Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding student learning through multiple methods. It serves diagnostic, formative, and summative functions to provide feedback to students and faculty. Authentic assessment observes students' ability to apply learning to real-world tasks, using work samples, observations, and student conferences. Informal assessments like questions and discussions are easy to individualize but require teacher skill. Portfolios and rubrics are tools to systematically evaluate student work over time based on defined criteria.