measurable and that you are collecting information that you will use. Strategic planning is also a good time to create a list of questions you would like your evaluation to answer.

Revisit and update your evaluation plan and logic model

(See Step 2) to make sure you are on track. Update these documents on a regular basis, adding new strategies, changing unsuccessful strategies, revising relationships in the model, and adding unforeseen impacts of an activity (EMI, 2004).

Build an evaluation culture

by rewarding participation in evaluation, offering evaluation capacity building opportunities, providing funding for evaluation, communicating a convincing and unified purpose for evaluation, and celebrating evaluation successes.

The following resource provides more depth on integrating evaluation into program planning:

Best Practices Guide to Program Evaluation for Aquatic Educators (.pdf) Beginner Intermediate Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. (2006).

Chapter 2 of this guide, “Create a climate for evaluation,” gives advice on how to fully institutionalize evaluation into your organization. It describes features of an organizational culture, and explains how to build teamwork, administrative support and leadership for evaluation. It discusses the importance of developing organizational capacity for evaluation, linking evaluation to organizational planning and performance reviews, and unexpected benefits of evaluation to organizational culture.

If you want to learn more about how to institutionalize evaluation, check out the following resources on adaptive management. Adaptive management is an approach to conservation management that is based on learning from systematic, on-going monitoring and evaluation, and involves adapting and improving programs based on the findings from monitoring and evaluation.

• Adaptive Management: A Tool for Conservation Practitioners Salafsky, N., R. Margoluis, and K. Redford, (2001) Biodiversity Support Program. Beginner This guide provides an overview of adaptive management, defines the approach, describes the conditions under which adaptive managements makes most sense, and outlines the steps involved.
• Measures of Conservation Success: Designing, Managing, and Monitoring Conservation and Development Projects Margoluis, R., and N. Salafsky. (1998) Island Press. Beginner Intermediate Advanced Available for purchase at Amazon.com. This book provides a detailed guide to project management and evaluation. The chapters and case studies describe the process step-by-step, from project conception to conclusion. The chapters on creating and implementing a monitoring plan, and on using the information obtained to modify the project are particularly useful.
• Does your project make a difference? A guide to evaluating environmental education projects and programs. Sydney: Department of Environment and Conservation, Australia. (2004) Beginner Section 1 provides a useful introduction to evaluation in EE. It defines evaluation, and explains why it is important and challenging, with quotes about the evaluation experiences of several environmental educators.
• Designing Evaluation for Education Projects (.pdf), NOAA Office of Education and Sustainable Development. (2004) Beginner In Section 3, “Why is evaluation important to project design and implementation?” nine benefits of evaluation are listed, including, for example, the value of using evaluation results for public relations and outreach.
• Evaluating EE in Schools: A Practical Guide for Teachers (.pdf) Bennett, D.B. (1984). UNESCO-UNEP Beginner Intermediate The introduction of this guide explains four main benefits of evaluation in EE, including: 1) building greater support for your program, 2) improving your program, 3) advancing student learning, 4) promoting better environmental outcomes.
• Guidelines for Evaluating Non-Profit Communications Efforts (.pdf) Communications Consortium Media Center. (2004) Beginner Intermediate A section titled “Overarching Evaluation Principles” describes twelve principles of evaluation, such as the importance of being realistic about the potential impact of a project, and being aware of how values shape evaluation. Another noteworthy section, “Acknowledging the Challenges of Evaluation,” outlines nine substantial challenges, including the difficulty in assessing complicated changes in multiple levels of society (school, community, state, etc.). This resource focuses on evaluating public communications efforts, though most of the content is relevant to EE.

EMI (Ecosystem Management Initiative). (2004). Measuring Progress: An Evaluation Guide for Ecosystem and Community-Based Projects. School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan. Downloaded September 20, 2006 from: www.snre.umich.edu/ecomgt/evaluation/templates.htm

Patton, M.Q. (1987). Qualitative Research Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers.

Thomson, G. & Hoffman, J. (2003). Measuring the success of EE programs. Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Center for Teaching Innovation

Resource library.

• Teaching students to evaluate each other

Peer assessment

Peer assessment or peer review provides a structured learning process for students to critique and provide feedback to each other on their work. It helps students develop lifelong skills in assessing and providing feedback to others, and also equips them with skills to self-assess and improve their own work. 

If you are interested in facilitating a team member evaluation process for group projects, see the page on  Teaching students to evaluate each other .

Why use peer assessment? 

Peer assessment can: 

• Empower students to take responsibility for and manage their own learning. 
• Enable students to learn to assess and give others constructive feedback to develop lifelong assessment skills. 
• Enhance students' learning through knowledge diffusion and exchange of ideas. 
• Motivate students to engage with course material more deeply. 

Considerations for using peer assessment 

• Let students know the rationale for doing peer review. Explain the expectations and benefits of engaging in a peer review process. 
• Consider having students evaluate anonymous assignments for more objective feedback. 
• Be prepared to give feedback on students’ feedback to each other. Display some examples of feedback of varying quality and discuss which kind of feedback is useful and why. 
• Give clear directions and time limits for in-class peer review sessions and set defined deadlines for out-of-class peer review assignments. 
• Listen to group feedback discussions and provide guidance and input when necessary. 
• Student familiarity and ownership of criteria tend to enhance peer assessment validity, so involve students in a discussion of the criteria used. Consider involving students in developing an assessment rubric. 

Getting started with peer assessment 

• Identify assignments or activities for which students might benefit from peer feedback. 
• Consider breaking a larger assignment into smaller pieces and incorporating peer assessment opportunities at each stage. For example, assignment outline, first draft, second draft, etc. 
• Design guidelines or   rubrics   with clearly defined tasks for the reviewer. 
• Introduce rubrics through learning exercises to ensure students have the ability to apply the rubric effectively. 
• Determine whether peer review activities will be conducted as in-class or out-of-class assignments. For out-of-class assignments, peer assessments can be facilitated through Canvas using tools such as FeedbackFruits peer review and group member evaluation , Canvas peer review assignment , or Turnitin . See the Comparison of peer evaluation tools to learn more and/or set up a consultation by contacting CTI ." 
• Help students learn to carry out peer assessment by modeling appropriate, constructive criticism and descriptive feedback through your own comments on student work and well-constructed rubrics. 
• Incorporate small feedback groups where written comments on assignments can be explained and discussed with the receiver. 

Feedback on your assignments: what it is and how to use it

This guide explains how to use your tutor's feedback so that you understand your grade and how to improve your academic performance..

• Understand your strengths and weaknesses

When you get your assignments back from your tutor, you will probably initially focus on the grade you have received.

However, your tutor will have given you useful and well thought-out feedback, with the purpose of a) helping you understand the grade and b) providing you with ideas for how to improve in future assignments. It is important that you make good use of this feedback to help you understand your strengths and weaknesses and what you need to do to improve on your grade.

There are three key things you need to do in order to maximise the usefulness of your tutor feedback:

• Understand the feedback : look at all the feedback provided (sometimes there are comments on your script as well as the overall comments), and read it carefully to ensure you understand each comment.
• Log your feedback : create a system of storing your feedback that is easily accessible.
• Use your feedback in future assignments : refer to your feedback in preparation for new assignments, and use it as a checklist.
• Understand the feedback

Tutors will have different ways of giving you feedback. Some will provide a written summary of your key strengths and weaknesses, and some will provide oral recorded feedback. You may also receive focused, itemised feedback on the script of your work.

Tutors will provide both positive and critical feedback. Generally, the positive feedback is easy to understand, but sometimes the critical feedback can be unclear or can use terminology that is not easy to understand. Some common critical comments are listed below with a glossary to explain what is meant, and suggestions for how to improve as a result of this feedback.

• Glossary of terms
• Log your feedback

Once you have read and understood the feedback you have received, it is important to create a system of storing it for future reference. This feedback is useful when preparing your next assignments, and you should find a system of storage that is easily accessible and works well for you.

Not everyone will like the same system. Here are a couple of examples of ways that students have stored their feedback to create an easy reference tool to use as a check list each time they start work on assignments.

Using a table

This method of logging and storing your feedback is commonly used. Here you create a table and cut and past feedback into the appropriate column. In addition, students often include a column for their grade, so that they can see which assignments are likely to have feedback that tells them not only what to improve, but also what to continue doing.

This is what it could look like as a student starts to fill it in:

Using a mind map

Another common way to log your feedback is by creating a mind map.

Use sections to group your feedback so that it is easily demarcated by comment-type. Mind maps work best with the key points from your feedback. It can be a useful review task to pull out the main issues raised by your tutor, and to summarise them using concise language.

Remember that you should choose a way to log your feedback that works best for you. It needs to be achievable and accessible to you, so that you can use it easily to review your tutors’ advice and learn from it.

• Use your feedback in future assignments

Once you have set up a system for collecting and storing your feedback, you have an important resource to help you improve on your work.

You need to revisit this feedback and review the comments frequently, in order to learn what your strengths and weaknesses are. You will start to identify themes, and this will help you to create a plan for how to improve.

For each new assignment, the following approach should help you to avoid making the same mistakes again, and allow you to consolidate the strengths you have.

