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Instruction Assessment

Formative gives you the teaching tools to engage, instruct, and assess

(In under 2 minutes!)

Why do teachers and school leaders love formative so much, as a teacher, i will be able to..., transform a pdf or google doc into an auto-graded quiz, present slides with built-in questions for a paced lesson, enhance a reading passage with questions, activate student agency and metacognition using strikethroughs, promote higher level thinking with advanced math tools.

Create flipped instructional videos.

You can add video as a stand-alone content item and attach questions. Our Partner users can also attach questions at specific times in the video or add a video directly into any question!

You can add videos between other items on your formative. Click on the + icon in between questions or content you've already created, and select from the menu that appears.

*Note: The “Record Video” feature is not compatible with Safari on macOS.

If you are a member of a Partner School or District, you can add a video to any question or content block. You just have to click the blue "+" icon (found in any rich-text field). Then click "Video."

You will have the option to record using your camera, upload from your device, or record and upload a screencast. Check out the following animation to see how it works. Supported file types for video uploads are mp4, mov, webm, 3gpp, 3gpp2, flv, wmv, and mpeg.

You can even leave feedback for students with this feature! Just click the blue plus sign in the feedback chat box!

Add time-stamped questions to video content (Partner users only)

Partner users can create questions attached to specific times in a video. Students will see the questions pop up when the video reaches the selected time. Students are still able to control the video by playing, pausing, adjusting the time, and moving the video forward or backward.

Note: You can add more than one question at a particular timestamp by clicking the "Add item at X:XX" button, clicking the "+" in the question area, or by duplicating a question.

Students can also record video submissions when using the Free Response question type!

Can I add more than one question at the same time?

You can add more than one question at a particular timestamp by clicking the "Add item at X:XX" button, clicking the "+" in the question area, or by duplicating a question.

Can I use video timestamps during Teacher Paced Mode?

Yes! Students will see and be able to control the video in the same way during Teacher Paced Mode. Each student will be able to control the video on their own screen.

What if I want to add questions but don't want to attach them at a particular time?

Not a problem! Simply click "Add item at 0:00," and you can add your questions. Students will be able to view them ahead of time by clicking the drop-down arrow next to each question in the right-side column.

Add a YouTube video with timestamped questions

Differentiate learning with audio and video assignments..

Students can respond to your questions by recording themselves using audio and video! This is great for young learners and foreign-language classes. There is a 10-minute limit to recordings, so students will have plenty of time to share their thoughts!

To add an audio response question:

Prompt/ask students to provide a verbal response or explanation!

To add a video response question:

Prompt/ask students to provide a visual response or explanation!

Unleash student creativity with audio and video responses

See students work and engage in real-time, efficiently leave comments on student work., batch scoring & feedback:.

Score and give feedback to multiple student answers at the same time. This is useful if a particular question is giving multiple students trouble!

Draw feedback on Show Your Work Responses:

If you have a Partner account, you'll see an option to "Draw Feedback" on your students' Show Your Work responses. Click on this button to launch the full-screen canvas.

You can use any of the Show Your Work tools (draw, circle, create a square, draw a line, type, upload an image, use the Math Keyboard, select, erase, and back) to annotate your students' responses. When you click the checkmark, your annotations will be saved as an image that you can instantly send to your student as a feedback message!

Student to Teacher Feedback:

Students can directly send feedback to partner teachers on a formative and respond to teacher feedback messages.

Emojis in Student Feedback:

Have a little more fun with student feedback!

Give feedback to students faster than ever

App smash your favorite tools by embedding an external learning app

Know if students copy and paste answers.

One of our features to help ensure secure assessment is the Copy / Paste Alert. This alert is designed to show whenever a student uses any copy-and-paste function -- this could include CTRL C/V keyboard short-cuts, or right-clicking the mouse to select copy/paste, etc..

If a student has used these functions, you will see an exclamation mark alert that reads, "This response includes copy & pasted parts."

At this time, Formative shows this alert as a way to make you aware that students used this function. The only question type that will actually show you what was copied and pasted is Short Answer. You can click on the small “i” icon in the alert to view what was copied and pasted into the student response. The alert will not appear if a student copies and pastes a part of their own response: only outside items.

Teacher discretion is required for this alert, so we never auto-grade these responses as incorrect .

Some common reasons this alert will show that are not cheating might include:

• World Languages classes: copying words with special characters
• All content areas: copying parts of a question to use as a sentence starter
• Copying words that are difficult to spell from the question or another source
• Using some Chrome extensions, such as "Grammarly" to accept suggestions for their writing

It could be helpful to let your students know that you are aware when they use any copy/paste function but that this does not always indicate cheating.

Detect if students copy and paste answers

Monitor student growth against standards over time..

To access the student growth tracker, click on the Tracker tab at the top of your dashboard.

• Switch between viewing scores by Formatives or by tagged Standards.
• This area will display any filters that are currently defined. Click the pencil icon next to each of these to adjust your filter's range, or you can remove them.
• Here you will find the display area for class scores.
• Toggle this button to hide student names.
• Click the "Filter" button to define your view range by adjusting the date last answered, classes, grade levels, subjects, and Formative types. Each of the filters chosen will then appear in the area marked 2.
• Click the "Sort by" button, and sort if students will appear by their names or by their scores. You can also sort formatives by their title or by date answered.
• Click the "Export" button to export data as a CSV/Spreadsheet or asa Google Sheet (see the following for more details).

More ways to view the tracker:

When showing Formatives (at the top left), click on individual student names to view their overall score for each assignment.

