The objectives describe where you plan to go, and the assessment determines if you got where you planned to go. Thus, assessments should stem directly from the objectives. The objectives provide the content for the assessment. Another way to say this is that there should be congruence between the objective and the assessment; however, before we discuss congruence further, let's briefly review types of assessment.

In instructional design, the criterion-referenced assessments are used. Criterion-referenced assessments directly measure whether or not a criteria has been achieved rather than compare learners' performance based on a norm group (e.g. norm-reference assessment; SAT; ACT). Dick, Carey and Carey (2005) discuss four different types of criterion-referenced assessment useful for instruction:

1. Entry Assessment (also called diagnostic) - an assessment given prior to beginning of instruction to assess learners' mastery of prerequisite skills. This type of assessment may be used to determine if the learner is ready to begin the instruction.
2. Pre Assessment - an assessment given prior to beginning of instruction to assess learners' mastery of skills within the instruction; thus, informing the instructor of skill and knowledge areas that need to be addressed more or less in-depth.
3. Practice Assessment (also called formative) - an assessment that occurs during instruction that provides the learner with corrective feedback from the instructor about how they are progressing toward the instructional objectives.
4. Post Assessment (also called summative) - an assessment that determine if learners achieved the objectives. If learners are not performing adequately, then there may be problem with the instruction.

In addition to identifying different types of assessment, Dick, Carey and Carey (2005) recognize that there are different assessment items. They purport that the wording of the objective should guide the selection of assessment item type. For example, if an objective is to state the instructional design models, a test that requires a fill-in-the-blank answer would be more appropriate than a multiple-choice question that requires a learner to choose the best answer from a list. Keep in mind that the farther removed the behavior in the assessment is from the behavior specified in the objective, the less likely you will be able to predict if learners can or cannot perform the objective.

Here is a list of assessments:

Traditional Assessments

• Test: Fill-in-the-blank
• Test: Completion
• Test: Multiple-choice
• Test: Matching
• Essay/ Paper

Authentic Assessments

• Live performance
• Demonstrations
• Project
• Portfolios

Can you think of others?