• Summary and next steps
• Make sure you understand it and can see why your tutors are saying what they are saying.
• Create a storage system that suits you. Include your own reflection and ideas for what you need to do to improve.
• As you build up your feedback, start to collate it to show recurring themes and comments.
• Use your collated feedback as a guide and checklist when planning, preparing and reviewing your work.

Engaging with feedback resource

This short, interactive self-access resource shows you how to:

• use feedback as a powerful learning tool
• examine what might be preventing you from using feedback
• identify patterns in your feedback
• set goals and create a personal action plan.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Academic Skills

On this page.

Center for Teaching and Learning

Step 4: develop assessment criteria and rubrics.

Just as we align assessments with the course learning objectives, we also align the grading criteria for each assessment with the goals of that unit of content or practice, especially for assignments than cannot be graded through automation the way that multiple-choice tests can. Grading criteria articulate what is important in each assessment, what knowledge or skills students should be able to demonstrate, and how they can best communicate that to you. When you share grading criteria with students, you help them understand what to focus on and how to demonstrate their learning successfully. From good assessment criteria, you can develop a grading rubric .

Develop Your Assessment Criteria | Decide on a Rating Scale | Create the Rubric

Developing Your Assessment Criteria

Good assessment criteria are

• Clear and easy to understand as a guide for students
• Attainable rather than beyond students’ grasp in the current place in the course
• Significant in terms of the learning students should demonstrate
• Relevant in that they assess student learning toward course objectives related to that one assessment.

To create your grading criteria, consider the following questions:

• What is the most significant content or knowledge students should be able to demonstrate understanding of at this point in the course?
• What specific skills, techniques, or applications should students be able to use to demonstrate using at this point in the course?
• What secondary skills or practices are important for students to demonstrate in this assessment? (for example, critical thinking, public speaking skills, or writing as well as more abstract concepts such as completeness, creativity, precision, or problem-solving abilities)
• Do the criteria align with the objectives for both the assessment and the course?

Once you have developed some ideas about the assessment’s grading criteria, double-check to make sure the criteria are observable, measurable, significant, and distinct from each other.

Assessment Criteria Example Using the questions above, the performance criteria in the example below were designed for an assignment in which students had to create an explainer video about a scientific concept for a specified audience. Each elements can be observed and measured based on both expert instructor and peer feedback, and each is significant because it relates to the course and assignment learning goals.

Additional Assessment Criteria Resources Developing Grading Criteria (Vanderbilt University) Creating Grading Criteria (Brown University) Sample Criteria (Brown University) Developing Grading Criteria (Temple University)

Decide on a Rating Scale

Deciding what scale you will use for an assessment depends on the type of learning you want students to demonstrate and the type of feedback you want to give students on this particular assignment or test. For example, for an introductory lab report early in the semester, you might not be as concerned with advanced levels of precision as much as correct displays of data and the tone of the report; therefore, grading heavily on copy editing or advanced analysis would not be appropriate. The criteria would likely more rigorous by the end of the semester, as you build up to the advanced level you want students to reach in the course.

Rating scales turn the grading criteria you have defined into levels of performance expectations for the students that can then be interpreted as a letter, number, or level. Common rating scales include

• A, B, C, etc. (without or without + and -)
• 100 point scale with defined cut-off for a letter grade if desired (ex. a B = 89-80; or a B+ = 89-87, B = 86-83, B- = 82-80)
• Yes or no, present or not present (if the rubric is a checklist of items students must show)
• below expectations, meets expectations, exceeds expectations
• not demonstrated, poor, average, good, excellent

Once you have decided on a scale for the type of assignment and the learning you want students to demonstrate, you can use the scale to clearly articulate what each level of performance looks like, such as defining what A, B, C, etc. level work would look like for each grading criteria. What would distinguish a student who earns a B from one who earns a C? What would distinguish a student who excelled in demonstrating use of a tool from a student who clearly was not familiar with it? Write these distinctions out in descriptive notes or brief paragraphs.

​ Ethical Implications of Rating Scales There are ethical implications in each of these types of rating skills. On a project worth 100 points, what is the objective difference between earning an 85 or and 87? On an exceeds/meets/does not meet scale, how can those levels be objectively applied? Different understandings of "fairness" can lead to several ways of grading that might disadvantage some students.  Learn more about equitable grading practices here.

Create the Rubric

Rubrics Can Make Grading More Effective

• Provide students with more complete and targeted feedback
• Make grading more timely by enabling the provision of feedback soon after assignment is submitted/presented.
• Standardize assessment criteria among those assigning/assessing the same assignment.
• Facilitate peer evaluation of early drafts of assignment.

Rubrics Can Help Student Learning

• Convey your expectations about the assignment through a classroom discussion of the rubric prior to the beginning of the assignment
• Level the playing field by clarifying academic expectations and assignments so that all students understand regardless of their educational backgrounds.(e.g. define what we expect analysis, critical thinking, or even introductions/conclusions should include)
• Promote student independence and motivation by enabling self-assessment
• Prepare students to use detailed feedback.

Rubrics Have Other Uses:

• Track development of student skills over several assignments
• Facilitate communication with others (e.g. TAs, communication center, tutors, other faculty, etc)
• Refine own teaching skills (e.g. by responding to common areas of weaknesses, feedback on how well teaching strategies are working in preparing students for their assignments).

In this video, CTL's Dr. Carol Subino Sullivan discusses the value of the different types of rubrics.

Many non-test-based assessments might seem daunting to grade, but a well-designed rubric can alleviate some of that work. A rubric is a table that usually has these parts:  

• a clear description of the learning activity being assessed
• criteria by which the activity will be evaluated
• a rating scale identifying different levels of performance
• descriptions of the level of performance a student must reach to earn that level.  

When you define the criteria and pre-define what acceptable performance for each of those criteria looks like ahead of time, you can use the rubric to compare with student work and assign grades or points for each criteria accordingly. Rubrics work very well for projects, papers/reports, and presentations , as well as in peer review, and good rubrics can save instructors and TAs time when grading .  

Sample Rubrics This final rubric for the scientific concept explainer video combines the assessment criteria and the holistic rating scale:

When using this rubric, which can be easily adapted to use a present/not present rating scale or a letter grade scale, you can use a combination of checking items off and adding written (or audio/video) comments in the different boxes to provide the student more detailed feedback. 

As a second example, this descriptive rubric was used to ask students to peer assess and self-assess their contributions to a collaborative project. The rating scale is 1 through 4, and each description of performance builds on the previous. ( See the full rubric with scales for both product and process here. This rubric was designed for students working in teams to assess their own contributions to the project as well as their peers.)

Building a Rubric in Canvas Assignments You can create rubrics for assignments and discussions boards in Canvas. Review these Canvas guides for tips and tricks. Rubrics Overview for Instructors What are rubrics?  How do I align a rubric with a learning outcome? How do I add a rubric to an assignment? How do I add a rubric to a quiz? How do I add a rubric to a graded discussion? How do I use a rubric to grade submissions in SpeedGrader? How do I manage rubrics in a course?

Additional Resources for Developing Rubrics Designing Grading Rubrics  (Brown University) Step-by-step process for creating an effective, fair, and efficient grading rubric. 

Creating and Using Rubrics  (Carnegie Mellon University) Explores the basics of rubric design along with multiple examples for grading different types of assignments.

Using Rubrics  (Cornell University) Argument for the value of rubrics to support student learning.

Rubrics  (University of California Berkeley) Shares "fun facts" about rubrics, and links the rubric guidelines from many higher ed organizations such as the AAC&U.

Creating and Using Rubrics  (Yale University) Introduces different styles of rubrics and ways to decide what style to use given your course's learning goals.

Best Practices for Designing Effective Resources (Arizona State University) Comprehensive overview of rubric design principles.

  Return to Main Menu | Return to Step 3 | Go to Step 5 Determine Feedback Strategy

Accessibility Information

Download Microsoft Products   >      Download Adobe Reader   >

Created by the Great Schools Partnership , the GLOSSARY OF EDUCATION REFORM is a comprehensive online resource that describes widely used school-improvement terms, concepts, and strategies for journalists, parents, and community members. | Learn more »

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support .

The general goal of formative assessment is to collect detailed information that can be used to improve instruction and student learning while it’s happening . What makes an assessment “formative” is not the design of a test, technique, or self-evaluation, per se, but the way it is used—i.e., to inform in-process teaching and learning modifications.

Formative assessments are commonly contrasted with summative assessments , which are used to evaluate student learning progress and achievement at the conclusion of a specific instructional period—usually at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year. In other words, formative assessments are for learning, while summative assessments are of learning. Or as assessment expert Paul Black put it, “When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative assessment. When the customer tastes the soup, that’s summative assessment.” It should be noted, however, that the distinction between formative and summative is often fuzzy in practice, and educators may hold divergent interpretations of and opinions on the subject.

Many educators and experts believe that formative assessment is an integral part of effective teaching. In contrast with most summative assessments, which are deliberately set apart from instruction, formative assessments are integrated into the teaching and learning process. For example, a formative-assessment technique could be as simple as a teacher asking students to raise their hands if they feel they have understood a newly introduced concept, or it could be as sophisticated as having students complete a self-assessment of their own writing (typically using a rubric outlining the criteria) that the teacher then reviews and comments on. While formative assessments help teachers identify learning needs and problems, in many cases the assessments also help students develop a stronger understanding of their own academic strengths and weaknesses. When students know what they do well and what they need to work harder on, it can help them take greater responsibility over their own learning and academic progress.

