By making assessment an integral part of the teaching and learning process instead of an add-on, we hope to accomplish what should be the primary goal of assessment: to improve learning.

Barkley & Major, 2016, p. 8.

When effective, classroom assessment is informative for both the students and the instructor of a given course. For students, educative assessment offers an opportunity to receive feedback to shape effort in support of their own learning. At the same time, it signals to instructors that additional instruction or a revised pedagogical approach on a particular topic may be warranted.

It is for this reason that the Sheridan Center advocates that assessments should be considered as a component of an integrated course design and lesson planning process. Specifically, that classroom assessments work in dialogue with learning goals and activities (see Fink, 2003) to emphasize learning over evaluation (i.e. grading).

The following pages provide examples and advice on how to effectively integrate assessment in ways that emphasize its pedagogical utility alongside resources for “digging deeper” into effective assessment practices.