Assessing Learning as a Process

Assessing Learning as a Process

How can instructors effectively assess student learning when GenAI can fabricate the products of student work? Responding to that question, this page presents strategies and examples for assessing the process of student learning rather than the end result. Process-oriented assessments can reduce the likelihood of AI misuse and encourage learners to reflect on their thinking, demonstrate growth over time, and engage more deeply with course material. By shifting focus from the final product to the steps that shape it, instructors can foster a more transparent and meaningful learning experience for their students.

Assessment Examples

Authentic Assessments

Help with your Assessments

Assessment Design Strategy

Before you implement specific assessments, consider outlining an assessment strategy to ensure your assessments are aligned with the learning goals for your course. When planning for and designing an assessment, consider following the steps below:

Planning for assessment 10 step roadmap visual
  1. Establish learning goals. Assessment design begins with a clear definition of what students should learn.
  2. Select assessment methods. With goals in place, choose the assignments or evidence that best demonstrate student progress.
  3. Design the assessment. Develop prompts, formats, and performance criteria that guide student preparation and generate reliable evidence of learning.
  4. Align with course design. Integrate the assessment into the broader course structure, using it to shape supporting assignments, activities, and class experiences that help students succeed.
  5. Share expectations with students. Communicate assignment details and criteria clearly through multiple channels—syllabus descriptions, rubrics, examples, class discussions, or collaborative input.
  6. Implement the assessment. Carry out the assessment at the planned time, gathering the necessary student work or test results.
  7. Evaluate student work. Analyze the results by comparing student performance against established criteria and disciplinary standards.
  8. Provide feedback. Report results back to students—highlighting strengths, areas for growth, and grades if applicable—while also reviewing the fairness, clarity, and reliability of the assessment.
  9. Gather Student Feedback.
  10. Reflect and improve. Use the outcomes to inform next steps in the course, adjust teaching strategies, and revise the assessment for future iterations.

Original source: “Assessing Student Learning.” Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, Northern Illinois University.

Assessment Activity Examples

Reflection activities help students deepen learning, build critical thinking, and connect course content to real-world applications. They also encourage authentic, multi-tiered, process-focused work. In this section, you’ll find a range of strategies from individual reflections to group-based activities that can be adapted across disciplines to support student growth.

Coming Soon: Canvas-ready assignment templates to help you bring these assessment strategies into your courses.

Applications Cards 

How do they work?

Students reflect upon an important principle, theory, or procedure they learned about in class and identify a “new” application for it that hasn’t yet been discussed. They record their new application on a card or document, including an explanation as to why the application is valid. To encourage student creativity, instructors can also give students the freedom to record their application and explanation in different ways; students might record a PowerPoint presentation, narrate a comic strip of their own creation, or even design a podcast that educates their audience about their new application. 

Tip:

  • Expand this activity by asking students to share their chosen applications and justifications with a small group of peers. Organize a discussion activity in which students reflect critically on the similarities and differences between their chosen applications and their justifications. 

Learning Goals:

  • Repurpose mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth
  • Develop meta-awareness of individual work processes and rationale
  • Normalize reflection as an essential part of learning
Conference Presentation

What is it?

Add a conference presentation to an assignment and/or activity to create a multi-tiered assessment of student learning. A conference presentation is a type of activity in which students compose a concise but nuanced summary of their work or findings on a particular assignment or topic. Their presentations should be designed with a particular audience in mind, whether that be their peers, family back home, any relevant stakeholders, or even a fictional character. Their presentations could also address major findings, arguments, articles or challenges that impacted their learning process.

Tip:

  •  Give students creative freedom by allowing them to chose the form of their presentation, such as a short film, screenplay, recorded newscast,  podcast, or written report.

Why it use it?

Asking students to translate their work on a given assignment into a video modality and to present that work in their own words functions as an active reflection activity that puts students in the role of instructor. Furthermore, when students have to design their presentation with a specific audience in mind, they have to critically reflect on how to present their work.

Design Thinking Logs

What are they?

Students update a design thinking log to track the evolution of their thinking and work processes over the course of a term. Similar to a journal, students use design thinking logs to record how they complete each stage of a project and to evaluate the effectiveness of their work process. The logs might focus on steps like problem identification, scholarly research, prototyping, and testing. Instructors decide when students submit their thinking logs as well as what modality their submissions will take (video, audio, or text).

Tip:

  •  To create a multi-tiered activity with the designing thinking log, make a record of course-wide patterns and trends you see when reviewing student submissions. Introduce those trends in course discussions to help students prepare for future assignments or assessments, whether as a whole class or within small groups.

Learning Goals:

  • Repurpose mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth
  • Develop meta-awareness of individual work processes and habits
  • Normalize reflection as a practice essential to learning

Relevant research:

Fallin, Lee, and Catherine Turton. “The Transformative Potential of Design Thinking in Learning Development.” Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, no. 34, 2025.

Group Debrief and Reflection

What is it?

Following the completion of a group project or assignment, groups work together to design a slide deck presentation that explores different stages and/or aspects of their collaborative work. Group presentations could address what went well, reference how class content or discussions impacted their final product, critique challenges students faced and how they overcame them, as well as build a plan for improving future collaborations.

Learning Goals:

  1. Apply feedback and insights to improve future individual and group work.
  2. Practice delivering constructive feedback within a team context/dynamic.
  3. Normalize reflection as a practice essential to learning and growth.
  4. Evaluate the effectiveness of communication and problem solving skills/approaches.
  5. Analyze group dynamics and collaboration strategies used during the project.

Relevant research:

Ramachandran, Divya. “Fostering Collaborative Learning in STEM Education: Strategies, Benefits, and Challenges.” IRE Journals, vol. 8, no. 8, 2025.

Research Portfolio

What is it?: 

Completing the research portfolio helps students develop critical thinking, planning, and writing skills through staged submissions and feedback. By giving students multiple opportunities for feedback and revision, it fosters original thinking and a deepening engagement with scholarly work, all while reducing the potential for AI misuse.

How does it work?

For the portfolio, students submit a series of artifacts documenting the progression of their work on a project, including such components as research questions, literature reviews, methodology drafts, and peer-reviewed revisions. Instructors use targeted feedback and peer review to encourage student reflection and progression.

Student Self-Assessment

What is it?

Using self-assessments, students measure and track their own learning progress, typically according to a set of pre-established criteria, learning goals, or even a grading rubric. Completing a self-assessment empowers students to define what counts as quality work, to evaluate the quality of their own work, and to develop an awareness of their own working style. Assessments can take the form of written reflections, video blogs, mind maps, or other creative avenues.

Tip: 

  • Add a layer of nuance by asking students to draft the criteria, learning goals, or rubric structuring the self-assessments; this can be done as a class or within small groups. Doing so will familiarize students with the assignment requirements and encourage students to identify skills they want to improve upon.
 

Resources

Assessment and AI Resources