Project-based learning is a powerful process that can greatly enhance learning in the classroom. Its power lies in its “structured” open-endedness, its flexibility to adapt to address a variety of learning needs, and its relevancy and connection to real life. Learners become actively engaged in what they are doing, and, in the process, learn and use skills they will need in their adult lives.

While the flexibility and open-endedness of project-based learning make it highly functional and effective, you may wonder how you can assess learning within such a context. How can you find out what students have learned, how well they have learned it, or whether they can apply their learning to other situations?

Meaningful learning is reflective, constructive, and self-regulated. To know something is not only to have received information, but to have interpreted it and related it to other knowledge one already has. Today’s students need to know not simply knowledge and how to perform, but also when to perform and how to apply the knowledge and how to adapt that knowledge and performance to new situations. Thus, the presence or absence of discrete bits of information-which is typically the focus of traditional multiple choice tests-is not of primary importance in the assessment of meaningful learning that takes place in a project-based learning setting. Rather, what is important is how and whether students are able to organize, structure, and use that knowledge in different contexts to solve complex problems, to produce a variety of performances, to create products, and to complete projects.

In learning how to assess in a project-based learning context, you will be able to look at many factors beyond content. Just as learning becomes more “real” with project-based learning and is a departure from traditional classroom teaching, assessment with project-based learning becomes more “authentic.” You will find yourself needing to adjust your thinking about assessment and evaluation and to embrace new assessment methodology that is more student-centered, flexible, and empowering.

Examples of authentic assessments include:

• Portfolios
• Oral interviews
• Photography  
• Experiments
• Debates
• Journal writing
• Reader’s Theatre