Classroom assessment involves students and faculty in the evaluation of teaching and learning for the purpose of ongoing improvement Assessments may elicit student responses to questions related to the course content or focus on the instructor's effectiveness.

Student Management Team

The student management team (SMT) is a group of students who volunteer to meet on a regular basis with the instructor outside of class time to discuss issues related to the class. In a sense, the team is the class's representative to the instructor. The team can raise issues or concerns of students about any problems related to the course and can work with him or her to find solutions or compromises to problems that may come up. The feedback from the SMT can be used to improve the course. (See the CTE booklet on Student Management Teams for details.)

In-Class Assessments

A familiar in-class assessment is the pop quiz. These quizzes can be used as "curve busters," opportunities for students to earn extra points and improve their grades by answering questions correctly. Pop quizzes are unannounced and can be given at the beginning or end of the class. The idea is to reward those students who are following and not to punish those who are not. Focused listing is a technique that can be used to determine what learners recall as the most important points related to a particular topic. Instructors select a topic recently covered in class and describe it in a word or short phrase. Students write the word or short phrase on a piece of paper. Then, after limiting the time allotted for the exercise or the number of responses, the students and the instructor list important words or phrases that relate to the heading. The class can study these lists and point out areas of difference between theirs and the instructor's. Teacher-designed mini evaluation forms, containing three to five questions, provide student feedback on aspects of teaching the instructor considers important. The questions should relate closely to instructional goals for the class; responses should be as multiple choice, scale or short fill-in answers. The evaluation form should be carefully worded to collect constructive feedback, and students should complete them anonymously. (See, for example, the One-Minute Paper in Appendix B.) At any point around the middle of a semester, distribute an anonymous Mid-Point Student Feedback Form to collect student perceptions of the effectiveness of the class. (See Mid Point form, Appendix C.) Use the results to guide any changes or improvements you can make to respond to students' expressed needs. In using this and any other classroom assessment technique, it is very important to share a summary of results and what you learned from them with the students. Even when you can't or shouldn't change things, it really helps to explain why. Students respond well to being seriously included in improvement efforts. For descriptions of other writing assessments, see the section on Writing in Lectures. For more information on assessment and feedback techniques, see CTE's Resource Packet on Assessment and Feedback and Cross, K. P. and Angelo, T. A. Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for faculty. Ann Arbor, MI: National Center for Research to Improve Post secondary Teaching and Learning, 1988..

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