Standardized testing offers a snapshot of what students learned, but it fails to capture applicable life skills and deep knowledge from hard work and well-structured courses. Educational institutions are beginning to see the advantages of embracing technology to capture the big picture of how students perform. Technological advances are driving more product development to assess long-term success, but the costs of utilizing them add up. Finding the best value solutions for student learning outcomes measurement leads to student and school success.
What Is the Importance of Measuring Learning Outcomes?
The most significant advantage of using these tools is collecting valuable insights that drive student performance and school programs. Schools use third-party assessment methods for various reasons.
Accountability
Accredited schools must maintain standards to maintain their status with the governing academic bodies. The agency they go through will gather annual reports, self-evaluations and review the school’s results to ensure they meet specific standards. Curricula geared to tracking and defining results offer proof during each cycle and come in handy when reporting to stakeholders, such as donors, board members and parents.
Improved Teaching Methods
The best software identifies student weaknesses and optimizes teaching methods to address problem areas. Using learning outcomes measurement results in a stronger curriculum and better teacher training.
Personalized Learning
Technology tracks everything and leads to better student results. With today’s online courses, schools can shore up students’ weak areas by changing the curriculum throughout their school careers.
Best Value Solutions for Student Learning Outcomes Measurement
The right solutions help schools refine decision-making and individual counseling. Tools were gathered from educator reviews, student comments, product websites, teacher discussion boards and EdTech reports. The pricing structures, features and software interfaces were closely examined to determine which options provide the best value.
1. Watermark
Considered a leader in achievement measures, Watermark offers an integrated suite of higher education tools. In addition to tracking, the platform gathers student feedback, materials for accreditation management and provides visualization. The software’s AI-driven component helps institutions translate participant responses into strategies for improving curriculum design and teacher performance.
Watermark’s system is highly scalable as schools grow or add new courses. The platform covers the needs of many higher education institutions by combining administrative functions with outcome workflows.
Top Features
| Integrated suite for students, faculty and tracking | Dashboards that track institutional goals |
| Evidence-based reporting to ensure compliance | Student engagement tools |
2. Anthology
Anthology is an EdTech company offering built-in AI for insights. It offers LMS, SIS and customer relationship management (CRM). The platform grabs learner input, assesses it and gives insights that align with an institution’s strategic goals. Students can showcase their progress with work evidence, and institutions can show the value of academic initiatives.
Anthology takes a portfolio approach, utilizing student reflections to determine learning and taking work samples for further assessment. For higher education brands wanting to balance quantitative and qualitative data, they have the right features to accomplish this combination.
Top Features
| Flexible rubrics to assess learning at the course level | Integrations with the current LMS |
| Tracks benchmarks across courses and departments | Offers reports to make compliance reviews go smoothly |
3. HelioCampus
Blending analytics and assessments, HelioCampus gives post-secondary institutions an in-depth look at student performance and weaknesses. Its Outcomes Assessment platform links assignments to goals and other key performance indicators.
HelioCampus’s data-informed format will appeal to higher education leaders who are preparing for reviews. It provides a map of examples of analytics-powered stories to highlight learning progress to potential future students and for approval.
Top Features
| Results link back to curriculum, course modules and institutional objectives | Predictive AI analytics to help students succeed and enhance decision-making. |
| Helps scale enrollment yield | Deep academic programming insights |
4. ExamSoft
A strong option for institutions wanting to prioritize exam results is ExamSoft. The platform offers secure exam delivery combined with detailed analysis of results. Rather than the broader learning outcomes services, ExamSoft measures knowledge acquisition and student competency.
ExamSoft is often adopted in professional courses such as nursing, law and health sciences for competency-based testing, which can be crucial to accreditation and student success. It is cost-effective because it reduces paper testing and gives students the details they need to enhance performance.
Top Features
| Anti-cheating safeguards | Granular item-level analysis locates knowledge gaps |
| Comparison of individual performance and standards | Integrates with existing LMS |
5. Explorance Blue
If you’re looking for a platform offering extensive evaluations, Explorance Blue is an excellent choice for exploring student learning via course evaluations, surveys and competency assessments. It doesn’t offer the expansive tools of some all-in-one platforms, but it excels at providing insights directly from student comments.
Explorance Blue allows institutions to capture student input and gather direct student perspectives, turning them into actionable insights about program effectiveness. The platform integrates seamlessly with current systems, features multiple access points to encourage participation and gathers necessary evidence to drive change.
Top Features
| Evaluations are highly customizable with personalized invitations and reminders | Flexible survey design connects directly with KPIs |
| Scalable for small private schools or large universities | Data-driven insights for review |
Roundup of Cost-Effective Tools for Measuring Student Learning Outcomes
The top five tools for measuring student learning indicators offer a rich mix of features that any educational institution would welcome.
| Tool | Best for | Key Features | Value |
| Watermark | Schools wanting an all-in-one platform | Integration assessment and compliance support | Many features for the cost |
| HelioCampus | Institutions needing insight-focused decisions | Competencies mapping and predictive analytics | Excellent ROI for analytical data |
| Anthology | Higher learning organizations wanting LMS integration and benchmarking | Student portfolios and reporting for accreditation reviews | Moderate cost |
| ExamSoft | Schools relying on exams to test competency | Cheat-resistant with item-level analysis | Lower costs by using systems already in place |
| Explorance Blue | Organizations seeking feedback-driven improvements | Customizable surveys and dashboard with compliance support | Affordable small and large institutions |
The Right Fit Drives Student Success
The best value solutions for measuring student learning outcomes vary from one institution to the next. Your goals can determine which tools best match your needs. Whether you choose Watermark’s all-in-one platform or ExamSoft’s exam-based model, each tool listed has strengths. A strong assessment strategy can ensure your school collects the data needed to strengthen decisions and enhance student learning.