Note: Students who have not yet taken a formative will have a blank score in the Tracker. ‍

Select "Standards" to see how students performed against standards tagged in the assignments. To do so, click on "Standards," expand the standards to see them in detail (if you want), and click the student's name.

The Student Growth Tracker measures student progress over time, so it is helpful to understand how the scores are calculated.

To calculate scores, we sum up all the points that answers received (=points earned). We then total all points available for those answers (the point value on the questions = points possible) and divide the former by the latter.

For example, let's say a student completes one formative with two questions. Question one is worth five points. Question two is worth ten points. The student gets two points on the first question and six points on the second. Their score for that formative is as follows: (2 + 6)/(5 + 10) = 8/15 = 53%.

When calculating multiple formatives, we consider all questions and basically treat them as if they were one big formative. For example, let's add a formative to our previous example. This formative has one question worth five points, and the student earned four points. This student's overall grade is now as follows: (2 + 6 + 4)/(5 + 10 + 5) = 12/20 = 60%

As a result, the system will weigh a formative or question with more available points more heavily in the overall score.

NOTE: If a student did not submit an assignment, unanswered questions do not count toward possible points. When students submit an assignment with an unanswered question, their work will count towards the total possible points, thus reducing the overall score. Read about how to force-submit a formative here.

If at a later time, a teacher adds a new question that students do not answer, the tracker will not count the points for that question in their score.

Export data from the Tracker

From the Tracker page, you can select the Export button located in the top right corner.

Once you select that button, a pop-up screen will appear for you to choose the content you’d like to export. You can export as a CSV/spreadsheet or as a Google Sheet. You can also export all rows or only the rows you have expanded.

When selecting Download as CSV/Spreadsheet, it will download directly to your computer.

If you select Google Sheets, the platform will direct you to choose the email associated with your account. You will then receive a prompt to your Google Sheets page.

Monitor student growth against standards over time

Collaborate with colleagues and co-teachers, tag items to standards..

After creating a question, place your cursor over the following "Tag Standards" area, and tag your question to standards for student growth tracking! Use keywords in the dropdown menu to results with standards in their descriptions!

You can also tag a single question with multiple standards. Want us to add another standards set(s)? Please have the admin on your account reach out and let us know what standard sets(s) you would like us to add!

To add standards to a formative in your account:

• Go to your formative. In the "tag to standards" field, select "+ Add New Standard Set"
• Type the name of the standard you wish you add
• Click on the name of that standard
• Select "Confirm & Exit," and the standard will be added to your account

Tag items to standards easily

Evaluate student projects using rubrics..

Rubrics are powerful tools: they provide scoring guidelines for evaluating student work, and they offer clear teaching directives and criteria for students. You can customize them in your formatives! Add a rubric to an open-ended question type: Show Your Work, Video Response, Audio Response, Free Response, or File Response.

Evaluate student projects using rubrics

Ask questions like graphing, drag-and-drop, and more

Edit a do now or exit ticket without asking students to refresh, we're an official launch partner for the new google classroom add-ons.

We are thrilled to announce we are one of the first fifteen add-on apps through the new Google Classroom integration as mentioned in Google's recent Anywhere School Event !

Effortlessly access Formative’s power from your Google Classroom account! You will be able to create, edit, preview, and assign any Formative without needing to navigate back and forth between the two platforms.

This partnership will make it easier for educators and students to get real-time, actionable data. And don't worry: we'll be here to help you at every step of the way!

Wishing you a great summer!

The Formative Team

We're an official launch partner for the new Google Classroom add-on!

As a School Leader, I will be able to...

Encourage powerful faculty collaborations..

Collaborating is a feature that allows you to do more than make and share formative copies with other teachers. As a Partner-school user, you can add collaborators to your formative! You can grant two levels of access to a collaborator.

• Edit & Assign : all collaborators can edit the original formative. Your collaborator will also be able to assign the formative to their own classes.
• Assign Only : your collaborator will be able to assign the original formative to their classes, but they won't be able to edit it.

If you or your collaborator make changes to a formative, edits will appear immediately on your collaborators' screens. If they have already assigned the formative to a class, then the changes may affect their data. (for example, if you delete or add answer-key options).

Wondering if collaborating is the right option? Then check out how to share a formative or how to publish it to the public library or your team/school's private library.

TThere are two ways to give collaborating permissions on a formative to others:

• Add collaborators directly to the formative.
• Send collaborators a direct-share link.

If you have a large amount of collaborators that you want to add, we recommend using the direct link! (See the following for instructions on both ways.

To add a formative collaborator from your dashboard:

• Click on the bubble to the left of the formative (or folder) to which you'd like to add a collaborator.
• Select "Share" from the menu at the bottom.
• Underneath the first tab - "share" - type the email address(es) of your colleague(s).
• Choose their level of access (Edit & Assign, or Assign Only).
• Click "Add," and the colleague(s) will be added to your formative.

Need to remove a collaborator from the formative or change their level of access?

‍ Return to the same "Share" menu, click "edit" next to the collaborator's name, and change the level of access by choosing from the dropdown menu. Remove the collaborator entirely by clicking on the "X" next to their name.

To add a formative collaborator from within a formative:

• Click on the triple dots in the top right, and select "Share."

To add a collaborator by sharing a direct link:

Any collaborator that has "Edit & Assign" level of access can share the direct link at the bottom of the "share" modal with other teachers from the organization.

Teachers on your team who receive the direct link will be automatically added to the formative as collaborators; they can assign the formative only to their students.

