A faculty member plans a science course for a cohort of auto technology students. Understanding that most of these students have excellent kinestic skills, but often find traditional lectures boring and challenging, he designs the course with his students in mind. He does two key things. First, he requires the students to take notes and regularly stops them and reviews the notes just taken, offering lots of support for building effective techniques. Second, he breaks the lecture portions of the class into 8 - 10 minute segments. Each segment begins with a "what do you know about this" question which the students answer verbally in quick succession. He ends each module with a series of review questions. He is using classroom assessment techniques to gauge students' learning and to keep students involved.

This lesson focuses on many different methods for assessing students and involving them in improving the course and evaluating their own learning. It is important to note that our use of the word assessment does not equate to assessment for the purpose of course placement. Instead, we use it as defined by Thomas Angelo:

In short, classroom assessment, is a simple method faculty can use to collect feedback, early and often, on how well their students are learning. Its purpose is to provide faculty with information and insights needed to improve teaching effectiveness and learning quality.

Developing good assessment tools can be time consuming at first, but the improvement to student learning is well worth the effort. Students are often more focused upon getting the grade and being judged fairly than they are on their own learning. Effective assessment techniques can satisfy students’ short term desires and assure they have learned the information necessary to be successful in subsequent endeavors. Students will appreciate your efforts now and into the future.