Crawford, S. (2012, October 17). Aligning assessments with learning objectives.

Aligning
Assessments with Learning Objectives. Retrieved October 31, 2022, from
https://teachonline.asu.edu/2012/10/aligning-assessments-with-learning-objectives/

Aligning Assessments with Learning Objectives

When you are creating a course, strive to design with the end in mind. After you have
established a set of measurable learning objectives for your course, work to develop
assessments that are aligned with your stated learning objectives. Think of the learning
objectives as a set of skills, knowledge, or abilities that your students will be able to
demonstrate a mastery of at the end of the course. Then consider the assessments as a
way for the student to prove they are capable of that mastery.

Let’s consider the following learning objective: Describe the seven steps of the research
process when writing a paper. First, consider the action verb. The verb “describe” falls
within the knowledge and comprehension levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Therefore, your
learning assessment should have the student demonstrate that he can describe the
seven steps of the research process when writing a paper. The following assessment
examples might be considered for this objective:

Complete a quiz consisting of multiple choice questions, where the student chooses the
correct steps.

Create a poster highlighting the steps.

Ask the students to recite the steps.

Note that asking the students to write a paper using the seven steps of the research
process is not appropriate because this asks the student to perform at a higher level of
Bloom’s Taxonomy. Doing so would not be in alignment with the stated learning
objective.
What if the objective was rewritten? For example, Use the seven steps of the research
process when writing a paper. This new objective is using an action verb that falls in the
application level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, and the student is expected to use the research
process to write a paper. The grading would also primarily focus on how the student
used the process.

If your student had never been exposed to the process before, it would be appropriate to
have a low-stakes quiz to assess the students’ knowledge of the research process prior
to writing the paper.

For a course to meet the Quality Matters standards, it must have assessments that are
in alignment with the stated learning objectives. Remember, when creating
assessments, look at the action verb being used for your learning objective and the level
of learning to apply.

Note: Since this article was published Bloom’s taxonomy has been updated, so the levels
represented in the image are from a previous version.