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Additional Resources

The additional resources below contain other assessment types that are valuable to educators in a variety of circumstances. Tools will be added at regular intervals to reflect changes and developments in the educational environment. 

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Image by Vitaly Gariev
Concept Mapping

Concept Mapping is a visual formative assessment tool where learners create diagrams that show relationships among ideas, processes, or concepts. It is especially powerful for adult learners. Concept maps can be used at the beginning, middle, or end of a learning sequence to assess evolving understanding.

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  • Strengths include making thinking visible by conveying how learners organize knowledge and reveal misconceptions early, making them ideal for formative checkpoints rather than high‑stakes evaluation.

  • Challenges include the need for explicit modeling or scaffolding and the risk that, without clear criteria, maps can become overly complex or too superficial to be useful. Instructors may also misinterpret maps if they lack experience analyzing them.

  • When implemented intentionally, concept maps promote meaningful learning, metacognition, and knowledge integration. They align with UDL by offering multiple means of representation and expression, and mirror authentic tasks used in many professional fields. 

  • Concept mapping is an assessment tool that can enhance learning across disciplines and modalities.

Explore the following resources for more information:​​

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  • The Inclusive Design Guide - Inclusive Design Mapping

Virtual Reality Demo

Simulations are a performance‑based assessment where learners engage in realistic scenarios requiring the application of knowledge, decision‑making, and problem‑solving. Simulations may be either formative or summative assessments. As summative assessments, simulations measure the mastery of complex skills in authentic contexts, which is ideal for adult learners and work‑related programs.​

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  • Strengths include that they mirror real‑world tasks and require learners to engage in applied problem‑solving rather than recall. Simulations assess not only what learners know but how effectively they can use that knowledge in dynamic, real‑world contexts. .

  • Challenges can be resource‑intensive to design, requiring technical expertise, time, and potentially specialized software. Poorly designed simulations may overwhelm learners, introduce unnecessary cognitive load, or fail to align with learning outcomes

  • When implemented intentionally, simulations allow learners to practice skills asynchronously, receive immediate feedback, and repeat scenarios to improve performance. Digital simulations can be interactive, immersive, and adaptive, making them ideal for remote or hybrid courses

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