While the same assessment technique or process could, in theory, be used for either formative or summative purposes, many summative assessments are unsuitable for formative purposes because they do not provide useful feedback. For example, standardized-test scores may not be available to teachers for months after their students take the test (so the results cannot be used to modify lessons or teaching and better prepare students), or the assessments may not be specific or fine-grained enough to give teachers and students the detailed information they need to improve.

The following are a few representative examples of formative assessments:

• Questions that teachers pose to individual students and groups of students during the learning process to determine what specific concepts or skills they may be having trouble with. A wide variety of intentional questioning strategies may be employed, such as phrasing questions in specific ways to elicit more useful responses.
• Specific, detailed, and constructive feedback that teachers provide on student work , such as journal entries, essays, worksheets, research papers, projects, ungraded quizzes, lab results, or works of art, design, and performance. The feedback may be used to revise or improve a work product, for example.
• “Exit slips” or “exit tickets” that quickly collect student responses to a teacher’s questions at the end of a lesson or class period. Based on what the responses indicate, the teacher can then modify the next lesson to address concepts that students have failed to comprehend or skills they may be struggling with. “Admit slips” are a similar strategy used at the beginning of a class or lesson to determine what students have retained from previous learning experiences .
• Self-assessments that ask students to think about their own learning process, to reflect on what they do well or struggle with, and to articulate what they have learned or still need to learn to meet course expectations or learning standards.
• Peer assessments that allow students to use one another as learning resources. For example, “workshopping” a piece of writing with classmates is one common form of peer assessment, particularly if students follow a rubric or guidelines provided by a teacher.

In addition to the reasons addressed above, educators may also use formative assessment to:

• Refocus students on the learning process and its intrinsic value, rather than on grades or extrinsic rewards.
• Encourage students to build on their strengths rather than fixate or dwell on their deficits. (For a related discussion, see growth mindset .)
• Help students become more aware of their learning needs, strengths, and interests so they can take greater responsibility over their own educational growth. For example, students may learn how to self-assess their own progress and self-regulate their behaviors.
• Give students more detailed, precise, and useful information. Because grades and test scores only provide a general impression of academic achievement, usually at the completion of an instructional period, formative feedback can help to clarify and calibrate learning expectations for both students and parents. Students gain a clearer understanding of what is expected of them, and parents have more detailed information they can use to more effectively support their child’s education.
• Raise or accelerate the educational achievement of all students, while also reducing learning gaps and achievement gaps .

While the formative-assessment concept has only existed since the 1960s, educators have arguably been using “formative assessments” in various forms since the invention of teaching. As an intentional school-improvement strategy, however, formative assessment has received growing attention from educators and researchers in recent decades. In fact, it is now widely considered to be one of the more effective instructional strategies used by teachers, and there is a growing body of literature and academic research on the topic.

Schools are now more likely to encourage or require teachers to use formative-assessment strategies in the classroom, and there are a growing number of professional-development opportunities available to educators on the subject. Formative assessments are also integral components of personalized learning and other educational strategies designed to tailor lessons and instruction to the distinct learning needs and interests of individual students.

While there is relatively little disagreement in the education community about the utility of formative assessment, debates or disagreements may stem from differing interpretations of the term. For example, some educators believe the term is loosely applied to forms of assessment that are not “truly” formative, while others believe that formative assessment is rarely used appropriately or effectively in the classroom.

Another common debate is whether formative assessments can or should be graded. Many educators contend that formative assessments can only be considered truly formative when they are ungraded and used exclusively to improve student learning. If grades are assigned to a quiz, test, project, or other work product, the reasoning goes, they become de facto summative assessments—i.e., the act of assigning a grade turns the assessment into a performance evaluation that is documented in a student’s academic record, as opposed to a diagnostic strategy used to improve student understanding and preparation before they are given a graded test or assignment.

Some educators also make a distinction between “pure” formative assessments—those that are used on a daily basis by teachers while they are instructing students—and “interim” or “benchmark” assessments, which are typically periodic or quarterly assessments used to determine where students are in their learning progress or whether they are on track to meeting expected learning standards. While some educators may argue that any assessment method that is used diagnostically could be considered formative, including interim assessments, others contend that these two forms of assessment should remain distinct, given that different strategies, techniques, and professional development may be required.

Some proponents of formative assessment also suspect that testing companies mislabel and market some interim standardized tests as “formative” to capitalize on and profit from the popularity of the idea. Some observers express skepticism that commercial or prepackaged products can be authentically formative, arguing that formative assessment is a sophisticated instructional technique, and to do it well requires both a first-hand understanding of the students being assessed and sufficient training and professional development.

Alphabetical Search

Peer Assessment

Using student-to-student peer assessment.

Peer assessment describes a range of activities in which students evaluate and provide feedback on the work of their peers. Formative peer assessment involves feedback on drafts of work before the final product is submitted. Summative peer assessment includes evaluation of other students’ products or participation and/or contributions as part of a grade. Peer assessment is commonly used as a strategy for students to assess their fellow students’ contributions to group work, particularly valuable in team-based learning (learn more from team-based learning ).

Formative and Summative Peer Assessment

Peer assessment can take many forms that can vary depending on the learning goals, the disciplinary context, and available technologies. Peer assessment is often characterized as taking either a formative or summative approach.

Formative Peer Assessment

• Students are introduced to the assignment and criteria for assessment
• Students are trained and given practice on how to assess and provide feedback
• Students complete and submit a draft
• Students assess the drafts of other students and give feedback
• Students reflect on the feedback received and revise their work for final submission
• Assignments are graded by the instructor
• Instructor reflects on the activity with the class

Summative Peer Assessment

• Students are trained and given practice on how to use the grading rubric and provide feedback
• Students complete and submit a final assignment
• Students assess the assignments of 3 to 6 other students using the grading rubric and provide feedback
• Grades are determined for each student by taking the median score given by their peers
• Instructor and students reflect on the activity with an emphasis on reinforcing the learning that occurred in the giving of peer feedback

Key Questions to Answer in Peer Assessment

Before implementing peer assessment within your course, consider the following (modified from Gielen, 2010 and Topping, 1998).

• Object of assessment – What will students produce? A paper, web page, poster, presentation, video, group project participation/contribution? What skills are students expected to develop and demonstrate as they produce this artifact?
• Product of peer assessment – What is the output that students create while assessing their peers? Grades, rubrics, rankings, guided questions, qualitative feedback?
• Formative or Summative – Will students provide both formative and summative feedback or just one?
• Grading – How will students be graded on the assignment? Will peer assessment replace the instructor assessment (substitutional)? Will students receive marks or feedback from both peers and instructors (partially substitutional)? Or, will peer assessment provide additional feedback but be primarily assessed by the instructor for the final grade (supplementary)? Will you give students feedback or assign a grade, with or without evaluation, for their assessments of their peers?
• Reviewer organization and directionality – How will peer assessors be assigned? (e.g. randomized, self-selected, instructor selected, small group, pair-matched). How many assessments will you require each student to complete? Will the reviews be anonymous or will there be dialogue between the peers reviewing each other?
• Training – How experienced and confident are the students with peer assessment? How will students be trained to assess the work of their peers and provide feedback? At what point in the process does the training occur?

Types of Peer Assessment

• Formative Feedback – Students provide formative and constructive feedback on drafts that students are able to revise before submitting a final product. This can be done as an in-class activity or using a variety of online tools, including Canvas. The final grade is given by the instructor or TA. This can also be done using a sequence of assignments. Students get peer feedback after each assignment and then are able to apply the feedback to each subsequent assignment with the goal of improving over time.
• Peer grading – Students assign grades to their peers based on assessment criteria. Peer grading is typically done using online tools that randomly and anonymously distribute assignments for review by a specified number of other students. Students grade their peers using an online rubric and final scores for a particular assignment are typically tallied by taking the median value of all peer grades that assignment has received.
• Peer assessment of group work participation – Grading group work can be a challenge for instructors because it is difficult to determine the contributions of each individual student. Many instructors use peer assessment to supplement instructor grades by adding a participation component to group assignments. Students give a participation score and overall comments for each group member using a rubric that is based on criteria that the instructor establishes. The instructor then uses these evaluations to give each student an overall participation grade for the assignment.

Explore Tools and Strategies

Canvas peer reviews.

Enable students to provide feedback on another student’s assignment submission in Canvas.

Collaboration Tools

Enhance the ability of student teams to collaborate effectively.

Peer Assessment (PA) Resources from McGill University website

• Sample guiding questions for written assignments and oral assignments and more, download the Designing Peer Assessment Assignments: A Resource Document for Instructors (PDF)
• For curated peer assessment tools and example forms, download Using Peer Assessment to Make Teamwork Work: A Resource Document for Instructors (PDF)
• Learn about 4 different case studies presented highlighting how faculty members implemented PA via the Cases: Peer assessment posts on the McGill blog webpage
• Explore examples intended to inspire you to create guiding questions, rubrics, checklists or rating scales that are appropriate for peer assessment with your students on the Examples of PA assignments webpage .