• If the collaborator added in this way is an admin at the same level of the organization (or higher), they will also have permission to edit the formative.

*Note: collaborating is a feature for our Partner teams and schools. Click here to find out more!

Encourage powerful faculty collaborations

Administer common assessments..

Publish any of your formatives to your team, school, or district's private library as a Common Assessment. When a colleague grabs this assessment from the library, they won't be able to edit the content in any way: they will only be able to assign it. You can be sure every class is taking the same version of the assessment.

Using a common assessment

Common Assessments will be labeled as such in your team, school, or district's private library. The library's filters allow searching for only Common Assessments as well. Anyone with access to the private library can grab a live copy of the common assessment and then assign it to their students.

Anyone with an Edit & Assign level of access to the common assessment can also send teachers within the organization a direct link to the common assessment. If teachers receive the direct link, they can assign the common assessment to their students.

At the bottom of the screen, you’ll find the direct link in the "share" modal under the first tab.

‍ Note: Anyone who grabs a Common Assessment from the private library is grabbing a LIVE copy: if the original author changes or updates the Common Assessment, those changes will reflect immediately on the screens of all users with a copy, including students currently taking the Common Assessment.

Administer common assessments

Share data among plcs, add security via respondus lockdown browser, respondus lockdown browser.

For school network-managed Chromebooks, Windows, Mac, and iPads, this browser is available as an optional add-on to a Partner Subscription to help keep assessments secure. It prevent students from opening any other apps, tabs, or windows. However, even with this browser-locking technology, it may still be possible for students outside the classroom to use other resources to help them with test questions; students might ask a sibling for assistance or use the internet on a second device.

Support LTI 1.3 to integrate within Canvas, Schoology, etc

Integrate with SSO and SIS providers.

What is sso and why is it used.

Single Sign-On (SSO) allows you to use your Google, Microsoft, or Clever profile to authenticate you when logging into Formative. If your school account is tied to one of these providers, we encourage you to use SSO for efficiency.

If you don't use one of those providers, you can create a password for your Formative login. Students and teachers can use either method.

With Formative you can sync rosters with your Student Information System (SIS).

Syncing rosters with your SIS is one way to set up all teacher and student accounts and to automatically place all students and teachers into their classes.

Step 1: Check if you have software that supports OneRoster

In order to set up a OneRoster connection, you will need an SIS or other software system component that allows access to rosters using OneRoster 1.1 API or CSV files. Aeries, ClassLink, PowerSchool Unified , and Infinite Campus are some examples of software that support OneRoster exports using the API integration method.

Some of our customers do not have any system that supports OneRoster. In this case, some have adopted ClassLink, which can be used to add OneRoster support to a variety of SIS systems (read more about that here ). A few others have implemented a custom software solution on their end to generate OneRoster files and then upload them to an SFTP server.

Once you have identified a way to provide us with OneRoster data, you will have to consult its documentation (assuming it is not a custom solution) to determine how to set up a OneRoster export and provide us with the necessary information to access it.

Step 2: Get OneRoster Sync Credentials Or Set up OneRoster SFTP Uploads

For OneRoster API integrations, you are given a OneRoster Base URL, Consumer Key, and Consumer Secret.

Blackbaud users: your base URL is based on your Blackbaud access URL. If your Blackbaud domain name is yourschool.myschoolapp.com, then your Base URL will be https://yourschool.myschoolapp.com/ims/oneroster/v1p1

You can encrypt the consumer secret into a secure sharing URL using https://dead-drop.me . Send the Base URL, Consumer Key, and Consumer Secret to your implementation specialist.

Note: if you are using ClassLink, you can instruct members to share roster data with us instead of sending us the credentials. Check out this article for more details.

If your system does not support OneRoster API integration but exports CSV files that must be added to a ZIP file and uploaded to an SFTP site, please contact us to set up an SFTP account you can use to upload the file.

We only need these files for rostering from zipped CSV files:

• academicSessions.csv
• classes.csv
• enrollments.csv

You can optionally provide courses.csv.

Step 3: Establish scope of the import

In addition to the OneRoster access information, we will want to know which organizations (schools, districts, departments, etc.) you wish to import to help us validate the data we receive; this information also helps avoid importing the wrong users. We will want to know the NCES ID (or other government ID, if available) of each school and district, too, so we can avoid data duplication.

Since your organization will have some degree of control over the users that OneRoster imports, we restrict the imported users to a list of emails and email address domains that we can confirm you control. We will need to know all the email domains that your district owns to enable the import of those users via OneRoster. If you have a subset of users outside your controlled email domain (contractors, for example), we can also accommodate a small number of specific, individual email addresses.

Step 4: Make sure we have the information we need for the import

After doing all of the above, be prepared to provide us with the following information if you haven't already done so:

• If API sync is supported: OneRoster API consumer key, secret, and Base URL (do not send these if data is shared using ClassLink)
• List of organizations to roster
• If applicable, NCES / government identifiers for each organization
• Email domains of the users to import
• When to start the import (if not immediately)

