One of the hallmarks of a quality online course is alignment among learning objectives, instructional materials, and assessments to ensure critical course components work together so learners can achieve desired learning outcomes. This post illustrates how alignment drives the development and implementation of effective assessments. Assessment is the method we use to gather data about students in order to evaluate, measure, and document their learning progress, such as exams, papers, and discussions. Let’s dive deeper into alignment and creating effective assessments by examining course- and module-level learning objectives and a potential assessment strategy for one of our SPS online courses.