Additional Resources

• Baker, K. M. (2016). Peer review as a strategy for improving students’ writing process. Active Learning in Higher Education , 17 (3), 179-192.
• Carvalho, A. (2013). Students’ perceptions of fairness in peer assessment: evidence from a problem-based learning course. Teaching in Higher Education , 18 (5), 491-505.
• Cho, K., & MacArthur, C. (2011). Learning by reviewing. Journal of Educational Psychology , 103(1), 73-84.
• Gielen, S., Dochy, F., & Onghena, P. (2011). An inventory of peer assessment diversity. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 36(2), 137-155
• Kaufman, J. and Schunn, C. (2011). Students’ perceptions about peer assessment for writing: their origin and impact on revision work. Instructional Science , 39(3), 387-406.
• Liu, J. and Law, N. (2012). Online peer assessment: effects of cognitive and affective feedback. Instructional Science. 40(2), 257-275.
• Moore, C., & Teather, S. (2013). Engaging students in peer review: Feedback as learning. Teaching and Learning Forum 2013 . http://clt.curtin.edu.au/events/conferences/tlf/tlf2013/refereed/moore.html
• Nicol, D., Thomson, A., Breslin, C. (2013). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: a peer review perspective. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education , 39(1), 102-122.
• Potter, T., Englund, L., Charbonneau, J., MacLean, M. T., Newell, J., & Roll, I. (2017). ComPAIR: A New Online Tool Using Adaptive Comparative Judgment to Support Learning with Peer Feedback. Teaching & Learning Inquiry , 5 (2), 89-113.
• Sluijsmans, D. M., Brand-Gruwel, S., & van Merriënboer, J. J. (2002). Peer assessment training in teacher education: Effects on performance and perceptions. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 27 (5), 443-454.
• Topping, K. (1998). Peer assessment between students in colleges and universities. Review of Educational Research , 68 (3), 249-276.
• Wride, M. (2017). Guide to peer-assessment. Academic Practice, University of Dublin Trinity College. Retrieved from https://www.tcd.ie/CAPSL/assets/pdf/Academic%20Practice%20Resources/Guide%20to%20Student%20Peer%20Assessment.pdf

Peer Assessment, by the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Iowa State University is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 . This work, Peer Assessment, is a derivative of Ideas and Strategies for Peer Assessments webpage developed by The University of British Columbia. (retrieved on May 13, 2020) from https://isit.arts.ubc.ca/ideas-and-strategies-for-peer-assessments/.

The CELT Peer Assessment webpage is adapted with permission from the Arts ISIT at The University of British Columbia’s Ideas and Strategies for Peer Assessments webpage .

• Have any questions ?
• +971 552272114
• [email protected]

• Links with the Industry
• Our Partners
• Online Executive MBA - CMU
• MBA – Strategic Management & Leadership - CMU
• MBA International - CCCU
• MBA International (Top- up)
• MBA - University of Gloucestershire (GLOS)
• MBA with Global Business Administration (GLOS)
• MBA with Global Business Administration with Marketing Intelligence and Big Data (GLOS)
• MBA with Global Business Administration with Cyber Governance and Digital Transformation (GLOS)
• MBA with Global Business Administration with Financial Services Management (GLOS)
• MBA with Global Business Administration with Applied Entrepreneurship, Design Thinking and Innovation (GLOS)
• MBA in Global Business Administration with International Tourism and Hospitality Management (GLOS)
• MBA with Supply Chain Management - Abertay University
• MBA with Healthcare Management - Abertay University
• MBA with HR and Organizational Psychology - Abertay University
• MBA with Finance and Risk Management - Abertay University
• MBA with Engineering Management - Abertay University
• MBA with Information Technology - Abertay University
• MBA with Educational Leadership - Abertay University
• MBA with Health and Safety Leadership - Abertay University
• MBA with Management of Public Health
• MBA with Cyber Governance and Law - Abertay University
• MBA with Entrepreneurship & Innovation - Abertay University
• MBA with Business Analytics - Abertay University
• MBA with Operations and Project Management - Abertay University
• MBA with Market Intelligence & Big data - Abertay University
• Executive MBA in HR Management and Analytics - UCAM
• MBA with Sales and Marketing - Abertay University
• Executive MBA in Logistics and Supply Chain Leadership - UCAM
• Executive MBA in Global Business Management - UCAM
• Executive MBA in Engineering Management - UCAM
• Executive MBA in Healthcare Leadership - UCAM
• Executive MBA in Information Technology Leadership - UCAM
• MBA with Sales & Marketing - UCAM
• MBA with Specialization - Girne American University
• CMI L7 Strategic Management and Leadership Practice
• MSc Digital Marketing and e-Business
• MSc Accounting and Finance (CIMA Gateway)
• MSc. Construction and Project Management
• Masters in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• BSc (Hons) Business with International Business Management (LJMU)
• BSc (Hons) Business with Finance (LJMU)
• BSc (Hons) Business with Digital Marketing (LJMU)
• BSc (Hons) Computer Science - LJMU
• BSc (Hons) Business Psychology with Human Resource Management - LJMU
• BA (Hons) in Fashion: Design and Communication - LJMU
• BA (Hons) Media, Culture and Communication - LJMU
• BA (Hons) Sports Business - LJMU
• BSc (Hons) Business Management - CCCU
• BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance - GLOS
• BA (Hons ) Business Management - ABERTAY
• BA (Hons) Business Management with Business Analytics - ABERTAY
• BA (Hons) in Business with Digital Marketing - Abertay University
• BA (Hons) in Business with Finance - Abertay University

• Doctorate of Business Administration
• Postgraduate Diploma in Procurement & Contract Management
• Postgraduate Diploma in Sales & Marketing Management
• Postgraduate Diploma in Supply Chain Management and Logistics
• Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management and Leadership
• Postgraduate Diploma in Tourism and Hospitality Management
• Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management | HRM
• Postgraduate Diploma in Finance & Risk Management
• Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering Management
• Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management
• Certificate in Strategic Management and Leadership Practice
• CMI Programs
• Diploma in Business Psychology
• Diploma in Fashion Illustration
• Diploma in Supply Chain and Logistics Management
• Diploma in Business Analytics
• Diploma in Information Technology
• Diploma in Finance and Risk Management
• Diploma in Business Management
• Diploma in Fashion Design
• Diploma in Healthcare Management and Leadership
• Diploma in Business Finance 
• Diploma in Digital Marketing ​
• Diploma in Operations and Project Management
• Diploma in Engineering Management
• Diploma in Human Resources & Organizational Culture ​
• Diploma in Computing
• Diploma in Film and Media
• Diploma in Sports Management
• ACCA – Association Chartered Certified Accountants
• Higher National Diploma in Art and Design (Fashion)
• Higher National Diploma in Computing
• Higher National Diploma In Business
• Higher National Diploma in Sport
• BTEC Level 3 National Foundation Diploma in Business
• Master of Arts in Leadership in Education
• Master of Arts in Education
• Postgraduate Certificate in Education (International) - LJMU

• Postgraduate Certificate in Education International (PGCEi)
• Notable Westford Alumni
• Student Interview
• DBA Candidates
• Research Journals
• Humans Of Westford
• MBA Decoded
• Mentorship program
• International Immersion Program
• Toastmaster Club
• Accommodation Partner- Nest
• International Student Research Conference (ISRC)
• Student Recruitment Drive
• Westford for Business
• August 5, 2020
• Management Articles
• 3 Minutes Read

Assignment based evaluation Vs Exam based evaluation for management programs – Merits for Executive MBA students

Assignment and examination-based evaluation are two of the most common assessment methods for evaluating the progress of students in their learning. Moreover, the essential purpose of evaluating student learning is to determine whether the students are achieving the learning outcomes laid out for them.

Assignment based evaluation Vs Exam based evaluation

Now the big question is, which one is more effective? An assignment-based evaluation or an exam-based evaluation.

Research and records indicate that, over the last 40 years in the United Kingdom and other nations, the assignment-based evaluation or completion of the module assessment of higher education coursework (postgraduate, Master’s & Ph.D.) has significantly enhanced. This has been exemplified in numerous academic research articles. It is likewise recognized that a higher proportion of learners themselves chose to be assessed along with the basis of coursework or assignment. The study also shows that the assignment-based assessment continues to yield a better score than the examination alone. A well-known researcher on this subject in 2015, John T.E. Richardson, found that student examination-based performance is more common. In its conclusions, the researcher emphasized the lack of feedback in an examination-based appraisal and its deficiency in the proper evaluation of the scope and depth of learning per se. The researcher also reasoned that, rather than promoting successful learning, an exam-based assessment merely measures knowledge at the particular moment, it means that the student’s examination experience does not make a reasonable contribution to learning compared to the way the assignment-based evaluation does. However, the review-based evaluation cannot be rejected; a blended methodology can be implemented. The evaluation of the coursework has to be given more attention because it provides students with a stronger learning experience.