Additional Notes

• Existing Classes: Classes imported from OneRoster do not link or merge with existing classes, so you will have to decide what to do with duplicate classes for teachers who have already set up their classes. It is easiest for teachers to keep existing classes and archive the OneRoster-created classes when they get duplicates. The downside of this process: those classes will not automatically update from the SIS, but existing assignments to the class will not have to be copied to the new class.
• Teacher Login: Teachers will receive emails with some information about their new account, including how to set their password if they need instructions. If they use SSO logins (Google, Clever, Canvas, Microsoft, LTI, etc.), they won't need to create a password.
• Student Login: If students cannot use a SSO login, teachers can set their passwords via the classes page. Students with access to their email can also use the "forgot password" feature to set their password. We also offer the option of setting each student's password to their "identifier" (e.g. Student ID) by default, although doing so is not the most secure approach.
• Administrator Users: Although we normally only set up students and teachers using OneRoster, we can use it to control Formative administrators. If you provide us with a list of the members you believe should be formative administrators, we can check whether that information matches OneRoster user data and then update OneRoster in addition to students and teachers. If this information does not match, then Formative administrator access will have to be managed manually. ‍
• Class Start & End Dates: If OneRoster data includes start and end dates for classes, then classes will not be created if they are more than fourteen days away. Classes created in the past that are more than fourteen days old will be marked as archived.

The following platforms provide a OneRoster API that is known to work with Formative:

• Focus School Software
• Infinite Campus

Integrate with SSO and SIS providers

Add to a great standards-aligned item bank, see results by demographics, sped, ell, and more, report student growth across any team, school or district, trusted by schools and districts around the world.

Here's what our instructional leaders have to say

District supervisors and directors can access the data to allow for collaboration and reflection with administrators and specialists. Once published, all are updatable at any time, and any changes will update scores and tracking for students.

Superintendent

Formative assessment is the true pulse of rich instruction. This phenomenal platform allows us to provide instant feedback to students while simultaneously adapting to an ever-changing virtual landscape.

School Principal

It is probably one of the very best programs I have ever come across in education, and I’ve been here for 31 years...The customer support is outstanding!

Curriculum Specialist

Fingers crossed that SCEC admin will buy into the full subscription. What would life be without Formative in the classroom? Thank you for creating such an app. It is a teacher's online dream for assessments!

See why Technology Coaches from Summit Public Schools love Formative!

7 Tools for Formative Assessment in the Virtual Classroom

Teachers do it every day, they do it all the time, and they do it sometimes without even realizing it. What is it they are regularly doing? Teachers are continually evaluating student understanding via formative assessments. 

Formative assessments are an essential tool for assessing student understanding. With the transition to online learning, it is crucial to find ways to continue to formatively assess your students even when they’re not in the room. However, finding new websites and interactive tech tools for your virtual classroom can feel overwhelming. That’s why I wanted to share this information today!

What are formative assessments?

Formative assessments are a diagnostic versus a summative evaluation, which is more of an assessment based on a “sum” of understanding. An example of a formative assessment could be a pre-test; an example of a summative evaluation could be a unit test. 

In the classroom, you gather formative assessment data from the minute your students walk in the door. Sometimes this is more formal to give you information on content mastery. Other times, you’re gathering this data to help you better identify and plan for the social-emotional needs of your class.

Think about it. Do you talk to your students when they are entering your classroom? Maybe you ask them how their day is going.

Maybe you check with them to see if they completed their homework.

Perhaps you remind them to read the board for their bellringer assignment. A simple, “Did you complete your homework?” can help you evaluate immediately where a student is and get the status of your class.

If the majority of students did their homework, they are more than likely prepared for the day’s lesson; if they didn’t, you might need to spend some time reteaching or supporting an individual student. 

The best tech tools to formatively assess your students

Whether you are in a face-to-face teaching model or teaching in a virtual classroom, the following 7 formative assessment tools are sure to help drive your instruction while meeting your students’ academic needs. 

Poll Everywhere

A bellringer is a great way to start your class, it allows for the students to come in, get settled, and get started on a task.  This would be no different in the virtual classroom setting. A great way to formatively assess students in the virtual classroom is as simple as polling them via Poll Everywhere .

With Poll Everywhere you can ask interactive questions and get immediate feedback. 

Students can use a mobile device to respond via the web or by sending a text message. They can also respond directly on the website by following a link to your poll. By embedding your poll into a PowerPoint or Google Slide presentation, it’s as easy as A, B, C, or D! 

Here’s a silly example to show you what the data looks like.

Exit Ticket Parking Lot  

Many of us formatively assess our students using exit tickets. But what does this look like for online learning?

In the traditional classroom, this might be a parking lot poster on the wall. In the virtual world, this can be done via Lino .

Lino is a virtual, online post-it wall where students can post their responses. The beauty of Lino is the variety of ways students can respond. They can add video links, images, text, or document files.

Lino is similar to Padlet except, Lino is FREE!

In addition, Lino allows you to create private groups which is a great tool for collaboratively grouping your students based on their responses. Students can react to their peers’ answers which also opens a discussion and allows for accountable, academic talk; all online!  

Peardeck has been around since 2014 but has come to the forefront within the virtual classroom setting. It is an interactive slideshow where student participation and interaction are the main features.

Students view a slideshow controlled by the teacher while interactively responding to questions. In addition, teachers can add new questions to a Peardeck presentation on the fly! This helps to extend or add to the discussion, check for understanding, or simply ask the question again to gauge different responses.

Peardeck is Google Slide and PowerPoint accessible, in fact, you can turn any PowerPoint or Google Slideshow into a Peardeck. 

To make it even easier to create, engage, and interact, Peardeck has ready-made templates you can choose from or you can create a Peardeck from scratch. Peardeck also has tremendous online support to get you started. 

This online tool might be the virtual classroom gamechanger you’ve been looking for to formatively assess your students. Miro is an online whiteboard that encourages visual collaboration as if you are in the same room. There are multiple templates for easy integration, it’s simple to share with peers, and students can add content and collaborate in real-time.

