eLumen: Authentic Assessment

Each college or university needs to decide how best to attend to student learning outcomes, and that decision has become easier. Starting now, the most thoughtful and academic approach, authentic assessment with rubrics, is now also both the most efficient approach and the most effective approach.

1. Authentic assessment with rubrics is grounded in academic principles.

What students are already doing as part of their regular coursework is evaluated and valued. No extra assessments need to be arranged.

Clarity about what students know and can do derives from succinct and calibrated qualitative descriptions of actual/ expected outcomes and rubrics.

Critical judgments rest with faculty -- collectively, to define shared standards, and individually, to evaluate student work by these standards.

These academic standards can be maintained across-the-program or across-the-college.

2. Authentic assessment with rubrics, when supported by eLumen, efficiently underwrites the assessment process.

Assessment leaders can easily coordinate the planning and communication of all standards-based assessments throughout the college.

Faculty committees throughout the college (representing academic programs or aspects of liberal education) can easily define and effectively communicate shared stan-dards for any given area of achievement.

Participating instructors can easily set up their course sections for assessment and electronically score student achievement using the shared standards.

The subsequent work of aggregating and reporting results is reduced to zero because eLumen generates reports, on request, that summarize actual demonstrated achieve-ments.

3. Authentic assessment with rubrics, when supported by eLumen, is also the most effective approach.

Shared standards can be applied directly to the evaluation of student achievement.

eLumen generates, on request, reports for any given area of achievement, showing aggregated information on actual student achievement that is generated out of regular coursework.

eLumen also generates, on request, reports for any given academic program, showing aggregated information on actual student achievement that is generated out of regular coursework.

Because these reports are generated in real time, faculty can review the data and make changes for the immediately following term.

4. With eLumen, authentic assessment with rubrics can begin quickly and produce results within an academic term.

A college or program can build on what faculty have already done that involves defining expected outcomes and rubrics.

Faculty can start small, focusing on whatever they choose, and grow the use of this approach on their own timetable.

5. With eLumen, authentic assessment with rubrics has long-term academic benefits that exceed outcomes data.

These benefits build in direct proportion to the extent to which this approach is used in the college or university, which will be able to:

What makes the difference is eLumen Achievement™ -- Web-based software that coordinates standards-based evaluations and turns them into program-wide and college-wide data on actual student achievement. Find out more about eLumen Achievement™.




The Challenge of Organizational Knowledge The New Opportunity Faculty-Driven Assessment Authentic Assessment Making Achievement Visible Our Mission and Vision Who We Are Seminars and Events Our Clients eLumen Achievement: A Summary of the Software How eLumen Achievement Models the Essential Process Consulting Services The Collaborative		Contact Us \| Home
		Authentic Assessment Each college or university needs to decide how best to attend to student learning outcomes, and that decision has become easier. Starting now, the most thoughtful and academic approach, authentic assessment with rubrics, is now also both the most efficient approach and the most effective approach. There are now five reasons to choose this approach. 1. Authentic assessment with rubrics is grounded in academic principles. What students are already doing as part of their regular coursework is evaluated and valued. No extra assessments need to be arranged. Clarity about what students know and can do derives from succinct and calibrated qualitative descriptions of actual/ expected outcomes and rubrics. Critical judgments rest with faculty -- collectively, to define shared standards, and individually, to evaluate student work by these standards. These academic standards can be maintained across-the-program or across-the-college. 2. Authentic assessment with rubrics, when supported by eLumen, efficiently underwrites the assessment process. Assessment leaders can easily coordinate the planning and communication of all standards-based assessments throughout the college. Faculty committees throughout the college (representing academic programs or aspects of liberal education) can easily define and effectively communicate shared stan-dards for any given area of achievement. Participating instructors can easily set up their course sections for assessment and electronically score student achievement using the shared standards. The subsequent work of aggregating and reporting results is reduced to zero because eLumen generates reports, on request, that summarize actual demonstrated achieve-ments. 3. Authentic assessment with rubrics, when supported by eLumen, is also the most effective approach. Shared standards can be applied directly to the evaluation of student achievement. eLumen generates, on request, reports for any given area of achievement, showing aggregated information on actual student achievement that is generated out of regular coursework. eLumen also generates, on request, reports for any given academic program, showing aggregated information on actual student achievement that is generated out of regular coursework. Because these reports are generated in real time, faculty can review the data and make changes for the immediately following term. 4. With eLumen, authentic assessment with rubrics can begin quickly and produce results within an academic term. A college or program can build on what faculty have already done that involves defining expected outcomes and rubrics. Start using it immediately. Faculty can start small, focusing on whatever they choose, and grow the use of this approach on their own timetable. 5. With eLumen, authentic assessment with rubrics has long-term academic benefits that exceed outcomes data. These benefits build in direct proportion to the extent to which this approach is used in the college or university, which will be able to: Generate an achievement record for any individual student Compare any student's achievement record with any set of expected outcomes defined by a program or the institution Generate an aggregate achievement record for any set of students that can be defined by demographic or enroll-ment factors -- for instance, all students enrolling in a new course Compare that aggregate achievement record with any set of expected outcomes defined by a program or the institution Extend this approach to student achievements in non-course settings, which are incorporated into the student's achievement record Not only see actual achievements after-the-fact but also have visibility, with calendar dates and student names, of upcoming assessments and expected achievements Pay attention to the personal, professional, and intellectual development of each individual student Effectively organize itself around Learning College principles What makes the difference is eLumen Achievement™ -- Web-based software that coordinates standards-based evaluations and turns them into program-wide and college-wide data on actual student achievement. Find out more about eLumen Achievement™. top \| Authentic Assessment \| The eLumen Story \| Assessment Tools \| Contact Us \| Home © Copyright 2004, eLumen. All Right Reserved. 1776 Scheffer Avenue • Saint Paul, MN 55116 1-800-630-2149 • info@elumen.info