AUTHENTIC

ASSESSMENT IN
THE
CLASSROOM
WHAT IS
AUTHENTIC
 OBJECTIVES
• Explain the importance of authentic
assessment inside the classroom
• Give the benefits of conducting authentic
assessment inside the classroom
• Give the drawback of conducting authentic
assessment inside the classroom
• Enumerate the process in developing authentic
assessment inside the classroom
AUTHENTIC
ASSESSMENT
WHAT IS AUTHENTIC
ASSESSMENT?
• Assessment is a critical component of the classroom.
• It provides students with an idea of their progress in a course,
identifies individual strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately serves
as the measure of whether students achieve the course’s learning
objectives.
• Although each of these characteristics serves a valuable instructional
or pedagogical function, it’s also important that assessments engage
students and prepare them with the skills they’ll need in future
courses, practicums, and even their careers.
WHAT IS AUTHENTIC
ASSESSMENT?
• Assessment isn’t just important from a student perspective. It’s critical
that institutions ensure they are offering the courses and experiences
that students are looking for.
• Authentic assessment is the idea of using creative learning experiences
to test students’ skills and knowledge in realistic situations.
WHAT IS AUTHENTIC
ASSESSMENT?
• Authentic assessment measures students’ success in a way that’s
relevant to the skills required of them once they’ve finished the course
or degree program.
• In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits and challenges of this type of
assessment and how you can incorporate authentic assessment in your
class.
Wiggins (1998) identifies a few key criteria
of Authentic Assessment:
• It’s realistic.
• It requires judgement and innovation.
• It asks the student to “do” the subject.
• It replicates or simulates the contexts in which adults are “tested” in
the workplace, in civic life, and in personal life.
• It assesses the student’s ability to efficiently and effectively use a
repertoire of knowledge and skill to negotiate a complex task.
• It allows appropriate opportunities to rehearse, practice, consult
resources, and get feedback on and refine performances and products.
Wiggins (1998) identifies a few key criteria
of Authentic Assessment:
• Simply put, an authentic assessment is one that requires students to
apply what they’ve learned in a new, complex circumstance or
situation.
• Typically, this can take one of two forms: real-world assessments that
require students to engage in actual situations in their field, or realistic
assessments that are relevant in nature but have students engage in
situations that mimic the real world (e.g., a case study).
Benefits of Authentic Assessment
• Authentic assessment breaks the traditional paradigm of multiple-
choice or automatically scoring tests and quizzes, which can lead
students to believe that learning means staying up all night and
cramming to memorize terms or expected answers.
• Instead, authentic assessments tend to be more student centered, as
they ask students to demonstrate their learning through hands-on
activities.
Benefits of Authentic Assessment
• Rather than asking students to memorize and recall facts, authentic
assessments ask students to actively participate in situations that
require them to apply the principles they’ve learned about in the
instructional material.
• Thus, learning isn’t about recalling; it’s about performing, which,
ideally, will motivate students to engage in the course and succeed in
their endeavors.
Drawback of Authentic Assessment
• As beneficial as authentic assessments can be, they do present
challenges as well. 3
• First and foremost, authentic assessments require more time for both
students and instructors than traditional assessments.
• For students, authentic assessments typically take longer to complete
than an average quiz or test.
• Because these types of assessments are task based, they might be
scaffolded over a number of modules or some other period of time.
Drawback of Authentic Assessment
• In addition, students might be more accustomed to traditional
assessment, meaning that despite the advantages we’ve discussed, they
might need some time to adjust to this new method.
• For instructors, time is also of concern. Developing an authentic
assessment can be an intense experience that requires course writers to
identify and/or research relevant tasks, ensure that those tasks are
applicable to students in different areas, and align those tasks with
learning objectives and instructional materials.
Drawback of Authentic Assessment
• Also, given that students in online courses tend to be in a variety of
geographic locations, it can be difficult to build an authentic
assessment that’s relevant to everyone. This challenge can vary by
discipline, but it’s important for course writers to remember that their
students can be from anywhere.
• In addition, unlike many traditional assessments, grading an authentic
assessment is largely subjective. Because these types of assessments
typically address more complex levels of learning, grading will likely
take much longer.
• Authentic assessments typically require detailed, personalized, and
specific feedback, meaning that, as beneficial as they can be for
students and your course, they will require additional time to design
and implement.
How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
• Identify Learning Objectives
• Your learning objectives are the cornerstone of your
course; they communicate what students should be able to
do and what skills they’ll develop during the course.
• Thus, it goes without saying that developing an authentic
assessment should begin with these objectives. By starting
this process with an objective in mind, you ensure that the
authentic assessment you’re developing will align with the
objective and any corresponding instructional material.
 How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
• Identify Learning Objectives
• In most instances, you’ll want to focus on a macro objective—that is,
an objective that illustrates what students will be able to do by the
conclusion of the course. In a traditional setting, a final exam might be
the assessment for a macro objective.
• When you look at your objectives, it’s also important to keep
relevance in mind. After all, one of the major benefits of an authentic
assessment is how it allows students to engage in a relevant or new
environment, so you’ll want to make sure that your learning
objectives lend themselves to that type of activity. If your learning
objectives are already measurable and student centered, though, this
shouldn’t be a problem.
How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
• Define Relevant Tasks
• After identifying the learning objective(s) you’re looking to
measure through your authentic assessment, you can then start
defining what students will actually do.
• Given that the assessment should be authentic, start by looking at
what professionals in your field do on a daily basis and how those
tasks might relate to your selected learning objective.
• Although your task doesn’t ultimately have to relate to your field, it
should require students to apply themselves in a relevant and new
situation.
• Ultimately, the relevance of your assessment to students’ lives
and/or goals should be clear. In fact, it’s helpful to state the
How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
• Identify Essential Performance Criteria
• If the previous step was to define what students will do to complete
your authentic assessment, this step focuses on how you’ll know
whether they’ve done it well.
• After all, just because an authentic assessment doesn’t look like a
traditional assessment doesn’t mean that the goal isn’t the same.
• You still need to have an indication of how well students have
performed and whether they’ve achieved mastery.
How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
• Develop a Rubric
• Rubrics are a powerful tool for many assessment types, and they’re
an essential component of authentic assessment.
• After all, authentic assessments are fairly subjective, and rubrics
help ensure instructors are grading fairly and consistently from
assessment to assessment and student to student.
• With this in mind, once you’ve identified the task and essential
performance criteria (that is, what students will do and what
benchmarks exist to make sure students do it well), the next step is
to develop a rubric.
How to Develop an Authentic Assessment
• Why is authentic assessment
important?
• Give one benefit of conducting
authentic assessment inside the
classroom
• Give one drawback of conducting
authentic assessment inside the
classroom
• How do we develop authentic
assessment inside the classroom?
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the quiz
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Surname, First Name

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Edogawa, Conan