Assessment of Student Learning

Engaging with the UCalgary assessment principles

Aerial photo of the University of Calgary campus

The best assessments don't just reflect learning—they fuel it.

The UCalgary Principles for the Assessment of Student Learning have been developed to support instructors as they design and implement of assessments based on their particular context and expertise.

Consultations have been underway at the governance level for these principles to be endorsed. 

This page includes a brief description of links to relevant resources for each principle. The aim of these resources is to highlight current assessment practices and inspire future innovation.

Assessment practices greatly impact what, when, and how students learn in higher education (Gibbs & Simpson, 2005).

Principle a

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

Principle b

Assessment practices demonstrate alignment within the curriculum of the course and program, progressively building upon and reflecting student learning, skills, and competencies throughout their academic journey.

Principle c

Assessment cultivates a shared and ethical space that respects written and oral traditions and honours diverse Indigenous cultural protocols, perspectives and knowledges. 

Effective assessment should focus on helping students learn and grow by using real-world tasks, encouraging students to think about their own learning, offering different ways to show what they know, providing practice with feedback, and connecting assignments to their future goals and careers. 

  • Using case studies for projects or exams
  • Including reflective or metacognitive elements that ask students to articulate their learning
  • Partnering with community organizations for service-learning assessments

Assessment plays an essential role in a cohesive learning journey. Assessments directly support the learning outcomes of the course, which are aligned with the overall goals of the program. It means that assessments in one course are not isolated activities or tasks but are part of a larger, carefully planned learning experience. This ensures that as students advance, their assessments become progressively more challenging, building on previously acquired knowledge, understandings, and skills and providing a clear, cumulative picture of their growth. 

  • Clearly linking assessments to course- and program-level learning outcomes
  • Designing capstone projects that integrate learning from multiple courses
  • Focusing on competence-based assignments, tasks and quizzes

Assessment practices align with the commitments outlined in ii' taa'poh'to'p, UCalgary’s Indigenous Strategy, including creating ethical space between worldviews that  respects parallel oral and written traditions. Assessments across academic courses and programs affirm and honour Indigenous cultural protocols, perspectives, and knowledges. In this way, academic courses and assessments can be viewed as landmarks guiding student’s learning journey across and beyond their academic programs.

  • Using the Faculty of Graduate Studies Indigenous Cultural Protocol Plan for candidacy and oral exams
  • Incorporating storytelling and visual representation in assessment tasks

Principle d

Assessments are designed to be fair, equitable and inclusive for diverse educators and learners, and provide multiple ways for students to engage with learning. 

Principle e

Assessments actively engage students by offering multiple opportunities for practice; timely, clear, and meaningful feedback; and structured reflection on their learning to continuously improve and enhance future learning. 

Principle f

Communications about assessments are transparent and designed to ensure clarity on the policies, purpose, tasks, grading standards, and criteria by which students will be assessed. 

Assessments are designed to engage and support all students. Guided by the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, assessments offer multiple ways for students to demonstrate their learning. In addition to traditional tests and exams, students may showcase their skills and knowledge through varying formats such as project-based work, portfolios, simulations, and oral presentations. Providing such opportunities helps build a learning environment and culture where students are supported and enabled to succeed in their academic journey. 

  • Including a variety of assessment forms within a program: written quizzes, oral presentations, demonstrations, etc.
  • Including peer engagement in assessment: group projects, peer feedback, etc.
  • Discussing assessments in class as well as providing written descriptions 

Assessments, when designed and presented as opportunities to learn and grow, invite students to focus on learning as a process, not just an outcome. This approach views errors and mistakes as valuable for growth. By receiving constructive guidance and feedback promptly, students can reflect on their work, improve their demonstrations of learning, and apply new strategies to subsequent tasks. 

  • Providing practice quizzes on D2L
  • Breaking large projects into smaller tasks with opportunities for feedback and revision on early stages
  • Including student self-assessment activities using task criteria

Clarity and transparency are crucial for ensuring fairness, reducing student anxiety, and promoting effective learning. Clear expectations about all tasks, assignments, and examinations are shared with the students as early as possible. Additionally, clear instructions and guidelines on late, incomplete, or missed work should be communicated and discussed. Tools such as exemplars maybe used to share what quality demonstrations of learning may look like. 

  • Making office hours available specifically for questions about assessments
  • Ensuring grading consistency among all teaching assistants and instructors
  • Providing assessment criteria through a checklist, description, or rubric

Principle g

Assessments consider the mental health and wellbeing of students and educators by recognizing the human and systemic contexts.

Principle h

Assessments uphold the values, principles, and practices of academic integrity. 

Principle i

Educators and students use educational technologies ethically in assessment and feedback practices, and take proactive measures to mitigate barriers, adverse impacts, and biases. 

A thriving learning and assessment culture supports the wellbeing of everyone involved. For educators, this means that assessment design acknowledges factors like workload, class sizes, and available resources to create balanced and sustainable strategies. Similarly, considerations for students' wellbeing include breaking down large projects into staged submissions, avoiding the clustering of due dates, and offering flexible due dates and late banks.

  • Using late banks for course-level assessments
  • Spacing out assessments to provide time for grading and feedback
  • Surveying students and teaching assistants about workload and adjusting future assessment plans

Assessment guidelines and instructions focus on creating a supportive learning culture where intellectual curiosity may flourish. The focus is on proactively educating students about ethical academic practices so that assessments provide valid demonstrations of learning.

  • Having regular conversations with students about the principles and values of academic integrity
  • Making expectations about AI use explicit and specific for each assessment task
  • Including process-based assessments such as research logs, multiple drafts, etc.

Educational technologies, including generative AI, can be powerful tools for learning and assessment. Instructors and students consider how and to what extent educational technologies can be used to facilitate fair and equitable assessment opportunities for all learners.  This includes transparency regarding the purposes and strategies for using educational technologies in any stage of the assessment process.

Principle j

Assessments inform administrative and curricular processes, including quality assurance and alignment with professional accreditation standards, to continuously enhance educational quality and student success. 

Principle k

Organizational policies, processes, supports, professional learning, and digital and physical infrastructure sustainably support the assessment ecosystem.

While individual assessments offer a demonstration of student learning in a particular course, collectively, they provide a reflection of overall program level learning expectations. Regularly reviewing assessment strategies across a program helps ensures scaffolded, relevant opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning.

  • Including a course-level curriculum map in the course outline
  • Collaborating with colleagues on consistent assessments in multi-section courses
  • Including a focus on assessments in program-level reviews

The commitment to a sustainable culture of assessment begins with ensuring that learning and assessment environments (physical and digital) are accessible and welcoming for all students. Additionally, this support extends to providing the necessary human and professional resources to facilitate meaningful assessment of student learning in all class types and sizes. 

  • Organizing lunch and learns on assessment strategies for all those who teach and grade
  • Providing meaningful support for teaching assistants participating in assessment
  • Encouraging students to access institutional supports such as writing support, time management resources, and personalized academic support