Advantages of Assignment based evaluation

Needless to mention, assignment-based assessments can encourage higher teaching and learning experiences for students to think critically, develop new perspectives, resolve problems, navigate incidents, and ask the right questions. The project results in better learning skills for students in general. Here are some of the distinct benefits of assignment-based evaluation:

• Enhances cognitive and analytical capabilities – The rational reasoning of students is strengthened. They will get the opportunity to exercise and develop their mental and innovative ability. Assignments offer students a chance to experiment while becoming unconventional. It offers students the ability to be more productive and flexible.
• Learners become research-oriented – Through their assignments, students are required to carry out an in-depth study of their specific topic. By doing so, they are throwing out different theories and exploring their subject. Research on their assignment experience also enhances the student’s practical and thought-provoking skills at a professional level.
• Increases cognizance and understanding about the topic — Assignments allow students to understand the technical and practical information about their subject that they cannot completely grasp in theory. Students become more aware of various insightful principles and perspectives through their coursework, which ultimately leads to the rational development of a framework for their topic.
• Improves the technical writing skills – Students are likewise expected to compose their assignments in the form of reports and on a certain study or scenario. The writing skills and talents are strengthened in this way. In the long term, students can articulate their thoughts and ideas more efficiently.

At Westford University College (WUC), we have implemented an assessment-based evaluation approach to assess the learning of our students. We periodically assess our MBA students with assigned coursework (assignment) to read their writing and work skills, discernment of the subject, and overall success in their course. We assume that high quality and equal evaluation are important to the development of effective learning.

Related Links

Virtual Learning: Merits and Demerits

How to convert a Junior level career to Managerial level ?

Top 10 Executive MBA Programs in the World | Top 10 Business Schools

get in touch

Phone Number

Latest Blogs

Westford Awards 2 nd Edition Honors Excellence in Business and Beyond. 

Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders for a Sustainable Future

Leadership Boot Camp- University of Gloucestershire

Data-Driven Decision-Making in Higher Education: Trends and Insights for 2024

Westford University College Shines as Venue Partner for MEMORIAD 2024: A Triumph of Intellectual Prowess

Established in 2009, The Westford University College  is the most trusted executive educational institution in UAE, providing flexible learning and affordable programs for regular students and working professionals (Perfect ‘Work-Life-Study’ Balance). We provide top rated MBA Programs, Bachelors Courses, Professional Programs and corporate training. 13300+ students, 80+ Courses, 130+ Nationalities, 20+ Academic Partners, 14+ years in the market.

Our Student Base

Mba programs.

• Cardiff Met MBA (Advanced Entry)
• MBA – Cardiff Metropolitan University
• MBA – Healthcare Management
• MBA – Supply Chain and Logistics Management
• MBA – Engineering Management
• MBA – Information Technology
• MBA – HR & Organizational Psychology
• MBA – Project Management
• MBA – International
• MBA - University of Gloucestershire
• MBA with Specialization - GAU
• MBA – Education Leadership
• UCAM MBA Executive

Bachelors Programs

• BSc (Hons) in Business with Finance
• BSc (Hons) in Business with Digital Marketing
• BSc (Hons) in Business with International Business
• BA (Hons) in Media, Culture and Communication
• BSc (Hons) in Business Psychology with Human Resource Management

Diploma Coures

• Diploma in Business Finance
• Diploma in Human Resources & Organizational Culture
• PG Diploma in Engineering Management
• PG Diploma in Retail Management
• PG Diploma in Sales & Marketing Management
• HND in Art and Design
• HND in Computing

Other Programs

• Teacher Training

Ready to get started ? Talk to us today

Al Taawun Campus Tejara 3, Al Taawun, Sharjah, UAE

Westford University College | Masters Degree | Under Graduate Degree | Diploma Courses | Certificate Courses | Corporate Training | Management Programs

• Privacy Policy
• Anti-Bribery & Corruption Policy
• Data Protection Policy
• Equality & Diversity Policy
• Environmental Policy
• Refund Policy

7 Steps for How to Write an Evaluation Essay (Example & Template)

In this ultimate guide, I will explain to you exactly how to write an evaluation essay.

1. What is an Evaluation Essay?

An evaluation essay should provide a critical analysis of something.

You’re literally ‘evaluating’ the thing you’re looking up.

Here’s a couple of quick definitions of what we mean by ‘evaluate’:

• Merriam-Webster defines evaluation as: “to determine the significance, worth, or condition of usually by careful appraisal and study”
• Collins Dictionary says: “If you evaluate something or someone, you consider them in order to make a judgment about them, for example about how good or bad they are.”

Here’s some synonyms for ‘evaluate’:

So, we could say that an evaluation essay should carefully examine the ‘thing’ and provide an overall judgement of it.

Here’s some common things you may be asked to write an evaluation essay on:

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Really, you can evaluate just about anything!

Get a Pdf of this article for class

Enjoy subscriber-only access to this article’s pdf

2. How to write an Evaluation Essay

There are two secrets to writing a strong evaluation essay. The first is to aim for objective analysis before forming an opinion. The second is to use an evaluation criteria.

Aim to Appear Objective before giving an Evaluation Argument

Your evaluation will eventually need an argument.

The evaluation argument will show your reader what you have decided is the final value of the ‘thing’ you’re evaluating.

But in order to convince your reader that your evaluative argument is sound, you need to do some leg work.

The aim will be to show that you have provided a balanced and fair assessment before coming to your conclusion.

In order to appear balanced you should:

• Discuss both the pros and cons of the thing
• Discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of the thing
• Look at the thing from multiple different perspectives
• Be both positive and critical. Don’t make it look like you’re biased towards one perspective.

In other words, give every perspective a fair hearing.

You don’t want to sound like a propagandist. You want to be seen as a fair and balanced adjudicator.

Use an Evaluation Criteria

One way to appear balanced is to use an evaluation criteria.

An evaluation criteria helps to show that you have assessed the ‘thing’ based on an objective measure.

Here’s some examples of evaluation criteria:

• Strength under pressure
• Longevity (ability to survive for a long time)
• Ease of use
• Ability to get the job done
• Friendliness
• Punctuality
• Ability to predict my needs
• Calmness under pressure
• Attentiveness

A Bed and Breakfast

• Breakfast options
• Taste of food
• Comfort of bed
• Local attractions
• Service from owner
• Cleanliness

We can use evaluation criteria to frame out ability to conduct the analysis fairly.

This is especially true for if you have to evaluate multiple different ‘things’. For example, if you’re evaluating three novels, you want to be able to show that you applied the same ‘test’ on all three books!

This will show that you gave each ‘thing’ a fair chance and looked at the same elements for each.

3. How to come up with an Evaluation Argument

After you have:

• Looked at both good and bad elements of the ‘thing’, and
• Used an evaluation criteria

You’ll then need to develop an evaluative argument. This argument shows your own overall perspective on the ‘thing’.

Remember, you will need to show your final evaluative argument is backed by objective analysis. You need to do it in order!

Analyze first. Evaluate second.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you’re evaluating the quality of a meal.

You might say:

• A strength of the meal was its presentation. It was well presented and looked enticing to eat.
• A weakness of the meal was that it was overcooked. This decreased its flavor.
• The meal was given a low rating on ‘cost’ because it was more expensive than the other comparative meals on the menu.
• The meal was given a high rating on ‘creativity’. It was a meal that involved a thoughtful and inventive mix of ingredients.

Now that you’ve looked at some pros and cons and measured the meal based on a few criteria points (like cost and creativity), you’ll be able to come up with a final argument:

• Overall, the meal was good enough for a middle-tier restaurant but would not be considered a high-class meal. There is a lot of room for improvement if the chef wants to win any local cooking awards.

Evaluative terms that you might want to use for this final evaluation argument might include:

• All things considered
• With all key points in mind

4. Evaluation Essay Outline (with Examples)

Okay, so now you know what to do, let’s have a go at creating an outline for your evaluation essay!

Here’s what I recommend:

4.1 How to Write your Introduction

In the introduction, feel free to use my 5-Step INTRO method . It’ll be an introduction just like any other essay introduction .

And yes, feel free to explain what the final evaluation will be.

So, here it is laid out nice and simple.

Write one sentence for each point to make a 5-sentence introduction:

• Interest: Make a statement about the ‘thing’ you’re evaluating that you think will be of interest to the reader. Make it a catchy, engaging point that draws the reader in!
• Notify: Notify the reader of any background info on the thing you’re evaluating. This is your chance to show your depth of knowledge. What is a historical fact about the ‘thing’?
• Translate: Re-state the essay question. For an evaluative essay, you can re-state it something like: “This essay evaluates the book/ product/ article/ etc. by looking at its strengths and weaknesses and compares it against a marking criteria”.
• Report: Say what your final evaluation will be. For example you can say “While there are some weaknesses in this book, overall this evaluative essay will show that it helps progress knowledge about Dinosaurs.”
• Outline: Simply give a clear overview of what will be discussed. For example, you can say: “Firstly, the essay will evaluate the product based on an objective criteria. This criteria will include its value for money, fit for purpose and ease of use. Next, the essay will show the main strengths and weaknesses of the product. Lastly, the essay will provide a final evaluative statement about the product’s overall value and worth.”

If you want more depth on how to use the INTRO method, you’ll need to go and check out our blog post on writing quality introductions.

4.2 Example Introduction

This example introduction is for the essay question: Write an Evaluation Essay on Facebook’s Impact on Society.

“Facebook is the third most visited website in the world. It was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg in his college dorm. This essay evaluates the impact of Facebook on society and makes an objective judgement on its value. The essay will argue that Facebook has changed the world both for the better and worse. Firstly, it will give an overview of what Facebook is and its history. Then, it will examine Facebook on the criteria of: impact on social interactions, impact on the media landscape, and impact on politics.”

