Authentic Assessment

This page explores authentic assessment as an strategy that links course content and activities to political, cultural, and professional contexts that motivate students to learn. To inspire intrinsic motivation, authentic assessments shift student "focus towards real-world problem solving" and encourage students "to apply knowledge" in the scenarios they care about most (Conrad). Authentic assessment does not focus on the "right" answer; it asks students to develop an awareness of the process and decision-making they use to reach their conclusions. This page covers strategies, tips, examples, and resources for implementing authentic assessments in your course.

Authentic Assessment and GenAI: As generative AI continues to shape higher education, authentic learning is more important than ever, because it can motivate students to think critically, solve problems, and create work that feels meaningful beyond the classroom.

Grading Authentic Assessments

Assessing Learning Process

Help with your Assessments

What is an "authentic" assessment?

Asks students to apply what they've learned in a real world context in order to demonstrate their mastery.
Organized around open-ended and ill-defined problems in which students have to apply critical thinking, navigate ambiguity, consider multiple solutions within a real world context, and develop their own work processes. An example of an ill-defined problem: Deciding how to reduce climate change in an urban environment. There are many possible approaches (policy, technology, behavior change), each with pros and cons, and no single perfect answer.
Makes room for students to practice, consult resources, and incorporate feedback so they can refine their performances and products.

*Adapted from the University of Michigan's CRLT

Conventional tasks	Authentic tasks	Evidence of authenticity
Require correct responses	Require a high-quality product or performance, and a justification of the solutions to the problems encountered.	Being correct is not a sufficient demonstration of learning; students must be able to justify their answers, their rationale, and/or their method.
Are often unknown to the student in advance	Should be known to students in advance	The instructor's expectations and standards of critical thought and "good" work should be known or premised upon past assignments in the course.
Are disconnected from real-world contexts and constraints	Are tied to real-world contexts and constraints; require the student to “do” the subject	The context and constraints of the task are like those encountered by practitioners in the discipline.
Contain items that isolate particular skills or facts	Are integrated challenges in which a range of skills and knowledge must be used in coordination	The task is multifaceted and complex, even if there is a right answer.
Are “one shot”; students get one chance to show their learning	Are iterative; contain recurring tasks and opportunities for feedback	Students may use particular knowledge or skills in several different ways or contexts.
Provide a score	Provide usable diagnostic information about students’ skills and knowledge	The assessment is designed to improve future performance, and students are important “consumers” of such information.

*This table borrows directly from Indiana University's CITL.

Tips for grading authentic assessments

Use Rubrics in Canvas

Build a clear rubric that breaks the assignment into criteria (e.g., problem understanding, reasoning, creativity, evidence use, reflection).
Attach the rubric directly in Canvas so you can click-to-score and leave targeted comments quickly.
Share the rubric with students before they begin so they know what “quality” looks like.

Prioritize big-picture feedback

How well did the student address complexity?
To what extent did the student consider multiple solutions and demonstrate an understanding of contextual factors?
What evidence did the student introduce, and how well does their presentation of that evidence support their claims or conclusions?

Add a reflective component

Include a reflective layer in the assignment wherein students explain their reasoning or elaborate on their chosen work process.
Focus a substantial portion of the grade weight on the reflective activity so that students are incentivized to think critically about their work processes.

Use Audio/Video Feedback

In SpeedGrader, record brief audio or video comments. This is often quicker than writing and helps students feel more engaged with your feedback.

Visit UO's resource about how you can teach with authenticity

Resources