“The danger is that we end up valuing what we measure, rather than engaging in measuring what we value” – Gert Biesta

Whenever we set a goal for something, we generally also want to know when the goal has been achieved. Although we measure this achievement after the learning has taken place, it is good practice to decide on how we’re going to measure the achievement before we engage in the learning. By determining what we need to ‘see’ to confidently say the goal has been achieved before we design the curriculum, we automatically define what the content of the curriculum should be. This means: setting assessment criteria and designing assessment formats. These then inform the design of the content and format of the program in detail, ensuring alignment of learning outcomes, learning (and teaching activities) and assessment.

This phase of the educational design process results in an assessment strategy, defining the what and how of measuring the achievement of the goals (learning outcomes).

N.B.: it is possible to go through the curriculum mapping phase before the assessment design phase.