Four Design Principles of Constructing Program-Level Assessments

These design principles are taken from a presentation by Peter T. Ewell (2004) Assessment that Matters; Creating Authentic Academic Cultures of Evidence. The complete presentation can be found in the Introductory Readings.

• Comprehensiveness: Assessment procedures should cover knowledge and skills taught throughout the program.
  
• Multiple Judgments: Assessment procedures should involve more than one source of evidence or involve multiple judgments of student performance.
  
• Multiple Dimensions: Assessment procedures should provide information on multiple dimensions of student performance, i.e., they should yield more than a single summative grade.
  
• Directness of Assessment: Assessment procedures should involve at least one type of evidence based on direct observation or demonstration of student capacities, i.e., they should involve more than simply a self-report.