Actionable assessment

Actionable assessment is the use of formative assessments for taking immediate action to make some kind of change or influence a participant learner's behavior while an educational product is being implemented.

Definition

Actionable assessment is when formative assessments are used to collect data about participation and learning during an educational experience and the assessments are associated with specific actions that can be taken to improve the outcomes. This data is analyzed and insights are generated in real time while the product is being used. Specific actions are suggested by the data analysis that can be taken to improve educational outcomes, participation with the product, and satisfaction of the learner.

Additional Information

Actionable assessment is intended to give designers, teachers, and learners the opportunity to improve educational outcomes based on real data and analytics that reveal insights about how the educational experience is going.

Data generated from actionable assessment can be used by learners, in that they can see information on their performance and change their behavior to meet their goals. Learners' metacognition might also be used and further developed to help them make use of the insights from the formative assessments to take action and improve the outcome.

Instructors can use actionable assessment to know how the educational product is being used and how action might be taken to improve performance. For instance, a discussion forum is not being used at an established standard of expectation, specific actions can be taken to improve the quality and quantity of discussion posts in the forum. Similarly, if students all missed a certain question on an exam, the instructor can know that this was a missed opportunity and can take action to improve the learning outcomes for the student before the end of the class.

Another traditional method of actionable assessment is through a traditional midterm exam in college-level courses. In this type of formative assessment, students receive midterm feedback on their performance and see how they stand in the class while it is happening. Students then have the ability to take action on that information to improve their performance if they desired.

The focus of actionable assessment is that the data and analysis need to reveal specific action items, or things that can be done to improve performance. Data or analysis alone cannot provide this list of action items. This list of action items typically needs to come from the instructional designer or instructor with ideas on what to do if performance is not at expected levels. Improving outcomes through instructional activities is largely based on the learning theories on which the activities are designed, so it is important for the instructor to teach in a way and for the learner to interact in ways that are consistent with how learning is expected to occur.

Examples of actions associated with actionable assessment include:

• Increasing the amount of information that learners are exposed to on a certain topic
• Promoting increased participation in activities or using technologies
• Promoting a new focus on what is being worked on
• Establishing new goals for learners based on performance
• Coaching learners on specific topics or activities that they are struggling with
• Individually communicating with students to understand any underlying issues they may be facing that is affecting motivation or interest

Thus, it is important to also provide specific action items or tips to learners and instructors on what can be done to improve performance based on the data results.

In the case of the midterm exam, action items might include coaching from the instructor or options for improving a grade if extra work is desired. The instructor might also identify areas that students did not perform up to expectation and prepare additional instructional activities to address these shortcomings.

In any case of actionable assessment, the data collected from formative instruments needs to be analyzed in a principled and valid way to ensure that the insights gained from the analysis are reflective of the behaviors, individual factors, and outcomes that are being evaluated. If data collection and analysis efforts are not theoretically grounded, they risk suggesting subsequent actions that do not support participants or even negatively impact learning.

Tips and Tricks

• When feasible, formative assessment should be used at multiple points of a longer-term educational experience so that learners can have a chance to see where they stand and they can change their behavior to better improve their goals.
• Instructors can use formative assessment to know what issues exist for learners and if academic and participation goals are not being met as expected. Specific actions can then be taken to address these shortcomings
• Anticipate specific actions that learners and instructors could take to improve performance if formative assessments reveal that it is not at the expected level. These actions should be clearly communicated to learners and instructors, as well as a rationale for why they are useful.

Related Concepts

• Formative assessment
• Data
• Evaluation
• Learning Objective

Examples

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External Resources

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