When To Use It

The idea of the muddiest point is that it’s not really clear. The concept is still a little a little muddy. The muddiest point is something that you would often do during the learning process while you’re still teaching concepts and skills so that you can get some feedback about where students are struggling. That’s going to happen during learning, so it’s formative assessment. It’s low stakes. You probably wouldn’t make that a major component of a grade or a student’s performance. So it’s probably low stakes or no stakes and it’s indirect in that you’re not actually measuring that particular muddy point exactly.  You’re asking for students perceptions about what they think. So that would be an example of the muddiest point assessment activity, because it is an assessment activity. It’s an example of a formative low stakes or no stakes and an indirect type of assessment, if you were to do some sort of indirect approach to assessment like a muddiest point activity.

Why Do The Muddiest Point?

Students generally seem to focus on that one concept or that one skill where they’re still really unclear. That’s really important for you to pay attention to because students are signaling to you that they are struggling with a particular concept. And that’s really valuable information particularly when you think about assessment as as a tool for for learning Improvement.

About the Author

Dr. Jeff Boyer, is the NDSU director of assessment. Boyer’s areas of expertise include designing assignments to demonstrate student learning, implementing formative and summative assessment techniques, aligning learning outcomes with assessment methods and measures, and aligning course-level assessment approaches with program assessment. Boyer’s work is focused on advancing a culture of learning improvement at NDSU.