What are measurements that evaluate results to determine?

Assessment methods should help the instructor answer the questions, “How do I know the required learning has taken place? What might I need to modify about the course to best support student learning?”  

Information about student learning can be assessed through both direct and indirect measures. Direct measures may include homework, quizzes, exams, reports, essays, research projects, case study analysis, and rubrics for oral and other performances. Examples of indirect measures include course evaluations, student surveys, course enrollment information, retention in the major, alumni surveys, and graduate school placement rates. 

Approaches to measuring student learning 

Methods of measuring student learning are often characterized as summative or formative assessments: 

• Summative assessments - tests, quizzes, and other graded course activities that are used to measure student performance. They are cumulative and often reveal what students have learned at the end of a unit or the end of a course. Within a course, summative assessment includes the system for calculating individual student grades. 
• Formative assessment  - any means by which students receive input and guiding feedback on their relative performance to help them improve. It can be provided face-to-face in office hours, in written comments on assignments, through rubrics, and through emails. 

Formative assessments can be used to measure student learning on a daily, ongoing basis. These assessments reveal how and what students are learning during the course and often inform next steps in teaching and learning. Rather than asking students if they understand or have any questions, you can be more systematic and intentional by asking students at the end of the class period to write the most important points or the most confusing aspect of the lecture on index cards. Collecting and reviewing the responses provides insight into what themes students have retained and what your next teaching steps might be. Providing feedback on these themes to students gives them insight into their own learning. 

You can also ask students to reflect and report on their own learning. Asking students to rate their knowledge about a topic after taking your course as compared to what they believe they knew before taking your course is an example.  

Considerations for Measuring Student Learning

As you develop methods for assessing your students consider:

• including indirect and direct assessments as well as formative and summative assessments
• evaluating whether or not the assessment aligns directly with a learning outcome
• ensuring the measurement is sustainable and reasonable in terms of time and resources, both for the students and the instructors (e.g., grading, response time, and methods). To estimate the time that students need to complete different assignments, see the Rice University workload calculator
• using a mid-semester student survey, such as the CTI's Mid-Semester Feedback Program, a great way to gather feedback on what students are learning and what is helping them learn
• using the results of the assessments to improve the course. Examples include revising course content in terms of depth vs. breadth, realignment between goals and teaching methods, employment of more appropriate assessment methods, or effective incorporation of learning technologies

Getting started with measuring student learning

At the course level, it is helpful to review course assignments and assessments by asking: 

• What are the students supposed to get out of each assessment? 
• How are the assessments aligned with learning outcomes? 
• What is its intrinsic value in terms of: 
  • Knowledge acquired? 
  • Skill development? 
  • Values clarification? 
  • Performance attainment? 
• How are homework and problem sets related to exams? 
• How are the exams related to each other? 
• What other forms of assessment (besides exams) can be used as indicators of student learning? 
• If writing assignments are used, are there enough of them for students to develop the requisite skills embedded in them? 
• How is feedback on student work provided to help students improve? 
• Are the assessments structured in a way to help students assess their own work and progress? 
• Does the assignment provide evidence of an outcome that was communicated? Is the evidence direct or indirect? 

– Measurements That Evaluate Results of a Project Meet its Goal –

Success in project management is all down to ensure you are on the positive side of the equation from the perspective of the stakeholder, the end-user, and your very own set of standards.

In the final reckoning and absent hyperbole, success in projects still ultimately rests on how happy you have made the crucial set of people involved.

1. Schedule

Is there a hard deadline, or does the schedule relate to something else (budget, product launch date, etc.)? In the end, did you complete the project by the time it was due?

Sometimes clients come to us with a hard deadline, other times they’re simply looking for the final product. “Measurements That Evaluate Results of a Project Meet its Goal”

Either way, my team always has a schedule we need to meet. You’ll update your schedule regularly – I recommend at least weekly.

The schedule evaluation is something you can do more formally at the end of the stage or phase, or as part of a monthly report to your senior stakeholder group or Project Board.

Look at your major milestones and check they still fall on the same dates as you originally agreed. “Measurements That Evaluate Results of a Project Meet its Goal”

Work out the slippage, if any, and how much of an impact this will have on your overall project timescales.

2. Quality

The end of a project phase is a good time for a quality review. You can check both the quality of your project management practices – are you following the change management process every time and so on – and also the deliverables.

A quality review can evaluate whether what you are doing meets the standards set out in your quality plans. Best find out now before the project goes too far, as it might be too late to do anything about it then.

3. Cost

Many executives would rate cost management as one of their highest priorities on a project, so evaluating how the project is performing financially is crucial.

Compare your current actual spending to what you had budgeted at this point. If there are variances, look to explain them.

The cost of quality is the amount of money your business loses because its product or service was not done right in the first place.

It includes total labour, materials, and overhead costs attributed to imperfections in the processes that deliver products or services that don’t meet specifications or expectations.

You’ll also want to look forward and re-forecast the budget to the end of the project. Compare that to your original estimate too and make sure it is close enough for your management team to feel that the work is on track.

If your forecasts go up too much it is a sign that your spending will be out of control by the end of the project – again, something it is better to know about now.

4. Performance to Business Case

Finally, you’ll want to go back to the business case and see what you originally agreed. How is your project shaping up?

Check that the benefits are still realistic and that the business problem this project was designed to solve does still exist.

It happens project teams work on initiatives that sound great but by the time they are finished the business environment has moved on and the project is redundant.

No one bothered to check the business case during the project’s life cycle and so no one realized that the work was no longer needed.

Don’t work on something that nobody wants! Check the business case regularly and evaluate it in light of the current business objectives.

You can add other items to this list. In fact, it should reflect what is important to you and your team – you should be evaluating things that matter, so feel free to add extra elements or ditch some of the ones that you are less worried about.

If you need help working out what’s important, this article about how to set up project tracking will help.

When your project is over you’ll want to carry out a full and final evaluation. This could be as part of a lessons learned review, but typically it is different.

A lessons learned review is where all the project stakeholders comment on what worked and what didn’t.

You take away key messages and tasks to improve how projects are delivered in the future. It’s an essential part of project closure, but it isn’t a formal evaluation.

You get a lot of feedback, anecdotes, and stories but even the most structured lessons learned workshop generally gives you narrative rather than statistics.

CSN Team.

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