You’ll notice that each sentence in this introduction follows my 5-Step INTRO formula to create a clear, coherent 5-Step introduction.

4.3 How to Write your Body Paragraphs

The first body paragraph should give an overview of the ‘thing’ being evaluated.

Then, you should evaluate the pros and cons of the ‘thing’ being evaluated based upon the criteria you have developed for evaluating it.

Let’s take a look below.

4.4 First Body Paragraph: Overview of your Subject

This first paragraph should provide objective overview of your subject’s properties and history. You should not be doing any evaluating just yet.

The goal for this first paragraph is to ensure your reader knows what it is you’re evaluating. Secondarily, it should show your marker that you have developed some good knowledge about it.

If you need to use more than one paragraph to give an overview of the subject, that’s fine.

Similarly, if your essay word length needs to be quite long, feel free to spend several paragraphs exploring the subject’s background and objective details to show off your depth of knowledge for the marker.

4.5 First Body Paragraph Example

Sticking with the essay question: Write an Evaluation Essay on Facebook’s Impact on Society , this might be your paragraph:

“Facebook has been one of the most successful websites of all time. It is the website that dominated the ‘Web 2.0’ revolution, which was characterized by user two-way interaction with the web. Facebook allowed users to create their own personal profiles and invite their friends to follow along. Since 2004, Facebook has attracted more than one billion people to create profiles in order to share their opinions and keep in touch with their friends.”

Notice here that I haven’t yet made any evaluations of Facebook’s merits?

This first paragraph (or, if need be, several of them) should be all about showing the reader exactly what your subject is – no more, no less.

4.6 Evaluation Paragraphs: Second, Third, Forth and Fifth Body Paragraphs

Once you’re confident your reader will know what the subject that you’re evaluating is, you’ll need to move on to the actual evaluation.

For this step, you’ll need to dig up that evaluation criteria we talked about in Point 2.

For example, let’s say you’re evaluating a President of the United States.

Your evaluation criteria might be:

• Impact on world history
• Ability to pass legislation
• Popularity with voters
• Morals and ethics
• Ability to change lives for the better

Really, you could make up any evaluation criteria you want!

Once you’ve made up the evaluation criteria, you’ve got your evaluation paragraph ideas!

Simply turn each point in your evaluation criteria into a full paragraph.

How do you do this?

Well, start with a topic sentence.

For the criteria point ‘Impact on world history’ you can say something like: “Barack Obama’s impact on world history is mixed.”

This topic sentence will show that you’ll evaluate both pros and cons of Obama’s impact on world history in the paragraph.

Then, follow it up with explanations.

“While Obama campaigned to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, he was unable to completely achieve this objective. This is an obvious negative for his impact on the world. However, as the first black man to lead the most powerful nation on earth, he will forever be remembered as a living milestone for civil rights and progress.”

Keep going, turning each evaluation criteria into a full paragraph.

4.7 Evaluation Paragraph Example

Let’s go back to our essay question: Write an Evaluation Essay on Facebook’s Impact on Society .

I’ve decided to use the evaluation criteria below:

• impact on social interactions;
• impact on the media landscape;
• impact on politics

Naturally, I’m going to write one paragraph for each point.

If you’re expected to write a longer piece, you could write two paragraphs on each point (one for pros and one for cons).

Here’s what my first evaluation paragraph might look like:

“Facebook has had a profound impact on social interactions. It has helped people to stay in touch with one another from long distances and after they have left school and college. This is obviously a great positive. However, it can also be seen as having a negative impact. For example, people may be less likely to interact face-to-face because they are ‘hanging out’ online instead. This can have negative impact on genuine one-to-one relationships.”

You might notice that this paragraph has a topic sentence, explanations and examples. It follows my perfect paragraph formula which you’re more than welcome to check out!

4.8 How to write your Conclusion

To conclude, you’ll need to come up with one final evaluative argument.

This evaluation argument provides an overall assessment. You can start with “Overall, Facebook has been…” and continue by saying that (all things considered) he was a good or bad president!

Remember, you can only come up with an overall evaluation after you’ve looked at the subject’s pros and cons based upon your evaluation criteria.

In the example below, I’m going to use my 5 C’s conclusion paragraph method . This will make sure my conclusion covers all the things a good conclusion should cover!

Like the INTRO method, the 5 C’s conclusion method should have one sentence for each point to create a 5 sentence conclusion paragraph.

The 5 C’s conclusion method is:

• Close the loop: Return to a statement you made in the introduction.
• Conclude: Show what your final position is.
• Clarify: Clarify how your final position is relevant to the Essay Question.
• Concern: Explain who should be concerned by your findings.
• Consequences: End by noting in one final, engaging sentence why this topic is of such importance. The ‘concern’ and ‘consequences’ sentences can be combined

4.9 Concluding Argument Example Paragraph

Here’s a possible concluding argument for our essay question: Write an Evaluation Essay on Facebook’s Impact on Society .

“The introduction of this essay highlighted that Facebook has had a profound impact on society. This evaluation essay has shown that this impact has been both positive and negative. Thus, it is too soon to say whether Facebook has been an overall positive or negative for society. However, people should pay close attention to this issue because it is possible that Facebook is contributing to the undermining of truth in media and positive interpersonal relationships.”

Note here that I’ve followed the 5 C’s conclusion method for my concluding evaluative argument paragraph.

5. Evaluation Essay Example Template

Below is a template you can use for your evaluation essay , based upon the advice I gave in Section 4:

6. 23+ Good Evaluation Essay Topics

Okay now that you know how to write an evaluation essay, let’s look at a few examples.

For each example I’m going to give you an evaluation essay title idea, plus a list of criteria you might want to use in your evaluation essay.

6.1 Evaluation of Impact

• Evaluate the impact of global warming on the great barrier reef. Recommended evaluation criteria: Level of bleaching; Impact on tourism; Economic impact; Impact on lifestyles; Impact on sealife
• Evaluate the impact of the Global Financial Crisis on poverty. Recommended evaluation criteria: Impact on jobs; Impact on childhood poverty; Impact on mental health rates; Impact on economic growth; Impact on the wealthy; Global impact
• Evaluate the impact of having children on your lifestyle. Recommended evaluation criteria: Impact on spare time; Impact on finances; Impact on happiness; Impact on sense of wellbeing
• Evaluate the impact of the internet on the world. Recommended evaluation criteria: Impact on connectedness; Impact on dating; Impact on business integration; Impact on globalization; Impact on media
• Evaluate the impact of public transportation on cities. Recommended evaluation criteria: Impact on cost of living; Impact on congestion; Impact on quality of life; Impact on health; Impact on economy
• Evaluate the impact of universal healthcare on quality of life. Recommended evaluation criteria: Impact on reducing disease rates; Impact on the poorest in society; Impact on life expectancy; Impact on happiness
• Evaluate the impact of getting a college degree on a person’s life. Recommended evaluation criteria: Impact on debt levels; Impact on career prospects; Impact on life perspectives; Impact on relationships

6.2 Evaluation of a Scholarly Text or Theory

• Evaluate a Textbook. Recommended evaluation criteria: clarity of explanations; relevance to a course; value for money; practical advice; depth and detail; breadth of information
• Evaluate a Lecture Series, Podcast or Guest Lecture. Recommended evaluation criteria: clarity of speaker; engagement of attendees; appropriateness of content; value for monet
• Evaluate a journal article. Recommended evaluation criteria: length; clarity; quality of methodology; quality of literature review ; relevance of findings for real life
• Evaluate a Famous Scientists. Recommended evaluation criteria: contribution to scientific knowledge; impact on health and prosperity of humankind; controversies and disagreements with other scientists.
• Evaluate a Theory. Recommended evaluation criteria: contribution to knowledge; reliability or accuracy; impact on the lives of ordinary people; controversies and contradictions with other theories.

6.3 Evaluation of Art and Literature

• Evaluate a Novel. Recommended evaluation criteria: plot complexity; moral or social value of the message; character development; relevance to modern life
• Evaluate a Play. Recommended evaluation criteria: plot complexity; quality of acting; moral or social value of the message; character development; relevance to modern life
• Evaluate a Film. Recommended evaluation criteria: plot complexity; quality of acting; moral or social value of the message; character development; relevance to modern life
• Evaluate an Artwork. Recommended evaluation criteria: impact on art theory; moral or social message; complexity or quality of composition

6.4 Evaluation of a Product or Service

• Evaluate a Hotel or Bed and Breakfast. Recommended evaluation criteria: quality of service; flexibility of check-in and check-out times; cleanliness; location; value for money; wi-fi strength; noise levels at night; quality of meals; value for money
• Evaluate a Restaurant. Recommended evaluation criteria: quality of service; menu choices; cleanliness; atmosphere; taste; value for money.
• Evaluate a Car. Recommended evaluation criteria: fuel efficiency; value for money; build quality; likelihood to break down; comfort.
• Evaluate a House. Recommended evaluation criteria: value for money; build quality; roominess; location; access to public transport; quality of neighbourhood
• Evaluate a Doctor. Recommended evaluation criteria: Quality of service; knowledge; quality of equipment; reputation; value for money.
• Evaluate a Course. Recommended evaluation criteria: value for money; practical advice; quality of teaching; quality of resources provided.

7. Concluding Advice

Evaluation essays are common in high school, college and university.

