Assessment and Evaluation

Or, more appropriately, Assessment Versus Evaluation.

With every class I take as part of my program from CSU, there's always at least one major lightbulb moment. One of the biggest from my Fall 2018 classes comes from both a course on instructional design and an elective on assessment and evaluation.

Assessment and evaluation are two separate concepts, and should be addressed as such in any kind of planning.

When stated that way, it's probably one of those concepts that should have been obvious from the beginning, but one of the challenges that I've often run into is that the terms assessment and evaluation are often used interchangeably, depending upon the source.

As a result, then, since reflection, even short reflection, helps me solidify concepts, I wanted to be sure this got recorded.

Assessment: Used to determine how a learner is doing with the material being taught. There are a wide variety of assessments in a wide variety of flavors; the types of assessment can vary based upon audience, the type of class, the method of delivery, and when the assessment is to be delivered, among many other factors. Depending on when they're delivered, assessments can help a facilitator alter their method of delivery mid-teach if they have learners that are struggling, or if they have learners who are bored and in need of something more challenging.

In a short-term task-based environment like my current job, short duration assessments are more helpful, but I've been able to use them to help learners in specific classes, and to help identify places where my content could use revision to clarify concepts.

There are reasons, though, why assessment and evaluation might be considered the same, however, because one of the types of evaluation, learner evaluation, could also be construed as assessment, because it is designed to test against the objectives created as part of a project's design to evaluate a learner's progress. In addition, learner evaluation helps determine the overall success of a project. (No wonder it's so confusing!)

On the topic of determining a project's success, though, there are two different (additional) types of evaluation that are important: formative evaluation and summative evaluation.

Formative evaluation: Typically used during the beginning stages of a project to assess how well the process is working. This type of evaluation helps ensure the quality of the design that is being produced, which in turn, helps ensure that learners get the best experience possible. One of the methods of formative evaluation that I've used is usability testing--having learners take a computer-based training course to both learn and evaluate the material, style, and overall process.

What I've always found interesting about usability testing is that there will always be disagreement between what learners think is useful. That discrepancy drove one of my instructional technologists crazy for a while, trying to make sure that everyone's feedback was implemented, even when it was directly contradictory. Ultimately, the final decision on format was left to me, as the formal requester of the project, and I'm happy to report that a large majority of our feedback is positive, so I think (and continue to hope) that I made the right call.

Summative evaluation: These are evaluations that are offered once the instruction has been completed. My manager calls these 'smile sheets.' This gives learners an opportunity to provide feedback on the course material and the facilitator, to help determine whether there's been enough return on investment to consider the project a success.

One thing I think is an important part of this process, too, is the facilitator's own evaluation. It's important for new courses to determine how they feel about the efficacy of the material, but I also think it's important for facilitators to look at how they led the class. This can be hard, I think we all want to believe that we've done well, but introspection coupled with learner feedback can be vitally important in ensuring that we offer a quality product.

My lightbulb moment, as mentioned above: assessment and evaluation are separate. Mostly. But both concepts go hand in hand to ensure that the learner gets a great experience in attending a course, that the company gets a return on its investment, and that the facilitator continues to offer a quality experience.

Reference:

Brown, A.H. & Green, T.D. (2016). Instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice. New York, NY: Routledge.