Assessment formats
The most common assessment formats and points to consider when making your choice.
On this page
- Choosing the right format
- Closed questions
- Open-ended questions
- Written assignment
- Presentation
- Group assignments and peer review
- Audio and video assignments
Choosing the right format
Various factors need to be considered when you’re choosing an assessment format or combination of formats.
Considerations for selecting an appropriate assessment format
| Learning objectives | The assessment format needs to measure whether the learning objectives have been achieved. Different assessment formats are appropriate for different cognitive levels, such as memory, application or evaluation. Find more information in Tips for Tests. |
| Teaching format | The selected teaching formats may influence your choice of assessment formats. |
| Professional (work) context | You might derive the assessment format from products or activities that will be required in a future professional (work) situation. |
| Construction time and grading time | Some assessment formats, such as multiple choice questions, take more time to construct but less time to grade. The opposite is true for open-ended questions or essays, for example, where grading is particularly time-consuming. |
| Retakes | The assessment format must permit all the learning objectives to be retaken. |
| Digital assessment | Consider using digital assessment software to make it easier to administer assessments. |
| Fraud prevention | Take into account how susceptible the assessment format might be to fraud, for example by using AI tools such as generative AI (GenAI). |
Have a look at ‘The right tool for your assessment’, for an overview of available tools for digital assessment and which is the most appropriate for your assessment format.
Assessment formats
Closed questions
Closed questions require students to choose between two or more options. Examples include: multiple choice questions, true/false questions, yes/no questions and case study questions with multiple answer options. You can use closed questions for summative or formative purposes, not only to test factual knowledge but also for assessment at higher cognitive levels, such as understanding and application. When exams contain a large proportion of multiple choice questions, you should always add a correction-for-guessing formula. Closed questions take longer to construct than open questions, but can be graded relatively quickly.
See also: Tips for Tests section 2.1
Open-ended questions
In the case of open-ended questions, students have to actively formulate an answer themselves. They can be used to assess not only factual knowledge, understanding and application of knowledge, but also higher cognitive levels, such as critical analysis and formulation of a well-argued opinion.
See also: Tips for Tests section 2.2
Written assignments/papers
A written assignment (essay, report, article etc.) allows you to assess how far a student has mastered the higher cognitive levels, including skills such as: critical evaluation, synthesis or well-argued reasoning. Students usually produce written assignments individually, at a time and place of their own choice, which makes it difficult to control the assessment conditions.
See also: Tips for Tests section 2.3
Oral presentations
Oral presentations are usually assessed in terms of both course material content and presentation skills. You grade not only whether the student has mastered the material, but also the student’s ability to argue a standpoint, think critically and engage in discussion, for example. In addition to your own grading, peer review may also be used.
See also: Tips for Tests section 2.4
Group assignments and peer review
There are several ways to assess group assignments. Examples of commonly used assessment formats include written papers, oral presentations and peer review, or combinations of these.
Group assignments can be appropriate for assessing more complex skills, including teamwork, but are less useful for assessing basic knowledge and skills.
Students who have completed a group assignment can be graded collectively or individually (or a combination of the two). If you use individual grading to any extent, it’s important to make clear agreements about each person’s identifiable contribution. You could also consider using peer review.
See also: Tips for Tests section 2.5
Audio and video assignments
Another option is to use video or audio for assignments. Examples here could be a live presentation via one of the videoconferencing tools, or submitting a video product, such as a presentation, podcast or knowledge clip. Make a start with media assignments by looking at the ‘producing videos and podcasts’ page and checking what tools are available on the ‘teaching tools’ page.