The trick for getting good marks in an evaluation essay is to show you have looked at both the pros and cons before making a final evaluation analysis statement.

You don’t want to look biased.

That’s why it’s a good idea to use an objective evaluation criteria, and to be generous in looking at both positives and negatives of your subject.

Read Also: 39 Better Ways to Write ‘In Conclusion’ in an Essay

I recommend you use the evaluation template provided in this post to write your evaluation essay. However, if your teacher has given you a template, of course use theirs instead! You always want to follow your teacher’s advice because they’re the person who will be marking your work.

Good luck with your evaluation essay!

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 5 Top Tips for Succeeding at University
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 50 Durable Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 100 Consumer Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 30 Globalization Pros and Cons

2 thoughts on “7 Steps for How to Write an Evaluation Essay (Example & Template)”

What an amazing article. I am returning to studying after several years and was struggling with how to present an evaluative essay. This article has simplified the process and provided me with the confidence to tackle my subject (theoretical approaches to development and management of teams).

I just wanted to ask whether the evaluation criteria has to be supported by evidence or can it just be a list of criteria that you think of yourself to objectively measure?

Many many thanks for writing this!

Usually we would want to see evidence, but ask your teacher for what they’re looking for as they may allow you, depending on the situation.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Assessment Help

Assessment Help Online For Students

What Is The Difference Between Assignments And Assessments?

The two central ideas of contemporary education are assignment and assessment. Assignments and assessments are essential components of a student’s academic career. However, a lot of students are unaware of the fundamental distinction between an assignment and an assessment. Assignment refers to the distribution of the numerous tasks that students must do to receive the best grades in their academic curriculums. In comparison, a teacher will assess students by giving them a variety of assessment tasks that may be of different types and observing what information and skills they have learned. A student can get to know various outcomes of their learning and how they are progressing with learning objectives by completing the assessment activity.

For the best results in their academic work, students pursuing a variety of courses at various colleges must deal with assignments and assessments. Therefore, they must complete these two tasks using the right format and procedure. Assessments include writing assignments, class exercises, quizzes, case studies, and group activities, whereas assignments consist of writing tasks like case studies, reports, essays, etc. As a result, both are equally important but approached in different ways. 

Let’s have a look at this in detail!

What Is An Assignment? 

Assignments are pieces of writing paper or homework that a lecturer or university gives to assess your knowledge and abilities. It may also be referred to as writing assignments that must be finished and submit in before the deadlines. This is a requirement for their academic work; thus, you must conduct extensive research to finish the assignment. Numerous tasks require you to select a topic before you begin writing on it, including essays, reports, a thesis, case study assignments, and many more. It aids in the development of your comprehension and learning abilities, and you can conduct your research to finish these assignments. Additionally, it develops research and analytical skills, which will help the students in the future. 

What Is An Assessment?

Assessment refers to the process by which a teacher evaluates the scholars’ knowledge and learning outcomes. In other words, multiple assessment assignments can be used to evaluate your academic development. It aids the professor in determining a student’s aptitude and degree of curricular compliance. Because of this, an assessment is an interactive process that focuses on both teaching and learning. An assignment may occasionally serve as an assessment tool.

Formative and summative assessments are the two main types of assessment. Summative evaluation takes place after each learning unit, whereas formative evaluation is undertaken throughout the learning process. Assessment includes tests, assignments, group projects, quizzes, and summaries.

What Is The Format Of An Assignment? 

Understanding the right format and structure is essential before beginning any work. The format is crucial in capturing the reader’s interest. You’ll be able to compose the assignment extremely precisely if you follow the right format for an assignment. As a result, the most crucial assignment writing format must be used.

• Executive summary:  The executive summary is crucial for making a good first impression on the reader; therefore, when a student begins writing an assignment, he needs to focus on it. It briefly describes an academic topic, such as a project proposal or business strategy. It provides a synopsis of the case study or reports writing and a solid structure for the writing techniques you’ll employ later on. 
• Table of content:  Each subsection in this section must be listed together with the relevant page number. It will surely be helpful for the reader to skip straight to the topic’s intriguing parts. Also, they can directly jump to that topic according to their interest. 
• Introduction:  The first section of your assignment must contain all of the crucial information related to the topic you have chosen for the assignment. In this section, you have to be very precise and clear while framing it. You need to mention all those details that you are going to explain in the further assignment. Therefore an introduction must create an impact on the reader’s mind and develop an interest in reading the whole assignment. 
• Body section:  After the introduction is complete, you must start on the body section. All of the crucial information should be mentioned in the assignment’s central section. When you reach this part, you need to be familiar with the major ideas, illustrations, and statistics.
• Conclusion:  In conclusion, you must be able to present a summary of all the data once the primary steps have been completed. Never provide extra information for the assignment.

What Are The Major Steps To Complete An Assessment Task? 

• Know the purpose of evaluation:  This stage clarifies the aim of the meeting to everyone in attendance. Additionally, it establishes the meeting’s objectives and tone. It also makes it clear how questions and remarks that should be shorter for the meeting’s format will be addressed. Use our recommended introduction in the description below, or write your own.
• Determine the work provided to you:  In this phase, the learner and you will review the pertinent responses you both filled out on your assessment form. The Educator should have gone over these in advance and taken any necessary notes.
• Discuss all your work and start writing it:  Items for homework are tasks that must be finished at home. To allow the learner and Educator enough time to complete the work, they are assigned homework. To answer questions from the learner and to make expectations clear, homework is discussed in this stage so that you can get the best answers for your assessment questions. 

If you are enrolled in a course or program offered by a reputable university, you must understand the assignment and assessment differences. Since you will be dealing with both tasks during your curriculum, it will aid you in writing them correctly. You can seek assistance from our  assessment help  services if you still need help understanding the difference and are unable to complete the assignment or assessment activity. Our most experienced expert will help you correctly write your assignment or assessment work. Our highly qualified experts are skilled at assessment and assignment help and finishing them before the deadlines.

• ← How To Get The Most Out Of Your Research Paper Help
• CHCPRP001 Assessment Answers →

• Key Differences

Know the Differences & Comparisons

Difference Between Assessment and Evaluation

The basic difference between assessment and evaluation lies in the orientation, i.e. while the assessment is process oriented, evaluation is product oriented. The article presented to you describes all the distinguishing points between these two.

Content: Assessment Vs Evaluation

Comparison chart, definition of assessment.

Assessment is defined as a methodical way of acquiring, reviewing and using information about someone or something, so as to make improvement where necessary. The term is interpreted in a variety of ways, i.e. educational, psychological, financial, taxation, human resource and so on.

In general, assessment is an ongoing interactive process, in which two parties (assessor and assessee) are involved. The assessor is someone who assesses the performance based on the defined standards, while assessee is someone who is being assessed. The process aims at determining the effectiveness of the overall performance of the assessee and the areas of improvement. The process involves, setting up goals, collecting information (qualitative and quantitative) and using the information for increasing quality.

Definition of Evaluation

The term ‘evaluation’ is derived from the word ‘value’ which refers to ‘usefulness of something’. Therefore, evaluation is an examination of something to measure its utility.

Simply put, evaluation is a systematic and objective process of measuring or observing someone or something, with an aim of drawing conclusions, using criteria, usually governed by set standards or by making a comparison. It gauges the performance of a person, completed project, process or product, to determine its worth or significance.

The evaluation includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis of data and undertaken once in a while. It ascertains whether the standards or goals established are met or not. If they are met successfully, then it identifies the difference between actual and intended outcomes.

Key Differences Between Assessment and Evaluation

The significant differences between assessment and evaluation are discussed in the points given below:

• The process of collecting, reviewing and using data, for the purpose of improvement in the current performance, is called assessment. A process of passing judgment, on the basis of defined criteria and evidence is called evaluation.
• Assessment is diagnostic in nature as it tends to identify areas of improvement. On the other hand, evaluation is judgemental, because it aims at providing an overall grade.
• The assessment provides feedback on performance and ways to enhance performance in future. As against this, evaluation ascertains whether the standards are met or not.
• The purpose of assessment is formative, i.e. to increase quality whereas evaluation is all about judging quality, therefore the purpose is summative.
• Assessment is concerned with process, while evaluation focuses on product.
• In an assessment, the feedback is based on observation and positive & negative points. In contrast to evaluation, in which the feedback relies on the level of quality as per set standard.
• In an assessment, the relationship between assessor and assessee is reflective, i.e. the criteria are defined internally. On the contrary, the evaluator and evaluatee share a prescriptive relationship, wherein the standards are imposed externally.
• The criteria for assessment are set by both the parties jointly. As opposed to evaluation, wherein the criteria are set by the evaluator.
• The measurement standards for assessment are absolute, which seeks to achieve the quintessential outcome. As against this, standards of measurement for evaluation are comparative, that makes a distinction between better and worse.

So, after reviewing the points above, it would be clear that assessment and evaluation are completely different. While evaluation involves making judgments, assessment is concerned with correcting the deficiencies in one’s performance. Although, they play a crucial role in analysing and refining the performance of a person, product, project or process.

You Might Also Like:

October 28, 2016 at 1:55 am

Thanks for sharing

Narendra says

January 29, 2017 at 6:23 am

Precise and useful.

Musaed says

October 9, 2017 at 10:00 pm

I would never be confused again about the difference between assessment and evaluation. Thanks.

