C4 - Frequency

Testing is often seen as an unpleasant but necessary way to assess student performance. Here's an idea! Instead, think of testing as a useful teaching tool and develop a system that leverages the potential learning benefits of regular assessment, which are:

• Improving students' metacognition -
  A student with strong metacognitive skills can more successfully monitor, evaluate, and improve their learning 
• Active retrieval -
  The "effort" of retrieving information helps encode it in long-term memory
• Making mistakes -
  Receiving feedback on errors allows students to measure their progress and build on current knowledge (your feedback is crucial to this process!)

There isn't an example, per se, for this rubric element. Paired with the idea of variety, an aligned course would offer at least one assessment opportunity (discussion, practice quiz, presentation, essay, exam...) for every topic/unit. Courses that include fewer than eight to ten assessments in a 16-week course are not likely to be aligned. 

Because formative and summative assessments provide different measurements, including assessments—with feedback—regularly throughout the course supports strong learning outcomes. Offering formative, low-risk assessments early in the course allows students to build skills and gain confidence. Summative assessments may be less frequent and included more toward the middle and end of the course. Self-assessments count too!

Where to Look

Look in the module content.

What to Look For

There should be, ideally, at least one assessment for each main topic or unit. (This may or may not mean in every module, depending on how the content is structured.) The idea here is ongoing assessment, whether it's formative, summative or self-assessment. A 16-week course with one or two discussions, a midterm and a final would not be aligned.