Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)

The purpose of the minute paper is to find out about how well students are comprehending a particular class session. It can also be used during the first few minutes of a class in review of homework. This CAT can also be used as a summative, graded assessment if desired, but you should discuss how the responses will be used with students prior to implementation.

Process: During the last few minutes of the class period, ask students to answer two questions on a half-sheet of paper:

1. What is the most important point you learned today? and
2. What important question remains unanswered?

Review responses and make note of any useful or important comments. During the next class session, implement any changes (review, additional instruction, etc.) or let the students know why you are not implementing changes.

The purpose of the muddiest point CAT is to discover where students need more clarification.

Process: At the end of any lecture, presentation, assignment, paper, discussion, play, reading, video, etc., ask students to write down a quick response to one question: “What was the muddiest (most unclear) point in the lecture or unit?” After the end of the session, review submissions for the most common responses and discuss them during the next class period.

Both of these CATs can be done in an online course with a small amount of pre-planning. Prior to the course session, prepare a Google form with the same questions. Push out a link to the form to students near the end of a synchronous session. For asynchronous modules you can link the form in a Moodle site at the end of each module. Note that once the collection form is created, you can reuse it.

The purpose of the one sentence summary is to assess a student’s ability to determine the most salient points or key parts of a topic, problem, or idea.

Process: Students are asked to respond to the following questions using only one sentence. “Who does what to whom, when, where, how, and why?” (WDWWWWHW) This is done in response to a given topic and prompting students to create a single informative, grammatically correct, and long summary sentence. Here is an example of this technique.

The purpose of the analytic memo is to analyze a problem to help inform a decision-maker. Students can synthesize several sources of information and write in a concise way. This is best for smaller courses and especially useful when there are various ways to approach a problem.

Process: Students are asked to write a 1 to 2 page memo analyzing a specific problem or issue. In most cases, you would ask students to write the paper to a specific audience such as the leader of a professional organization, an employer, or a policy leader. A step-by-step guide can be found here.

The purpose of the pro and con grid is to assess students’ abilities to look at a topic or problem from views that may be different than their own. Students are forced to do more than react to a topic.

Process: Students are asked to list pros/cons, costs/benefits, advantages/disadvantages of an issue, question, or value of competing claims. This is helpful in all types of disciplines and helps to assess student depth and breadth of analysis. Here is an example of a Pro and Con Grid.

The purpose of the pro and con grid is to assess students’ abilities to display concepts and show how they are connected. A well-drawn concept map challenges the students in their understanding of the topic and poorly drawn maps allow an instructor to quickly identify gaps in logic or comprehension.

Process: Students are asked to draw or diagram the mental connections they make between a major concept and other concepts they have learned. Concept maps have two main components 1. Terms or concepts – usually presented in boxes; 2. Directional links (arrows) and linking phrases (prepositions) – that connect the terms. Here are guidelines and examples of how to use concept mapping.

The purpose of the student-generated test questions is to give students the opportunity to evaluate the course topics, reflect on what they understand, and discover the aspects of effective test questions.

Process: Students are asked to write two test questions and model answers for specified topics, in a format consistent with course exams. You may want to give groups of students different topics or let them choose. You can then evaluate the questions and use the good ones as discussion prompts or to build an exam test bank. More about student generated test questions.

The purpose of directed paraphrasing is to analyze the students’ ability to comprehend materials and transfer knowledge.
Process: Students are asked to write in layperson’s terms, about something they learned. The instructor or students should choose a target audience such as a grandparent, parent, employer, sibling, etc. Students can either turn these in or share with each other and discuss their level of success in translating the material. Examples of directed paraphrasing.

The purpose of application cards is to quickly determine whether or not students understand the practical applications of what they have learned. Students are forced to link new information with prior knowledge.

Process: After students have been introduced to some principle, generalization, theory, or procedure, you would pass out index cards and ask students to write down at least one possible, real-world application for what they have just learned. To assess, the responses can quickly be separated into four groups — great, acceptable, marginal, and not acceptable. Responses should be discussed in the next class. More about application cards.

The purpose of document problem solutions is to assess how students solve problems and to evaluate how well students comprehend and can describe their problem-solving methods.

Process: Students are asked to document the specific steps they take in attempting to solve a problem. The instructor selects two or three problems students have studied in recent weeks. The instructor solves the problems, noting how long it took to solve it and the steps each solution required. Problems should be able to be solved in less than thirty minutes. You should distribute the problem and directions to students making clear that it is not a test or a quiz. It is more important for students to explain how they tried to solve the problems than to get the right answers. How to teach using documented problem solutions.