Discuss the scope and significance of assessment in higher education. Identify different kinds of assessment techniques used by the university teacher.

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Scope and significance of assessment in higher education.
I'm sure you know the feeling of anticipation when you are about to take a quiz or test. Did you take detailed class notes and study enough? And you surely have been assigned with various essays. Did you give yourself enough time to research, write, and revise your essay in order to meet the requirements.

Exams and essays along with speeches and projects are forms of assessment. Assessment is a critical step in the learning process. It determines whether or not the course's learning objectives have been met. A learning objective is what students should know or be able to do by the time a lesson is completed. Assessment affects many facets of education, including student grades, placement, and advancement as well as curriculum, instructional needs, and school funding.

The Effects of Assessment
Let's look at a couple of the main effects of assessment:

Student Learning
Assessment is a key component of learning because it helps students learn. When students are able to see how they are doing in a class, they are able to determine whether or not they understand course material. Assessment can also help motivate students. If students know they are doing poorly, they may begin to work harder.

Imagine this situation:
Johnny is a chemistry student. He just took his first exam in his class. He earned a 56%; he needs a 79% to pass the class. The low exam score lets Johnny know that he missed something important he should have learned. Perhaps, he did not understand the material, or maybe he did not study long enough. Whatever the case, the assessment results let Johnny know that he did not successfully learn the material and that he must try something new in order to earn a better score.

Teaching
Just as assessment helps students, assessment helps teachers. Frequent assessment allows teachers to see if their teaching has been effective. Assessment also allows teachers to ensure students learn what they need to know in order to meet the course's learning objectives. 

Imagine this situation:
Pre-assessment or diagnostic assessment
Before creating the instruction, it’s necessary to know for what kind of students you’re creating the instruction. Your goal is to get to know your student’s strengths, weaknesses and the skills and knowledge the posses before taking the instruction. Based on the data you’ve collected, you can create your instruction.

Formative assessment
Formative assessment is used in the first attempt of developing instruction. The goal is to monitor student learning to provide feedback. It helps identifying the first gaps in your instruction. Based on this feedback you’ll know what to focus on for further expansion for your instruction.

Summative assessment
Summative assessment is aimed at assessing the extent to which the most important outcomes at the end of the instruction have been reached. But it measures more: the effectiveness of learning, reactions on the instruction and the benefits on a long-term base. The long-term benefits can be determined by following students who attend your course, or test. You are able to see whether and how they use the learned knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Confirmative assessment
When your instruction has been implemented in your classroom, it’s still necessary to take assessment. Your goal with confirmative assessments is to find out if the instruction is still a success after a year, for example, and if the way you're teaching is still on point. You could say that a confirmative assessment is an extensive form of a summative assessment. 

Norm-referenced assessment
This compares a student’s performance against an average norm. This could be the average national norm for the subject History, for example. Other example is when the teacher compares the average grade of his or her students against the average grade of the entire school.

Criterion-referenced assessment
It measures student’s performances against a fixed set of predetermined criteria or learning standards. It checks what students are expected to know and be able to do at a specific stage of their education. Criterion-referenced tests are used to evaluate a specific body of knowledge or skill set, it’s a test to evaluate the curriculum taught in a course.

Ipsative assessment
It measures the performance of a student against previous performances from that student. With this method you’re trying to improve yourself by comparing previous results. You’re not comparing yourself against other students, which may be not so good for your self-confidence.