How mastery is assessed

To assess student mastery, MyLab Foundational Skills uses either:

  • Direct mastery - The student's score on questions from a module or topic/lesson determines mastery for that module or topic/lesson.
  • Competency-based mastery- Criteria or competency mappings determine whether a module or topic/lesson needs study. You can edit the competency mappings using the Assignment wizard.
Assessment type Mastery type Mastery assessment level Preloaded assessment available How students access Students see score
Content Path Builder (or Pre-Assessment) Competency-based Module Yes Path Builder button or Learning Path page No
Content Mastery Check (or Post-Assessment) Competency-based Module No Learning Path page No
Module Skills Check Competency-based Topic/ Lesson Yes Topic/Lesson Activity page No
Topic/Lesson Post-test (or Mastery Quiz) Direct Topic/Lesson Yes Topic/Lesson Activity list Yes
Topic/Lesson Activity Not included in mastery assessment Not included in mastery assessment No Topic/Lesson Activity list Yes

A topic/module has four mastery states:

  • Needs study - The initial state.

    Mastered-tested or Hidden modules/topics revert to Needs Study if the student does not demonstrate mastery on a content area assessment.

  • Mastered-tested - The student demonstrated mastery on an assessment.

    Needs Study or Hidden modules/topics change to Mastered-tested when the student demonstrates mastery on a content area test or module assessment.

    Mastered-worked modules/topics change to Mastered-tested when the student gets a better result on a content area or module assessment.

  • Mastered-worked- The student met the mastery requirements specified by the instructor. This state is assigned to a module based on the state of all its topics/lessons.

    If a student does not demonstrate mastery on a content area or module in the Mastered-worked state, the state does not change.

    You can choose whether a topic/lesson reverts to Needs Study when a student does not show mastery on its post-test.

  • Hidden - The student took an assessment but the topic/module was hidden from the Learning Path.

Changes to an individual student's scores may affect the student's mastery status. However, omitting or deleting results or making batch score changes for the entire class does not affect individual student mastery.

In competency-based courses, mastery status is changed only when you:

  • Submit or change the score for a test or a question on a test. For Path Builders and Skills Checks, only the modules or topics/lessons with mastery based on overall test score are updated.
  • Include a previously omitted assignment.
  • Omit or delete assignments:
    • If other results are included, mastery status is recalculated based on the most recent included result.
    • If no other results are included, mastery status is recalculated based on most recent omitted result.
    • If no other results are included and an assessment is deleted, mastery status reverts to Needs Study; if omitted, mastery status is not affected.
    • If all Path Builder results are omitted, mastery status is not recalculated based on post-test scores.

In mastery-based courses:

  • For Path Builder, Skills Check, or content area mastery checks, mastery status is updated when you change the score for an individual question, but not when you change the score for the entire test.
  • For topic/lesson post-tests, mastery status is updated when you submit or change the score for the test or an individual question.
  • For topic/lesson activities, mastery status is updated when you submit, change, omit, include, or delete a score.

Otherwise, omitting, including, or deleting an assessment updates mastery status in the way as competency-based assessments.