A tried and true formative assessment is the K-W-L chart. In other words, an organizer to find out what students:

• want to know
• have learned

Miro has a template for that!

You can easily introduce this board to your students online via a link and they can respond, teachers can check, and go! 

Google Forms

Google Forms is one of the best formative assessment tools in and out of the classroom. A Google Form allows educators to create a quiz or survey that can be individualized to the lesson, to specific students, or to provide online instruction in a survey format. 

Some teachers use Google Forms as a way to check-in and gather information from students about whether they have questions or need to talk, but these can also be used for content-based formative assessment.

With Google Forms teachers can use multiple-choice questions, short answers, checkbox questions, true or false, a linear scale, a grid type of question, an extended response or simply provide an online lesson for students to view. 

Student responses are compiled in chart form or a google sheet. 

Teachers can assess understanding immediately after the student submits the form or they can utilize the Google Quiz option, and have it automatically graded based on an answer key.

Students and teachers of all ages are flipping out over Flipgrid for good reason!

Flipgrid is a video creation tool; we know how our 21st-century learners love videos. There are multiple uses for Flipgrid, including formative assessments.

Teachers create a grid with a topic, and students respond with a video. Students can reflect on a lesson, collaborate with their peers and teachers, and use their voices via a video clip. 

All the students need is a flip code, and they are good to go. No passwords to remember, no login information (although they can create a free account), and a friendly, easy-to-use interface. 

Not to mention, Flipgrid hits the ELA standards of Speaking and Listening! Win-Win!

Quizizz is an engaging formative assessment method. With so many online academic games out there, Quizizz sets itself apart with student-led learning and self-reflection. As teachers, we sometimes forget that students can formatively assess themselves and Quizziz is perfect for that option.

Students can lead their own study groups, host live games, and challenge their peers. They can formatively assess their own learning by getting instant feedback thus taking ownership of their learning. 

For teachers, it’s a great tool because it is easy for students to access a quiz and work at their own pace. The instant feedback is great for formatively assessing where a student is at in their learning and analyzing data collected by Quizziz.

Quizizz is user-friendly and mobile-friendly which is perfect for formative assessments on the go! 

Getting Started with Digital Formative Assessment

These 7 formative assessments are perfect for teachers to utilize in the virtual classroom. The best way to find which is right for you is to spend a few minutes familiarizing yourself with each platform to find out which best fits your current needs.

You can always try out a different tool as you become more comfortable with your new digital learning environment. Still, it is important not to overwhelm yourself with too many new tools too quickly.

Formatively assessing your students helps you determine how to adjust your teaching based on where your students are, drive instruction practices, and address student growth and understanding.  This allows for differentiation for various learning styles and levels and ultimately helps improve student growth by providing steady feedback.

What are your favorite digital formative assessment tools? I’m always looking for new resources. Share in the comments!

Formative Assessment Online: Guide Students to Success

Formative assessment is used to monitor learning, give students feedback about their work while it is in progress, and help students correct errors or missteps. Furthermore, it allows instructors to become familiar with students’ work, ensure student understanding, and adapt teaching as necessary.

It can include methods such as discussions, surveys, quizzes, reflections, or drafts of essays/ projects/presentations. These are lower-stakes assessments that are given periodically throughout the course; they can be graded or ungraded. Ideally, formative assessment helps students take more ownership of their learning by identifying areas where improvement is needed (Theal & Franklin, 2010; Trumbull & Lash, 2013).

Best practices in formative assessment

The following best practice principles can guide instructor strategies (Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006; Yale, 2017). 

Click each title to learn more about them.

• Clearly communicate expectations and criteria for any assessed (low or high stakes) activities, such as participation in discussion boards, journal entries, homework, groupwork, etc. 
• Provide specific feedback tied to predefined criteria. 
• Encourage student discussion and reflection about these criteria. 
• Allow students to use course/assignment criteria (e.g. rubrics) to evaluate their own, or a peer’s, work. 
• Create space for students to reflect on the best qualities of their work, through writing or discussion.
• Aim to consistently and quickly (a couple of days on smaller assessments) provide specific feedback tied to predefined criteria.
• Feedback may be evaluative, corrective and/or forward-looking.
• Assure students that their development is important 
• Provide feedback that is not just evaluative, but corrective and forward-looking –something they could apply to future assignments 
• Allow for rewrites/resubmissions to signal that an assignment is designed to promote development of learning.
• Use automated online testing, when possible, that is anonymous, and allows for unlimited resubmissions.
• Include opportunities for resubmission. 
• Give specific action points for writing or task-based assignments.
• Share study or process strategies that an instructor would use in order to succeed.
• where they are having difficulties with the course content/assignments 
• examples of feedback they found useful 
• their own progress toward meeting the learning goals 
• Use this information to help adapt teaching approaches

Apply to your course: Resources & Tools 

There are several strategies and techniques for conducting formative assessment in your course, ranging from perhaps more traditional and common to more creative and engaging. Read on to consider strategies that are appropriate for your course.

In addition to traditional, common assessment approaches, you may want to consider more creative ways of gathering information from students about their progress and development. CATs, or Classroom Assessment Techniques, designed by Angelo and Cross (1993), can help instructors reconsider their approaches to assessment and incorporate a variety of methods into their course—thus also complying with UDL principles. The chart below highlights some of the 50 tested assessment techniques that are useful in the online teaching format (see the University of California San Diego’s full description of 50 CATs here). 

