Assessment

Spector (2016) presents an acronym known as WYMIWYG (pronounced “whim-ee-whig”), which means “What you measure is what you get.” The acronym is a play on a popular computer term, WYSIWYG, which refers to situations in which what you see on your computer screen is what you get in real life (like when you print the document onto paper). For our purposes, it may be more helpful to think of WYMIWYL (whim-ee-will)—or “What you measure is what you learn.”

Assessment plays an important role in learning in both the initial planning and the ultimate conclusion phases of the learning process. Let’s make a quick connection to other courses offered in the Learning, Design, and Technology program at Penn State. (Consider this a review or a preview, depending on whether you have already completed the LDT 415A or LDT 415B instructional development courses). In the systematic instructional development process, assessment items are developed after the learning objectives are established, but before the learning activities are produced. Why would you do that when the assessment usually comes last in a typical learning process? Within the professional instructional development community, a well-developed assessment is perceived to be a guide for the learning activities, so that the learning activities will actually prepare the learners with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform well on the assessment. Returning to our swimming lesson example, if the swim instructor establishes that a “swimmer” is a person who is able to swim a 50-meter length of an Olympic-size swimming pool without stopping and without assistance, then throwing a learner into the deep end of the pool during the first lesson seems even more pointless. However, if that swim instructor adopted the principle of WYMIWYG, she would be more likely to develop a series of learning activities that focus on the components of swimming technique, such as breathing, arm movement, and leg movement, and then on combining those components and swimming progressively longer distances.

Assessment’s importance to the conclusion of the learning process is more obvious: If the learner is able to perform with the knowledge or skills that were planned and delivered by the instructor, then that particular series of instructional activities may end and the learner may advance to the next learning objective. Ideally, then, on the back end of the learning cycle, assessment provides a roadmap for the instructor: Should I drive around this topical neighborhood one more time, or can this learner and I continue driving ahead into the next neighborhood?

An important consideration for any educator related to WYMIWYG is the selection of which content to include, and which to exclude, when developing learning activities. In our information-rich yperlinked digital world, even the simplest of skills can be connected with numerous bits of related information—some of it useful to the planned process, and much of it distracting. However, it could be argued that, when it comes to complex knowledge and skills—say, for example, in a graduate-level Educational Technology Integration course (ahem!)—it would be impractical, tedious, and downright maddening to assess each learner’s understanding and ability to apply every single idea presented in the course. The designer and facilitator of the learning experience may need to accept that there’s value in exposing learners to the fullest-possible landscape of knowledge on the topic while also accepting that each learner will frame that picture in a slightly different way. As far as the assessment of complex topics is concerned, the goal is to have every learner’s “picture” contain the same main subject.

Complex topics are more challenging to assess, which is why a designer of a learning experience must compare and contrast proficiency and expertise. A learner could be considered proficient in a topic area when she is able to consistently perform with skill and accuracy, and without failing in the face of abstraction—meaning that she doesn’t get tripped up when small things change about a situation. A great example of proficiency can be seen in the oft-maligned Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office. The DMV clerks receive from patrons numerous types of paper forms, various forms of identification, a variety of languages, and a variety of attitudes about the DMV. Usually, if a patron tells the clerk what they hope to accomplish, the clerk will be able to discuss what is needed to make that happen. But every now and then, a patron request will lead to a clerk calling for her supervisor; the supervisor listening to the clerk’s question; the supervisor offering an explanation to the clerk, patron, or both; and then the supervisor fulfilling or denying the patron’s request. If the DMV employs multiple clerks with varying amounts of service and training and one supervisor who oversees the whole location, you could imagine that each clerk would not ask the same questions of the supervisor. In a perfect (and non-political) world, we could believe that the supervisor became the supervisor because she mastered all of the situations that would be seen by a clerk in that job, thereby serving as the resident expert on DMV protocol. As the resident expert, the supervisor might not know every single rule, policy, and process by heart, but odds are that she will know where to look and how to proceed with responding to a request properly. Performance assessment in this situation is easy to see: every new patron request is an opportunity to deliver. Do it right and you receive (probably very little) praise. Do it wrong and you attract ire.

By reorganizing Spector’s (2016) summaries of learning (p. 34) and performance (p. 38), we can take a closer look at the relationship between these two concepts. It would be rare for someone to need to distinguish between these finer elements of learning and performance while working outside of an academic setting, but the connections across the concepts are useful for both comparison and contrast. As you review Table 2.1 below, consider this: The key points for learning highlight processes happening within the learner and may be only indirectly observed or influenced by the instructor, while the key points of performance are more likely to be observed and influenced by the instructor.

Table 2.1

Connection	Learning (p. 34)	Performance (p. 38)
Observation	Relevant changes can be directly or indirectly observed as evidence that learning has occurred.	Performance is something that can be observed and assessed, measured, or rated against a standard or other point of reference.
Change	Learning fundamentally involves change.	Change in performance, especially improvement in performance, is of particular interest to educators and trainers.
Holism	Learning is a holistic concept that involves both cognitive and noncognitive aspects. cognitive aspects: memory, mental constructs, language, associations. noncognitive aspects:  emotional states, attitudes, and physical conditions and constraints.	Performance is a holistic concept that typically involves cognitive and non-cognitive activities; performance may vary with an individual’s mood or with other events happening that impact that individual at a particular time.
Assessment	Determining the extent to which learning has occurred involves the analysis of measures or indicators of change (before, during, after, and long after the learning activities); determining why learning occurred to the extent measured or observed is even more challenging.	Developing an individual’s ability to monitor and assess his or her own performance is often a desirable and measurable goal for advanced learners.
Intentionality	Much learning is unplanned and incidentally associated with a variety of activities; much of the learning that occurs in educational programs is planned and intentional, with specific goals and objectives.	Performance and learning are closely coupled concepts; performing tasks and activities can result in learning, and as learning develops in a particular domain, performance on tasks in that domain is likely to improve.
Guidance	Planned learning activities typically occur in complex environments (e.g., classrooms, online settings, workplace locations) with many things that can enhance or inhibit learning.	Providing feedback on performance very soon after the actual performance is often effective in improving performance, especially if the feedback is specific and constructive.
The unknown	We have extensive knowledge about human physical development, but more limited knowledge with regard to other aspects of human development (e.g. cognitive, emotional, and social development).	Our understanding of human performance is reasonably well developed but far from complete; many variations in performance across different individuals and tasks are not predictable based on current evidence, knowledge, and theory.