Using Assessment Structure to Create a Blueprint for Feedback
Prefer to listen in? This article is available in audio format below.
Building an assessment isn’t exactly a task that can be knocked over in a couple of hours. It’s a methodical process that requires testing, consideration, and continuous improvement. So, when you ask where to start with your assessments, the old saying "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" comes to mind – and that first step is the structure of your assessment.
Understanding assessment structure will help you engage respondents, group concepts logically, streamline how you gather insights, and ultimately help you deliver personalized feedback.
Brilliant Assessments provides a logical and highly flexible structure that facilitates a best practice assessment structure, no matter how detailed or complex the assessment objectives are.
The Assessment Hierarchy
Every assessment in Brilliant Assessments uses four core layers: sections, subsections, questions, or answers. Brilliant Assessments are built the same way a respondent takes them, making for an intuitive design with a clear hierarchy. Each level organizes the content logically and automates scoring and feedback.
Let’s take a look at each component in more detail.
👉 Pro Tip: Test as You Build
Regularly preview and test your assessment as you build it. This allows you to experience it from the respondent's perspective and spot any issues with flow, question clarity, or layout.
Sections
Sections act as pages, allowing respondents to focus on one topic at a time by breaking content into digestible pieces. Treat sections like a website’s navigation as you build, but remember that respondents only see one page at a time as they move through the sections in order.
Subsections
Subsections expand on themes within a section and organize content for more focused feedback. For example, a section on workplace hazards in a health and safety assessment might include subsections on fire safety, equipment handling, and first aid. Subsections can be visible or hidden from the respondent.
👉 Pro Tip: Keep Sections Focused
Limit each section to one concept to keep respondents focused. This ensures clear, digestible assessments, leading to more thoughtful, relevant responses.
Questions & Answers
Questions sit under subsections. It is also possible to weight questions with a maximum score if specific questions have more significance than others in a section.
Answers (which sit under questions) can take many forms, such as text boxes, sliders, rankings, or multiple-choice options. You can tailor the answer format based on the information you’re collecting, with pre-configured Likert or rating scale answers available to speed up the process.
👉 Pro Tip: Start with Preconfigured Answers
When pressed for time, use Brilliant Assessments’ pre-configured answer types, like Likert scales and rating options. You can always customize answers later, but these ready-made options speed up the process.
Adding Context to your Assessment
Creating Context for Responses
In Brilliant Assessments, you can add Instructions in various formats, including text, image, and video. Instructions offer context to help respondents approach questions.
For example, in a question like “How closely do you align with our company values?” the instructions may serve as a reminder stating, “Our values include collaboration, integrity, and innovation.” This gives respondents a clear frame of reference.
Similarly, for questions like “I consider myself a good leader" (rate agree to disagree), instructions like “Leadership involves communication, decision-making, and motivating others” guide respondents to reflect on these qualities.
Creating Context for Feedback
When structuring your assessment to add context for feedback, Classifiers organize and filter responses. Classifiers can then be used to create benchmarks based on ‘classifying questions’ in your assessment.
A classifying question might be, “How long have you worked here?” or “Which department are you in?” This helps segment responses when generating benchmarks or conducting comparative analysis.
In your results or reports, you may compare responses from long-term employees to newer ones or see how different departments view something like company culture. In a nutshell, classifiers tailor feedback to relevant trends.
The Feedback Hierarchy
Brilliant Assessments automate feedback through scoring and ratings.
Ratings might be binary, like pass/fail, or function as grading scales, color-coded bands, or competency scales. You can apply ratings at the section and/or subsection levels depending on how detailed you want your feedback to be or the types of charts you plan to generate.
Each rating can also have text and feedback associated with it.
Section Ratings
Ratings at the section level usually give high-level feedback on broader topics. For example, in a Language Competency Assessment, a section on reading comprehension might receive an overall pass/fail rating based on total section performance.
Subsection Ratings
Subsection ratings can provide more specific feedback on areas within a section. For example, in a subsection on vocabulary within a reading comprehension section, you could apply a more detailed rating scale, such as excellent, satisfactory, or needs improvement, to pinpoint skill gaps.
👉 Pro Tip: Advanced Ratings
Advanced ratings let you add additional rating types (the default is the Base Rating Type) to offer more granular feedback. Each rating type can be named and scored separately.
Answer text
When a specific answer reveals essential insights, answer text can be pulled into reports and results. You can define up to five options for answer text for flexibility across report formats. For example, you could link to a training video in your results page and then offering detailed written feedback in the PDF report for the same answer.
👉 Pro Tip: Segmentations
Connect an answer to a segmentation group to generate a rating for multiple answers (or questions) across the assessment. This won’t affect your section or subsection ratings but might allow you to draw together answer scores that share a theme in various sections.
Ready to build?
Understanding how to structure assessments in Brilliant Assessments is essential for creating personalized feedback. By organizing your content into clear sections and subsections and incorporating detailed ratings, you can ensure your assessments deliver deep insights.
If you'd like to explore how Brilliant Assessments can enhance your work, we offer a demo where you can see all the key features in action. If you prefer a more interactive approach, you can try an assessment, giving you firsthand experience with the platform's capabilities.