Assessments become formative when the information is used to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs.
Formative assessments can be used to gather evidence that students are learning, assess areas of need, provide feedback to help students learn, and determine ways to ensure that the students understand the material.
Formative assessment typically does not require an extensive, formal grading process. Rather, its value lies in the feedback from other students or the instructor. Formative assessments can be as simple as inviting reflection from students on their learning progress. Any activity that happens as part of learning can be used as a formative assessment.
In an online course, formative assessment may be easier to monitor than in a traditional course. For example, instructors can read the discussion board postings and find out if students understand the material or are confused. In face-to-face courses formative assessments may be ungraded; However, in online courses some points should be assigned for formative assessments, although they are not usually a significant part of a grade.
Formative assessments are also designed to find out how to improve overall course design and instruction in order to help students learn. For example, mid-course evaluation surveys can be used to find out what is working and what is not so that adjustments can be made before the course is over.
Benefits of a Formative Assessment
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Guides instruction and to authentically determine student mastery.
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Enables instructors to adjust content and activities while learning is in progress.
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Helps ensure that students who are assessed are the ones who benefit from the adjustments.
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Helps students use the results to adjust and improve their own learning.
This graphic shows the role of formative assessment as a part of a process of ongoing learning. In this example, an online discussion post serves as the formative assessment.
Reference: http://online.pasadena.edu/faculty/hb/courseassessment/
Consider: What benefits of using formative assessment can you see for your own classes? Consider these when drafting your course map and module worksheet at the end of this module.
Optional Readings & Resources
In addition the module content, you are encouraged to explore the folowing resource:
In summary, formative assessments allow the student and instructor to form a more detailed understanding of the student’s abilities, which can be used to inform remediation, re-teaching, and instructional strategy.