How To Make Assessments More Relevant To Students

Here’s a harsh truth about assessments: If your exam feels like a trap, it probably is. 😵💫 Most assessment questions aren’t measuring anything—just checking for short-term memory. Learners deserve better. We should write assessments that teach, challenge, and reveal understanding, not confuse people with trick questions or irrelevant trivia. So I made this 👇 Here are eight techniques I use (and teach others) to write better assessment questions: 𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 – “This maps directly to the objective.” Every question should exist because of your learning goals, not despite them. 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗠 – “This feels like the real world.” Why are you testing it if it’s not something they’d do on the job? 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 – “I’m not thrown off by format.” Clear questions = better focus on thinking, not decoding. 𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗭𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 – “I’m not spotting patterns.” No more “C is always right.” Mix it up. 𝗔𝗩𝗢𝗜𝗗 𝗡𝗘𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗦 – “I’m not getting tripped up.” Tricky wording ≠ higher difficulty. It just creates confusion. 𝗔𝗩𝗢𝗜𝗗 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗩𝗘 – “I can’t game the system.” They’re lazy distractors. Retire them. 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥 𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬 – “There are just enough options.” More isn’t better. Smarter is better. 𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗥 𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗧𝗛𝗦 – “One answer doesn’t stand out.” Stop giving away the correct answer with extra detail. 👇 Save this for your next module. Tag a fellow learning designer who needs this. #InstructionalDesign #LearningAndDevelopment #eLearningDesign #AssessmentDesign #LXD #LearningCulture

The most impactful change I’ve made in my classroom over the past few years is a simple exercise that came out of my work in #engineering education assessment.   At the start of each class period, I spend 1 minute discussing our #learning goals for class that day.   On our course website, I put these goals at the top of the page for each class to remind students what they should be able to do having followed the class, done the practice problems, and read the book.   When writing these goals, I keep the following in mind: 👩🏻🏫  What do my #students need to take with them from this class? 🌏  What fundamental knowledge should they learn, and how does this relate to the real-world? 👩🏻🔬 What is the “action” I want them to do? I try to state goals in a Bloom’s taxonomy framework where their knowledge gains are hierarchical in terms of their ability to do something.   How has doing this helped my students? 🙋🏻♀️ They ask more focused questions during class that show engagement with the goals and material. 👩🏻🎓 They know the goals of their studying and have a sense of mastery when it comes to exam time.   How has this helped me as an #instructor? 🙄 I don’t need to answer that “what’s on the test” question anymore. I point them to the learning goals. 🫶 When they’re stressed, I can better target what information is unclear by asking them “do you know how to do…?” and help them focus on that material. 🧐 It forces me to craft lectures and activities that align with our goals, rather than just what’s in a textbook, making my class more engaging and streamlining material presentation. If we're going to assess students' learning, we need to "write our own exam" by determining what they should know at the end of a course. Why not share this information with them? By letting students know the goals of the course - and thus what we're assessing them on - we empower them. This in no way tells them "how" to get an A. They still have to do the hard work of learning. But it helps them focus their studying efforts and benchmark their attainment.

Last week, a colleague asked: "How can I assess student writing when I don't know if they wrote it themselves?" My response: "What if they defined the assessment criteria themselves?" This semester, I've experimented with student-defined outcomes for major projects. Rather than providing a standard rubric, I've asked students to develop their own success criteria within broad learning goals. The results have transformed not just assessment, but the entire student relationship with AI tools. Maya*, the student developing a denim brand market study, created assessment categories that included "market insight originality," "data visualization effectiveness," and "authentic brand voice development." These self-defined criteria became guiding principles – and completely changed her approach to using AI. "I catch myself asking better questions now," she told me. "Instead of 'help me write this section,' I'm asking 'does this analysis seem original compared to standard market reports?'" This highlights the "assessment ownership effect" – when students help create the criteria for quality, they develop internal standards that guide both their work and their AI interactions. I've documented four key benefits of this co-created assessment approach: Metacognitive Development: Students must reflect on what constitutes quality Intrinsic Motivation: Self-defined standards create stronger investment Selective AI Usage: Students use AI more thoughtfully to meet specific quality dimensions Authentic Evaluation: Discussions shift from "did you do this yourself?" to "does this meet our standards?" When students merely follow teacher-defined rubrics, AI can become a tool for compliance. When they define quality themselves, AI becomes a thought partner in achieving standards they genuinely value. Implementing this approach means starting with broader learning outcomes and then guiding students to define specific success indicators. It requires trust that students, when given responsibility, will often exceed our expectations. What assignment might you reimagine by inviting students to co-create the assessment criteria? *Name changed #AssessmentInnovation #StudentAgency #AILiteracy #AuthenticLearning Pragmatic AI Solutions Alfonso Mendoza Jr., M.Ed. Polina Sapunova Sabrina Ramonov 🍄Thomas Hummel France Q. Hoang Pat Yongpradit Aman Kumar Mike Kentz Phillip Alcock

What if we designed assessments not just to test what students know—but to honor who they are? This week, I had the privilege of guiding future K–8 educators through the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework by inviting them to be the learner. Through station-based activities, we explored how to: • Craft Essential Questions that spark inquiry and reflection • Use the GRASPS model to design authentic performance tasks • Evaluate tasks for cultural relevance and real-world connection • Step into student roles to experience learning as an act of identity and engagement When we center students’ lives, voices, and creativity in how we assess learning, we shift from compliance to empowerment. This isn’t just curriculum planning. It’s vision work. It’s liberation work. Grateful to be building with educators who understand that how we assess is just as important as what we teach. #UbD #AuthenticAssessment #SocialStudiesMatters #CulturallyResponsivePedagogy #K8Education #StudentEngagement #InstructionalDesign #education4liberation

Many of the traditional multiple choice questions we use in assessment are abstract and measure only whether people recall facts they heard in the last 5 minutes. Converting these questions to scenario-based questions can increase the level of difficulty, measure higher level skills, and provide relevant context. 🎯 Transform traditional recall-based quiz questions into practical scenario-based questions to test actual job skills and decision-making abilities. 💡 Before writing questions, identify when and how learners would use the information in real work situations. If you can't find a practical use, reconsider the question. 📝 Keep scenarios concise and relevant. Often just 2-3 sentences of context can shift a question from testing memory to testing application. 📊 Align assessment questions with learning objectives. If your objective is application-level, your questions should test application rather than recall. Read more tips and see before and after question examples: https://lnkd.in/eARzjDfJ