Assessment

Assessment is the process and method of gathering and evaluating evidence on students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes to monitor and improve learning. Assessments are how faculty and students monitor, improve and appraise the student’s learning experience.

For ideas on how to design assessments for your courses that work for you and your students, visit our Assessment page! We have resources on how you can build all sorts of assessments for in-person and online classes, including alternative and non-traditional assessment methods. 

Learn about Assessment

Core Competencies

UAA has identified key skillsets that help students achieve academic and post-graduation success. Learn more about these Core Competencies on UAA's Institutional Accreditation page. As we develop guides for integrating the Core Competencies into your teaching, we will post them here:

• Effective Communication
• Creative and Critical Thinking
• Intercultural Fluency
• Personal, Professional, and Community Responsibility

High Impact Practices

High-Impact Practices (HIPs) are a set of evidence-based teaching and learning practices that improve learning and increase student retention and completion rates. UAA offers many HIPs such as Study Abroad, but these resources focus on the practices faculty are most likely to incorporate into their courses. Learn more about HIPs and find out how you can potentially incorporate these practices in your classes! 

Learn about High Impact Practices

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) 

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) is a framework to communicate assignment expectations and explain your grading criteria. These documents from the 2020 UAA Academic Assessment Seminar with Dr. Suzanne Tapp can help you adjust your assignments and activities:

• TILT: Frequently Asked Questions
• TILT Checklist for Transparent Assignments
• Transparent Assignment Template

You can learn more about TILT and other ways to communicate with students on our Effective Communication page and watch sessions about TILT in our 2023 Fall Teaching Academy recording. Also check out our TILT page below!

Learn about TILT

Navigating Classroom Conflict

Conflicts and disagreements are natural aspects of the learning process and are likely to arise in any teaching environment. When approached thoughtfully and constructively, these moments can serve as valuable opportunities for intellectual growth, critical thinking, and deeper understanding. Take a look in our Resources tab on this page on facilitating dialogue for some resources.  If you want to learn more or want to view our step-by-step guide, visit our Navigating Classroom Conflict page.  

Learn about Navigating Classroom Conflict

Resources

• Fostering Community

  Fostering a Course Community

  • Develop Rapport & Community with Your Students guide, focused on online teaching but most of the strategies apply to all delivery modes
  • Community Building Activities (OneHE)
  • Better Blackboard Discussions guide: This includes advice and examples for tackling sensitive topics in asynchronous discussions, sample netiquette language, and sample prompts to help students contextualize their learning
• Facilitating Dialogue

  Facilitating Meaningful Dialogue

  Many UAA courses tackle tough issues. We are available to help you design, teach, and debrief learning activities that are likely to provoke difficult dialogues. These resources can help you think through your approach:

  • UAA is a National Coalition Building Institute campus affiliate, and we offer workshops on intercultural communication and discussions on controversial issues. Subscribe to the Faculty Success newsletter to stay informed on when the next workshop is
  • Responding to Microaggressions guide
• Teaching in Times of Disruption

  Teaching in Times of Disruption

  Our teaching plans are often disrupted, and these resources invite you to check in on your own experience and set student-centered goals for your teaching:

  • Perceived Stress Scale Self-Assessment
  • Strategies for Creating a Safe and Supportive Classroom, MaryAnn Raybuck, Faculty Focus
  • Trauma-Informed Teaching, Jamie Butler, Faculty Focus
  • Seven Recommendations for Helping Students Thrive in Times of Trauma, Mays Imad, Inside Higher Ed
  • Hope Still Matters, Mays Imad’s reflection on how to teach in 2021 (Inside Higher Ed)
• General Resources

  General Resources

  • Creating and Maintaining a Welcoming & Culturally Responsive Online Classroom guide
  • Welcoming Teaching Resources and Strategies, University of Michigan CRLT
  • These guides discuss some of the research behind the recommended practices: Columbia University guide and Brown University teaching guide
  • The UAA Teaching Academy is held twice a year, in August (Fall Teaching Academy) and January (Winter Teaching Academy). Recordings and materials from past sessions are available in a Teaching Academy self-enrolling Blackboard course (UA only)
  • Pivot 3: Self-Paced Course Design & Development (self-enrolling Blackboard course, UA only): Although this course focuses on online teaching, it has an excellent collection of materials on different aspects of teaching, from designing for alignment to managing microaggressions in the classroom
    
  • Course Design Trail Guides: The Trail Guides are asynchronous professional development course design modules intended to expand faculty's knowledge and skill with course design and development. 
  • Universal Design for Learning guide and What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)?, AHEAD (video, 2:52): Universal Design for Learning is a framework which helps faculty design courses for a wide group of students. If you can provide students with a flexible path to learning, they may not have to self-identify as needing special help
    
  • Lexicon of Academic Innovation, Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed: Heard about an approach, but not sure what it means? Start here!