The Academic Support Assessments (ASA) assess the following Learner Liabilities:

Low Academic Motivation (LOMOT)

Academic motivation is the desire to acquire information. It is a modifiable characteristic that has long been linked to academic achievement. Attributions for success and failure, specific achievement goals, and perceptions about incentives all contribute to a learner’s academic motivation. Motivation reflects a leaner’s investment in the process of learning, influencing which leaning strategies are used and the effort expended to carry them out. This construct helps to explain the different use of learning strategies by different learners or in different learning situations. 

The LOMOT scale is designed to assess a lack of intrinsic motivation to engage and succeed in various academic pursuits experienced by the learner.

Test Anxiety (TANX)

Test anxiety is a modifiable factor that interferes with a learner’s ability to show that information has been learned. Test anxiety is associated with difficulty applying other learning strategies. The construct as measured by the SMALSI encompasses the two traditional components of test anxiety, worry and emotionality, as well as impaired social learning and poor study habits.

The TANX scale is designed to assess the learner’s experience of symptoms of anxiety associated with taking tests or engaging in related evaluative performances. The TANX scale tends to focus on the worry and emotionality components of test anxiety. Anxiety, as a construct, is known to have an inverted U-shaped relationship with performance on many complex tasks. Thus, feeling some anxiety about performance tends to enhance outcomes while very high and very low levels of anxiety may diminish performance.

Concentration/Attention Difficulties (CONDIF)

Attention and concentration are precursors to memory and learning: a learner must attend in a focused day before learning can occur. Thus attention and concentration are integral to making use of other learning strategies. Difficulties attending or concentrating arise from various environmental and personal factors. Intervention in this area can significantly improve both the use of learning strategies and emotional adjustment.

The CONDIF scale is designed to assess the learner's self-perception of skills in attending to lectures and other academic tasks, adjusting levels of attention to tasks as required, self-monitoring attention to academic tasks, and ignoring distractions. Attention is a necessary but insufficient condition for memory to form and for learning to occur. Thus it is fundamental to success on any academic task.