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Authentic assessment

Design assessment tasks with more realism, learning complexity, evaluative judgment

Description

Authentic assessment goes beyond factual recall to include “engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by …professionals in the field.” (Wiggins, 1993, p. 229)  

As the examples listed below illustrate, there are many ways to increase the authenticity of assessments.

UCalgary Assessment Principle A

"Assessment meaningfully supports student learning and growth, is grounded in disciplinary context and highlights applicability and relevance."

Because authentic assessments focus on the skills, knowledge, and challenges that are central to practitioners in the field of study or the profession, they engage students in applicable and relevant learning.

Also consider Principle B and Principle C.

Benefits

While the term authentic is widely debated, designing assessment to reflect the activities and criteria of the field or discipline is a longstanding practice.

Research shows that including more authentic assessment has several benefits for students.

  • Develops higher order cognitive skills (Ashford-Rowe et al., 2014)
  • Improves student autonomy (Raymond et al., 2013)
  • Strengthens academic integrity (Sotiriadou et al., 2020)
  • Develops skills for employability (Sokhanvar et al., 2021)
  • Increases student confidence and leadership (Wiewiora & Kowalkiewicz, 2019)

Ways to make your assessments more authentic

1. Consider your context

There are several factors that influence assessment design including learning outcomes, class size, where the course fits into the program (e.g., first year or final year), and the norms of the discipline.

Questions to consider: 

  • What activities/skills do people in your field do on a regular basis?
  • What are the big questions or debates happening in your field right now?
  • What does good work in your field look like?
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2. Review your current assessment task

Reflect on where your current assessment task falls along these three main factors. 

NOTE: Each continuum is not on a scale from worse to better, but from less to more authentic. 

a. Realism 

To what extent is this task analogous to work done by practitioners in your field? 

Does it tend to be focused more on classroom types of activities (e.g., multiple choice exam, short essay,formulaic lab report, etc.) or more related to activities done in the field (e.g., simulations, pitch presentation to industry professionals, conducting original research)?  This may include a consideration of how GenAI is being used in the field.

b. Cognitive complexity

What level of cognitive complexity does the task require students to demonstrate? 

Less cognitively complex tasks focus on students memorizing, identifying, and explaining.  More cognitively complex tasks involve students analyzing, evaluating, and creating. All of these skills are important, but the more authentic a task is, the more it asks students to demonstrate complex thinking skills.

c. Evaluative judgment

How much does this assessment task support students’ developing evaluative judgment to assess their own and others’ learning? 

If the criteria is opaque and only the grader ever sees the assignment, students continue to rely on external feedback.  This leads students to ask questions such as “What do you, the instructor, want?”  When criteria is transparent, linked to an understanding of what good work looks like, and involves receiving feedback from multiple people, students develop the ability to effectively assess the quality of their own and others’ demonstrations of learning.

Two sided arrow depicts a spectrum with Classroom-focused activities on one side and Field-related activities on the other.

*suitable for large enrolment classes

  • *add case studies to some multiple choice questions (GenAI can help create cases)
  • *connect an assignment to a current event
  • bring in an industry expert or another specialist in the field to give feedback on oral presentations
  • *provide authentic data sets for a lab or project
A two-sides arrow spectrum with Less thinking tasks on the left and More thinking tasks on the right.

*suitable for large enrolment classes

  • *add evaluation-type questions to multiple choice quizzes and exams
  • *choose a small number of questions on a multiple choice exam that require students to explain why they answered a question the way they did
  • *instead of asking students to define or list concepts, have them apply them to a novel scenario (GenAI can help generate scenarios)
  • use open-ended project assignments that ask students to propose a solution or create a better way to address a challenge
  • *design assignments that build on each other throughout the term
  • ask students to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different theories or approaches to a real-world scenario
A two-sides arrow spectrum with Relies on external feedback on the left and Includes self/peer assessment on the right.
  • *In the class after an exam, have students work in groups to create an answer key to the exam questions.  They will learn from each other what errors they made and how to correct them in the future.
  • *Prior to students handing in a project, have them provide written peer feedback in pairs or small groups.  Students then need to include an explanation of how they incorporated the feedback into their submitted work.
  • *Provide students with sample work at different quality levels (consider using GenAI to create the samples) then have them assess the work using the rubric/criteria. Then have students compare their assessments in small groups, and, finally, lead a discussion about how the instructor and/or teaching assistant would assess the work.
  • *Give students an example of high-quality work and have them reverse-engineer the criteria of what makes it high quality. Discuss as a class then share (or co-create) the rubric.

3. Brainstorm how to make at least one aspect of your assessment more authentic

  • Which of the three aspects of authentic assessment do you want to focus on: realism, cognitive complexity, and/or evaluative judgment?
  • What is one step you can take to enhance the authenticity of your assessment in that focus area?
  • Use the examples below for some ideas for how to increase the authenticity of your assessment.
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Further examples for making assessment tasks more authentic

*Those marked with an asterisk are readily adaptable for large enrolment classes.

  • This website maintained by Columbia University includes examples and materials for case study assessments in public policy, public health, and sustainable development.
  • The University of Manitoba maintains a list of case studies in the sciences, engineering, mathematics, nursing, business and law.

Reflection questions: 

  • What aspects of your assessments already reflect a degree of authenticity?
  • How do your assessments align with your course and program level learning outcomes?  Do either the assessments or learning outcomes need updating to reflect more authenticity?
  • If you work with teaching assistants, how can you help them better understand what questions and skills are central to your field?

References and further reading

Ashford-Rowe, K., Herrington, J., & Brown, C. (2014). Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(2), 205–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.819566

Fook, C. Y., & Sidhu, G. K. (2010). Authentic assessment and pedagogical strategies in higher education. Journal of Social Sciences, 6(2), 153–161.

Gulikers, J. T. M., Bastiaens, T. J., & Kirschner, Paula. (2004). A five-dimensional framework for authentic assessment. Educational Technology Research and Development, 52(3), 67–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02504676

Raymond, J., Homer, C., Smith, R., & Gray, J., (2013). Learning through authentic assessment: An evaluation of a new development in the undergraduate midwifery curriculum. Nurse Education in Practice, 13(5), 471-476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2012.10.006.

Sokhanvar, Z., Salehi, K., & Sokhanvar, F. (2021). Advantages of authentic assessment for improving the learning experience and employability skills of higher education students: A systematic literature review. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 70. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.STUEDUC.2021.101030

Sotiriadou, P., Logan, D., Daly, A., & Guest, R. (2019). The role of authentic assessment to preserve academic integrity and promote skill development and employability. Studies in Higher Education, 45(11), 2132-2148. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1582015

Technical University Dublin. (n.d.). Authentic assessment toolkit. https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/academic-affairs/lta/lta-resources/authentic-assessment-toolkit/

Villarroel, V., Bloxham, S., Bruna, D., Bruna, C., & Herrera-Seda, C. (2018). Authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(5), 840–854. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396

Wiewiora, A., & Kowalkiewicz, A. (2019). The role of authentic assessment in developing authentic leadership identity and competencies. Assessment Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(3), 415-430. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1516730

Wiggins, G. P. (1993). Assessing student performance. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.