Kelly Mokashi says

June 14, 2018 at 8:58 pm

Can we use this article educationally, is there a copyright issue?

Surbhi S says

June 15, 2018 at 9:40 am

You can use the article, subject to proper references are given to keydifferences.com

Naijil George says

June 19, 2018 at 6:56 pm

I thought, both are very much same. This article is an eye opener.

Mehr.a.zadeh says

July 11, 2018 at 10:39 pm

Hi, your contents are excellent. Thanx

mohammed says

August 27, 2018 at 11:34 am

very detail message with concise note

Mfanelo Siziba says

September 3, 2018 at 3:56 pm

This is wonderful, well researched. Where can I get more references on this?

September 6, 2018 at 11:14 pm

Really great summary; however, I’d appreciate it if you could add some book references.

Maryam Talebi says

December 12, 2018 at 12:22 am

I really appreciate it

Augustine B says

April 10, 2019 at 11:55 am

Thanks very much for the information which is precise and helpful.

MUGABI S.R says

September 16, 2019 at 3:37 pm

Thank you very much,I now get the difference

March 13, 2020 at 9:52 am

Thanks for the piece. Could you please distinguish the three? (measurement, assessment and evaluation)

NIMUSIIMA IVAN says

September 21, 2019 at 8:14 pm

Wonderful!! Am humbled

zulfiaqar Ali says

February 18, 2020 at 10:43 am

Thank you so much for this valuable information

May 26, 2020 at 5:11 am

thanks for help

February 12, 2021 at 5:18 am

Thanks so much for the important message and I think that it will be helpful in doing my second assignment… Cheers…

February 19, 2021 at 10:54 am

Wonderful answer

Paul King Ayinde says

February 19, 2021 at 8:49 pm

Thank you immensely for these explicit explanations. They have really helped me.

saliha belhacene says

February 20, 2021 at 1:18 am

It’s so useful. Thanks

Mansharam says

February 21, 2021 at 10:58 pm

It is a base of understanding the difference between them

Lubega paul says

March 3, 2021 at 4:08 pm

Thanks for the wonderful and precise information I have learnt a lot from your information

Munyope Joseph says

March 17, 2021 at 3:48 pm

Yes maximum appreciation for the wonderful message indeed I have learnt the distinction between these two concepts.

Nakasumba GORRET says

March 26, 2021 at 6:50 am

I thought these words are the same but l realized that there is a big difference between them thanks alot

Ainomugisha Emily says

March 28, 2021 at 11:44 am

Really helpful

Faith hajara Barack says

April 2, 2021 at 10:38 pm

Thanks a lot for the clarification

Kakaire Joseph says

April 8, 2021 at 12:27 pm

Thanks for the message have really learnt about assessment and evaluation and their comparisons

Agaba Ashraf says

April 9, 2021 at 3:03 am

Thanx i have managed to understand and learnt how to distinguish between evaluation and assessment and they cannot confuse me at all in applying them as a teacher.

Kamuhanda William says

April 14, 2021 at 3:44 pm

Thanks for the useful information about the differences between Assessment and Evaluation I used to think that they are the same but they are not similar

Ahaisibwe micheal says

April 16, 2021 at 10:31 pm

Vital information about the differences between assessment and evaluation.

Dr.Dilip Chaudhari says

April 17, 2021 at 12:51 pm

Really, very good explain the difference between assessment and evaluation

Halliru Sule says

December 7, 2021 at 11:19 am

Thank you for differentiate all this information.

haron chemutai says

February 7, 2022 at 7:54 pm

Thank you for the great work

Chitra Rodrigo says

March 9, 2022 at 4:59 pm

I had a doubt on the difference between assignment and evaluation. NOW I ‘m confident. Thank you very much!

fajar mag says

August 13, 2022 at 6:59 pm

Such a brilliant information

Ada Morrison says

February 2, 2023 at 11:15 am

Thank you for the information.

Musana Elias says

February 28, 2023 at 8:29 am

Your work has cleared the misconceptions l had about the two Now clear thanks for your research

Mohanraj Sathuvalli says

April 6, 2023 at 4:32 pm

I found the article extremely useful It is precise and helps a reader understand the two terms without any ambiguity. Makes useful reading materials for teachers.

Farhana says

June 13, 2023 at 1:19 pm

want to know full name of Surbhi as I have to write reference in my assignment.

June 16, 2023 at 6:35 pm

This informative article clearly explains the difference between assessment and evaluation

El-Med says

September 9, 2023 at 10:48 pm

Thanks for your effort about those two concepts, I really understand their differences now

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Français
• Español

Evaluation Consultant (Retainer), Home Based

Advertised on behalf of.

Istanbul, TURKEY

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

06-May-2024

Application Deadline :

03-May-24 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Up to 200 days from 6 May 2024 to 6 May 2026

Time left :

Languages required :, expected duration of assignment :.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Evaluation consultants are integral members of the evaluation team. The work of the consultant will be home-based and they will need to connect with the team during Europe and Central Asia working hours via online platforms. Data collection missions will be envisioned during the different assignments.

The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) of the Independent Evaluation and Audit Service (IEAS) evaluates the work of UN women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making and to contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women. IES posts Regional Evaluation Specialists in the Regional Offices of UN Women with a key task to lead independent evaluations and to support country office personnel with the management of decentralized evaluations.  UN Women hires external consultants to conduct evaluations as evaluation Team Leader, thematic expert or evaluation analysts.

UN Women, through its Strategic Plan 2022-2025, has identified four impact areas through which the organization strives to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment:

• Governance and Participation in public life
• Women Peace and Security, Humanitarian Action, and Disaster Risk Reduction
• Ending Violence Against Women
• Women’s Economic Empowerment

Expressions of interest from qualified individuals for the following positions are sought on a retainer basis:

Evaluation consultants to support evaluation team leaders in the conduct of evaluations.

Please mention your specific thematic area of expertise if any. Consultants will be engaged in a retainer contract and based on organizational needs and alignment with expertise.

Duties and Responsibilities

Evaluation consultants are integral members of the evaluation team. The work of the consultant will be home-based and they will need to connect with the team during Europe and Central Asia hours via online platforms.

Under the overall oversight of the Regional Evaluation Specialist, the Evaluation consultant will contribute to the following phases of evaluations:

Evaluation Planning stage:

• Reviewing all relevant documents (i.e. Strategic notes, project documents, donor and/or other monitoring reports, evaluation and audit reports, etc.) to identify efforts relevant to the evaluation topic.
• Providing support to the portfolio analysis to provide an overview of the different efforts undertaken by the CO/RO for the thematic areas

Evaluation Inception phase:

• Support the Human rights-based stakeholder analysis from a thematic perspective.
• Contribute to the development of an inclusive Evaluation methodology which is tailored to relevant inquiry in the thematic area (including through the evaluation matrix, data collection tools etc.).

Evaluation Data collection:

• Support interviews and consultations by taking detailed notes and ensuring adherence to ethical guidelines.
• Contribute to evaluation analysis by capturing results, challenges, gaps and learning pertinent to the evaluation topic.

Reporting phase:

• Provide substantive inputs to the final synthesis report.
• Potential support to case study through inputs on the thematic areas.

Other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Tasks and deliverables

The evaluation consultant will be key member of the evaluation team, engaged in all phases of the evaluation process and in each type of evaluation to produce concise and analytical evaluation reports. Deliverables for the evaluation consultant include the following: desk review, portfolio analysis, stakeholder analysis, interview notes, qualitative and quantitative data analyses, contributions to the inception report, presentations and final synthesis reports and annexes for evaluations. These deliverables must be high quality and in line with the GERAAS criteria established by UN Women

Supervision

The consultants will be directly supervised by the Regional Evaluation Specialist for Europe and Central Asia. The Regional Evaluation Specialist reports to the Chief of Independent Evaluation Service at UN Women headquarters.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. However, onsite data collection will need to take place. Typically every country case study or country portfolio evaluation in the context of an evaluation process includes a one week onsite data collection mission.

Competencies

Core Values: 

• Respect for Diversity 
• Integrity 
• Professionalism 

Core Competencies: 

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues 
• Accountability 
• Creative Problem Solving 
• Effective Communication 
• Inclusive Collaboration 
• Stakeholder Engagement 
• Leading by Example 

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:  

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values  

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 

• Excellent analytical skills
• Strong knowledge of UN Women processes and systems
• Strong networking skills
• Strong inter-personal skills, communicate effectively with staff at all levels of the organization;
• Ability to work in a highly pressured environment

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

At least a master’s degree in social sciences, economics, international relations, gender studies or a relevant social science related area;

• 7 years of relevant experience of periodically conducting evaluations of strategies, policies and/or development programmes and projects;
• Proven experience of designing and leading or participating in gender-responsive and human rights-based evaluations utilizing participatory approaches and methodologies;
• Knowledge and experience in gender equality and women’s empowerment, gender mainstreaming and gender analysis;
• Demonstrated facilitation and communications skills, experience in participatory approaches and ability to negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders;
• Ability to produce well-written analytical reports;
• Previous experience working in Europe and Central Asia will be considered an asset;
• Experience with the United Nations system will be considered an asset;
• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of languages from the Europe and Central Asia region is a strong asset.

Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc )

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.  All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)