Moore’s 3 forms of interaction matured and evolved in the Community of Inquiry’s 3 presences – cognitive presence, teaching presence, and social presence. Within the Community of Inquiry framework, assessment is part of teaching presence, defined as “the unifying force” that “brings together the social and cognitive processes directed to personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile outcomes” (Vaughn, et al., 2013, p. 12).  Teaching presence consists of design, facilitation, organization, delivery, and assessment.

“Assessment very much shapes the quality of learning and the quality of teaching. In short, students do what is rewarded. For this reason one must be sure to reward activities that encourage deep and meaningful approaches to learning” (Vaughn, et al., 2013, p. 42). 

In its simplest terms, deep learning is good and surface learning is bad. When adopting a surface learning approach, students consume content as a commodity to be acquired through a form of mechanistic transfer.

Students who take a deep learning approach “recognize the dynamic and interrelated structure of content to be learned, and learning is less a process of knowledge transfer than one of exploration, discovery, and ultimately, growth” (Platow, et al., 2010).  Deep learning is an approach to learning consciously or unconsciously selected by the student, but the design of the learning opportunity encourages students to adopt a particular approach.  

In short, assessment is the heart of the student experience, and assessment design will determine how students behave and engage with the learning environment. Authentic assessments change the nature of the relationship to content and can encourage students towards deep learning. Deep learning principles recommend active and interactive learning, and “graded activities that require collaboration and constructivist thought will encourage students to work toward this end” (Vaughn, et al., 2013, p. 33).

Dr. J

Platow, M. J., Mavor, K. I., & Grace, D. M. (2013). On the role of discipline-related self-concept in deep and surface approaches to learning among university students.  Instructional Science: An International Journal of the Learning Sciences, 41(2), 271-285. doi: 10.1007/s1125101292274

Vaughan, N. D., Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M.  (2014). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Athabasca University Press. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10840609