Authentic Assessment is a six-week course that will introduce you to the principles and practice of this approach to assessment of student learning. Authentic assessment takes into account the contexts in which learning might actually be used once students leave the university. It is an attempt to assess what students actually know, value, and can do in a way that is well-integrated into the entire learning environment of a course. In this course you will learn how to align assessment with intended learning outcomes, how to design meaningful assessment measures that motivate students and even design assessments that help students learn as they are being assessed.

By experiencing a variety of authentic assessment methods in the student role, reading about them, and practicing adaptations of them, you will be in a better position to judge which of these methods you can use in your own courses, as suits your personal teaching style and disciplinary needs. Most importantly, you will have the opportunity to create an authentic, well-reasoned assessment measure that you could use in your own disciplinary context – with feedback and help from your instructors and colleagues.