Another excellent resource for CATs is a series of videos and resources sortable by teaching environment, activity type, and teaching problem: see the K. Patricia Cross Techniques Video Library . Examples of CATs useful in online teaching.

Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bergquist, E., & Holbeck, R. (2014). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Conceptual Model for CATs in the Online Classroom. Journal of Instructional Research , 3 , 3-7.

Dawson, P., Henderson, M., Mahoney, P., Phillips, M., Ryan, T., Boud, D., & Molloy, E. (2019). What makes for effective feedback: Staff and student perspectives .

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 44 (1), 25-36. The K. Patricia Cross Academy. Techniques Video Library.

Nicol, D.J. and Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006) Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education 31(2): 2-19.

Theall, M. and Franklin J.L. (2010). Assessing Teaching Practices and Effectiveness for Formative Purposes. In: A Guide to Faculty Development. KJ Gillespie and DL Robertson (Eds). Jossey Bass: San Francisco, CA.

Trumbull, E., & Lash, A. (2013). Understanding formative assessment: Insights from learning theory and measurement theory. San Francisco: WestEd. University of California San Diego. 50 CATS by Angelo and Cross .

Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. (2017) Formative and Summative Assessments .

How to cite this page:

UMass Amherst IDEAS Team. (2024, March). Formative Assessment Online: Guide Students to Success . https://www.umass.edu/ideas/formative-assessment-online-guide-students-success

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27 Formative Assessment Tools for Your Classroom

July 6, 2021 by Kasey Bell

In this post, you will find 27 Formative Assessment Tools for Your Classroom!

Let’s make sure we are all on the same page when it comes to formative assessment, or what I like to refer to as, “Assessment FOR Learning,” as a follower of Rick Stiggins ‘ work over the years.

“Teachers who use, “Assessment FOR learning,” involve their students in ongoing self-assessment in ways that reveal to those learners (a) where they are headed in their learning, (b) where they are now in relation to those expectations, and (c) how each student can close the gap between the two.” – Rick Stiggins

Formative assessment is such an essential part of the learning process and student success, and many digital tools can help support this process.

This list has a wide variety of features and options to help you solidify your formative assessment strategies! Many of the tools below are great for both formative and summative assessments.

Listen to this article.

(in alphabetic order)

1. ASSISTments

ASSISTments is a forever free online math platform that makes it easy for teachers to assign online from their curriculum, and assess student progress in the classroom or remotely. When working on assignments within ASSISTments, students get immediate feedback as they go and teachers get actionable data, which they use to focus instructional time where students need the most support.

Related: 85+ Apps That Integrate with Google Classroom

2. Edpuzzle

Edpuzzle allows you to turn videos into a quick assessment. Choose a video on YouTube, Khan Academy, Crash Course, or upload your own. Trim the video, insert a quiz anywhere and track your students progress. (Freemium, basic account is free, additional features available with paid accounts.)

3. Edulastic

Edulastic is a complete assessment dashboard. Teachers can create and track assessments, and even align with CCSS. They also offer a district wide-platform for sharing district-wide assessments. (Free for teachers, district-sharing requires a paid license.)

4. Explain Everything

Easy-to-use online whiteboard program that can be used on any device. Students can quickly create video summaries in which they can present the most important things they learned and what questions they may still have. (Free and paid versions)

5. Flipgrid

Flipgrid is a video discussion platform, that allows students to respond to questions, topics, and reflect using video. Students can also respond to each other, leave comments, and more. (Free!)

Related: Flipgrid: The Go-To Remote Learning Tool

Some have said that Gimkit is Kahoot on steroids. Gimkit is another fast-paced quiz game, but with an extra element. Students earn in-game cash to spend on game upgrades. Check out Leslie Fisher’s review and video to learn more .

7. Google Classroom Question Tool

Inside Google Classroom, you have the option to create a question and share that with students. You can make this collaborative, or just have the answers viewable for you the teacher. This is not a robust threaded discussion tool like I wish it was, but it can be handy for formative assessments and to check for understanding.

Related: The Google Classroom Cheat Sheets for Teachers and Students (FREE)

8. Go Formative

Formative is a free online assessment tool that is very robust. Formative allows teachers to choose pre-made assessments and edit to fit their needs, create their own from scratch, or even upload a PDF or doc to create. They also offer some fantastic data that you can track and intervene when needed. (FREE and integrates with Google Classroom!)

9. Google Forms

Google forms is a survey and quiz tool that is very easy to use. You can feed your form or quiz data into a Google Sheet for analysis and evaluation. Both Google Forms and Sheets also have many “add-ons” that give users even more capabilities that can power your formative assessments. (FREE)

10. InsertLearning

InsertLearning is a Chrome extension that lets you turn any webpage into an interactive lesson. InsertLearning has this fantastic toolbar that will allow you to highlight text, add sticky notes, insert questions, videos, or even a discussion all inside the webpage! Learn more about InsertLearning here: 4 Ways to Blend Learning with InsertLearning . (InsertLearning is a freemium application, but you get your first five lessons for free.)

11. Jamboard

Jamboard is a cloud-based, whiteboard application that can be used for collaboration across multiple devices. Students can use this application to collaborate, create presentations, and bring together resources from other Google apps and the web.

12. Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a game-based learning and trivia platform that allows you to create very engaging quizzes for your classroom. Kahoot! is super fun and addictive. You can create your own kahoots, or choose from their library of games. Play live kahoots, in groups, issue challenges, or assign as homework. (FREE)

13. Mentimeter

Mentimeter is an interactive presentation tool that allows you to poll your students, check for understanding, or ask students to vote. There are several different types of questions you can create, image-based, multiple-choice, scales, open-ended, questions from the audience and more. You can even generate word clouds out of responses! (Freemium, some features are free.)

Mote is a FREE Chrome extension that allows you to leave voice notes and feedback, and much more! Improve feedback and formative assessment with voice recording.

Related: 15 Ways to Use Mote in the Classroom

15. Nearpod

Nearpod is an interactive classroom tool for teachers to engage students with interactive lessons. Nearpod allows you to create and share lessons that sync across devices and encourage student participation, and evaluate student responses through comprehensive reporting. (Freemium, some features are free.)

Padlet is a super easy way to create an online bulletin board that allows teachers and students to share and collaborate. What’s great about Padlet is that it offers so much flexibility! It works on any device, and you can share just about any type of information–text, links, upload files, photos, videos, just about any kind of response. There are also many different ways you can design your pages. Customize the background, organize information in new ways. (Free trial available)

Parlay is a discussion-based learning tool and global community of educators who are reimagining class discussions for the 21st Century. (Free trial available)

18. Pear Deck

Pear Deck is a web-based formative assessment tool that allows you to create interactive lessons using G Suite tools. The Google Slides add-on has quickly become a favorite of mine. (I even teach it in my Google Slides Master Class !) Pear Deck offers a library of free templates that you can use to created interactive assessments in your slides. Pear Deck is also a freemium tool, some features are free, but you can get a 3-month Premium Membership with this special link for Shake Up Learning readers !

19. Playposit

PlayPosit is a web- and Chrome-based tool that lets teachers create and edit interactive video assessments from streamed or uploaded content. (paid)

20. Plickers

This assessment tool allows teachers to collect on-the-spot formative assessment data without the need to have students use devices or paper and pencil. Teachers create and print specially coded cards that students hold up in class as their responses. The teacher uses the Plickers app to scan the cards and collect the data. (Free)

21. Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere is a live audience polling tool that integrates into your presentation. You can ask questions during your lessons, see live data, and reports. (Freemium, free accounts are limited to 25 responses per poll.)

22. Quizizz

Quizizz allows you to conduct student-paced formative assessments in a fun and engaging way for students of all ages. Quizizz works on just about any device and offers a library of public quizzes that teachers can use in their classrooms. They also provide detailed class and student reports. (FREE)

23. Quizlet

Quizlet is a study tool that uses flashcards, games, and other “study sets.” to help students. Quizlet Live is a collaborative quiz game where students are placed into teams to work together to answer the questions and learn together. (FREE)

24. Quizalize

Engage your class with fun, standards-tagged quizzes. Get instant data on student mastery. Automatically assign differentiated follow-up activities. (Free basic teacher accounts)

Seesaw is a digital portfolio and communication tool that many teachers love! Seesaw works on any device shared or 1:1. Free for teachers. Teachers create activities for students. Students draw, take pictures and video, and capture their learning in their portfolio. Parents can view their students work and leave comments. (Freemium, some features are free.)

26. Socrative

Socrative is a web-based formative assessment tool that allows teachers to create quizzes, ask questions, collect exit tickets and feedback. You can also create a competitive quiz bowl game, called, “Space Race,” where students compete to get the most answers correct. (Freemium with up to 50 students per session.)

27. Spiral.ac

Spiral.ac is an interactive learning platform with a suite of collaborative applications. Deliver quickfire formative assessments, discussion, teams of students can work together to create presentations, and turn any public video into a live chat with questions and quizzes. (Freemium, some features are free.)

Did your favorite assessment tool make the list? If not, let me know in the comments!

© Shake Up Learning 2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kasey Bell and Shake Up Learning with appropriate and specific direction to the original content on ShakeUpLearning.com. See: Copyright Policy.

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20 Useful Digital Assessment Tools for Teachers (Formative, Summative, and More)

Knowledge checks, quizzes and tests, peer evals, and more!

Proper assessment is essential to learning. Teachers plan their lessons and activities around learning objectives, and they need ways to check that students have accomplished those goals. Assessment is more than just quizzes and tests , as any teacher knows, and these days, there are more options than ever. Using digital assessment tools for teachers save you time, engage your audience, and make life a little easier. No matter what type of assessment you need, there’s a tool to help you out. Take a look at some of our favorites.

Digital Formative Assessment Tools for Teachers

Digital summative assessment tools for teachers, more digital assessment tools for teachers.

Teachers use formative assessments more than any other type, checking for understanding throughout the learning process. This allows them to adjust their teaching and learning activities to better meet student needs and find out which students need a little extra assistance. These digital formative assessment tools make it easier than ever to check in throughout any lesson or activity.

Google Forms for Exit Tickets

Goal: i want to find out what my students learned during today’s lesson..

Exit tickets are a fantastic way to find out what students gained from today’s lesson. If you want to replace the sticky note method with a digital version, try Google Forms. They’re so easy to use, and they give you an easy way to access student responses anywhere, anytime.

Goal: I want to have some fun with my assessments.

This free online quiz-game generator is incredibly popular, and for good reason. Teachers show the questions, and students use the completely safe app on their own devices (like Chromebooks or smartphones) to respond. Kids absolutely love these games, making them an excellent way to ramp up classroom engagement. After the game is over, teachers can take a closer look at the results with reports to determine which items kids still need help mastering. Learn how one teacher uses Kahoot! for middle school math assessments here.

