Though used interchangeably, the reading material states that assessment is formative (on-going) and evaluation is summative (have course objectives been met?). I personally feel challenged to provide formative feedback for Environmental Science, which is the course that I instruct.
The formative or assessment portion of what I do is more writing related as opposed to a conceptual building tool. The course has connectedness, however, in that what is discussed in Week 1 is a thread throughout the class.
I see Math and Language Arts as courses that assessment is a clearer tool than the Gen Ed course that I facilitate.
I would agree with you. I think that we use them interchangeably. I know I have never really thought much about the difference, but there really is an important distinction. I'm not sure that it is the actual words that matter as much, but the process is vital. I don't know that many instructors struggle with the evaluation piece. After all, grading is viewed as an essential part of what we do. However, we need to remember to asses our students regularly. That is the best way to gauge whether or not our students are getting what we are teaching.
I would absolutely agree! I would guess that 99.9% of professors do not know the difference. But maybe that is only because I did not know the difference prior to this class. The difficulty is that these are specialized terms in the field of education and their specialized meanings, I predict (but don't know), are relatively recently acquired. Also, I googled the terms and there is considerable inconsistency about how these terms are defined. In one place, "assessment" is characterized as "student to instructor" feedback and "evaluation" is characterized as "instructor to student feedback." (http://www.icc.edu/innovation/PDFS/assessmentEvaluation/ASSESSMENTandEVALUATION2007.pdf) Even on this forum there are different accounts of the terms. For example, evaluation in one place is characterized as belonging to a domain outside the course. I don't have a horse in the race per se, but I did find a PDF online that helped me separate the terms in my mind (http://web.duke.edu/arc/documents/The%20difference%20between%20assessment%20and%20evaluation.pdf). The PDF qualifies assessment as formative, process-oriented, and diagnostic while evaluation is summative, product-oriented, and judgmental. So the way I'm going to remember the difference moving forward is that "assessment" is what happens during throughout the course that students and faculty use to gauge progress and understanding while "evaluation" is the capstone, final judgment of the student's success.
I like your easy-to-remember definition of assessment as formative and therefore ongoing and evaluation as final. From now on, I am going to remember it by thinking of "assessment tools" as the things I create for students during the class and the "final evaluation" as the summative capstone.
Just when I had thought I had it figured out! Now I am more confused than before! I think I am facing a blue pill red pill moment. :)
Jolly,
I would agree with part of that. . . I use assessment to do both; improve instruction and to measure learning. Why do they have to separated? I don't have the time or the resources to review them exclusively and I don't think they should be. I have noted that sometimes when students are learning it is my fault. By review assessment holistically, I will find gaps in instruction and fix that. That is closing the assessment loop.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jolly,
I disagree with you. There is not that big of difference between evaluation and assessment. Instruction and learning are linked together.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jack,
Again, I don't separate the two learning/instruction as they cannot be separated. Why must we use separate processes to measures complementary things? formative assessment gives me gaps in learning and gaps in instruction that can be adjusted through the learning process. Summative assessment is more formal measure but again can provide data that will help both learning and instruction.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jack,
That is create and that it is reliable; that is measures the same EVERY time for every student.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Trude,
So, how do you identify the terms used in higher ed and with HLC that use the term little "a" and big "a". We do use the terms interchangeably.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Sandra,
Yes, I understand the challenge. It is hard to provide formative feedback particularly if you have different starting points in your course as so many online courses do.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Francis ,
Yes, you are right. We may use the same data but look at it in the context of instruction or the context of course improvement.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Paul,
Thank you for your post! This is great information. Accreditation of programs and colleges can through a wrench in definitions also.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Paul,
That will work! We need to remember that the data must be tied to context ( that is how we use it)
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Kelly, FYI...in the instructional design world, there is a big difference between evaluation and assessment. Specifically, as per the Dick, Carey, L., & Carey, J. (2009) text entitled "The Systematic Design of Instruction", formative evaluation is "the collection of data and information during the development of instruction that can be used to improve the effectiveness of the instruction" (p.257). Summative evaluation, on the other hand, is the "collection of data to verify the effectiveness of instructional materials with target learners" (p.320), in other words, measuring if learning occurred. Some may call that evaluation, some may call that assessment, regardless, it is the measurement of learning which is the genesis of summative evaluation.
The emphasis in formative evaluation is on the "collection and analysis of data" and the revision of instruction, while summative evaluation focuses on the "effectiveness" of instruction (testing). That said, I can see where in in the typical K-12 classroom evaluation and assessment are used synonymously, however, in the instructional design world, they are two different processes, although both have the same intent: the improvement of human performance.
Kelly,
So you isolate, or study separately the formative part from the part on which you apply the Summative assessment. Is that what you mean?
Kelly,
Of course. That completes the second part of the the attributes.
Hello Esther,
I agree with you in that the words 'assessment' and evaluation can be of a challenge as to how to use the terms properly. As you mentioned, the terms are used interchangeably (I was perhaps one of them, but knew that there was a difference between them). After taking this course, I am a bit more clear on its definitions and how to use them respectively.
Cheers
Dr. E. Somnarain
I too see the interchaneability witin the context, but I also think understand the difference after reading the module. It is somewhat confusing though. Maybe I look at it like this, Assessment is the process of evaluating what is being taught. Evaluation is assigning a grade to the assessments throughout the course. Assessment is a process, evaluation is an action. Does that make sense, or am I way off base?
I think it depends on how the information builds on itself throughout the quarter and if there is more gray area to the information than just black and white true/false, write/wrong.
