Concept · education
Assessment
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- Concept page published
Assessment is how learning is evidenced — formative checks, classroom research assessments, and performance measures that shape what students do next. In digital courses, formative assessment data also feed learning analytics.
Assessment is not only grading. These papers connect formative performance, classroom research assessment models, and analytics mediation paths to final outcomes.
Evidence
What the evidence shows
Drawn from 4 studies in this library. Each finding starts with a plain-language takeaway, then the denser detail. Supports means evidence for a finding; Challenges means evidence against a stated position; Qualifies marks scope with a short note on each study’s contribution. Challenged positions are labeled — they are not findings.
Formative assessment performance can mediate paths from engagement/attendance to final course performance.
Course-based research experiences need explicit classroom assessment models if inquiry teaching is to produce trustworthy evidence of learning.
Common misconceptions
Only the final exam measures learning.
Formative assessment performance carries explanatory weight for finals in analytics mediation models.
Exam-style questions
Short-answer questions that ask you to explain or compare, not recall.
Why might formative assessment scores matter for interpreting attendance effects?
If formative performance mediates attendance→final links, process assessment captures learning activity that mere presence does not.
The studies
4 studies in this library bear on Assessment, ordered by citations.
- How do exams shut disabled students out?
Disabled students described an exam-heavy assessment culture that accommodations help but cannot fully fix when designs assume a “normal” student.
- Online engagement mediates attendance and grades
In a technology-enhanced education course, LMS engagement and formative assessment scores fully mediated the link between lecture attendance and final performance.
- How should course-based research be graded?
CRE instructors describe assessment models that prioritise being a scientist, procedural knowledge, or project ownership rather than only skill checklists.
- Teachers’ online formative assessment in lockdown
Dutch secondary teachers used online formative assessment across FA-cycle phases during COVID lockdown, often clarifying goals online but varying in how well phases aligned.
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