Goal: I want to assess reading comprehension.

CommonLit’s huge free library of reading passages comes with built-in quizzes to test for comprehension. Choose your articles by topic, reading level, or type, and assign to students. They can make annotations and use guided reading questions as they tackle the text, then finish up with a reading comprehension quiz and discussion questions.

Goal: I want to hear from my students and watch them share what they’ve learned.

Flip (formerly Flipgrid) is a social media–style video discussion platform great for generating class discussion around topics, videos, or links posted to the class grid. Students can video-record their responses to share with the teacher or class. It’s a great tool for supporting your students to make their thinking visible.

Goal: I want to do a quick check-in during my lesson.

Mentimeter lets you add polls, word clouds, Q&As, and more to presentations and create an interactive experience for students, who can vote on/respond to questions and engage with the presentation in real time. This made our list because there’s so much variety in the types of formative assessments you can give in real time.

Goal: I want to see my students’ thought process and their answer.

Jamboard is a digital whiteboard that is compatible with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) services. It’s a game changer for emphasizing the process of learning over the product. Math teachers love how students solve and explain their solution. If you don’t use Google, Padlet is our runner-up.

Goal: I want to listen to my students read to assess fluency.

Students read aloud and answer questions on their device (almost any device works). Within 24 hours, you get a running record with scores for accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. A free basic account includes 10 reading assessments per month.

Goal: I want to include checks for understanding as my students learn.

Edpuzzle is a video editor that allows both teachers and students to add voice-overs, comments, resources, and quizzes to existing or self-created online videos. Best part? All the students’ answers are gathered for you so you can quickly assess.

Goal: I want to put checks for understanding in my slides.

Pear Deck is an interactive presentation and lesson delivery tool. Students use their devices to follow along with the teacher’s slideshow on a classroom screen. Throughout, teachers can pause at points where they’ve added interactive questions and collect real-time data about student understanding.

Goal: I want personalized quizzes for my students.

Quizzes are standards-tagged so you can efficiently track mastery data from every question ever answered. They support official state standards such as Common Core, TEKS, and many more. Plus, you can add hints or explanations so kids learn as they complete the assessments.

Summative assessments are the formal tests and final projects that assess student learning at the end of a unit or course. There are a variety of digital tools that can make summative assessments easier, including our favorites.

Goal: I want to give a quiz or test online.

If you’re looking for tech tools for student assessment that include plenty of options, try this one. You can include multiple-choice, true/false, and short-answer questions. We love how you see students’ results in real time, and you can add explanations if students get an answer wrong. Students can get instant feedback, or you can make the quiz self-paced or lead it yourself. Our favorite feature: Space Race, a group quiz where students “race” to cross the finish line.

Goal: I want grading to take less time.

No matter what grade and subject you teach, grading takes time that we don’t have. Enter Floop. This tool is a cloud-based website where students get annotated feedback from you and their classmates. Using any internet-connected device, students upload images of an assignment to the platform, and you put markers in places where you want feedback. Students are able to see and respond to comments, creating a feedback loop.

Goal: I want to create standards-based assessments more quickly.

Easily create quizzes that students can answer using their mobile devices. This program also includes a bank with 60,000 standards-aligned question items and 300 pre-built assessments.

Goal: I want students to create online portfolios of their work.

Portfolios are a terrific summative assessment tool, allowing teachers, students, and families to look back over a collection of work and gauge progress. Paper portfolios can get lost and are harder to share and grade. Try an online version instead with a program like Seesaw.

Book Creator

Goal: i want a unique form of summative assessment..

This is another type of portfolio assessment. But rather than just collecting work as they go, students use the program to actively create a digital book showing what they’ve learned.

For fun and interactive options, including peer feedback, try these digital assessment tools.

Rubric Maker

Goal: i want rubrics that are easy to create, use, and share..

Rubrics ensure scoring consistency across assessments. They also make self-assessment and peer feedback much easier. This online tool lets you create quality rubrics and easily share them with others.

Digital Escape Room

Goal: i want to gamify my assessments..

Escape rooms foster collaboration and communication when played by students in teams and can be a really fun way to gamify assessment. Students must work together to solve problems or answer questions, then follow the instructions to break the code. These online escape rooms are easy to build using Google Sites or Google Forms, and if you don’t want to create your own, you’ll find plenty of them available for sale on sites like Teachers Pay Teachers .

Goal: I want my students to give each other feedback.

Once you set up your assignment with Peergrade, pick a feedback rubric (or create your own), and select your assignment. Your students take it from there. They submit work, review each others’, and then act on the feedback. Best part? There’s a teacher overview where you can see it all.

Goal: I want to give voice feedback rather than writing.

Use Kaizena for both teacher and peer feedback, and save everyone a lot of time. This assessment tool lets you embed voice feedback directly into Google Docs at points of your choosing. So cool!

Goal: I want to gather feedback about something from my students.

Digital forms can make life a lot simpler. Build a Jotform to gather feedback from students about an activity or experience, or even your own teaching and classroom experiences. The program compiles answers quickly and anonymously (if you prefer) so you can review results in a snap.

Make the most of digital assessment tools for teachers with these Tips and Tools for Making Online Assessments Work .

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Best Free Formative Assessment Tools for Teachers

The best free formative assessment tools can help teachers track student progress and personalize learning.

Recent updates

This article was updated in April 2024.

Formative assessments are crucial for educators to understand their students’ grasp of concepts and skills as they work their way through lessons. With this understanding, educators can better direct learners to spend more time practicing and gaining mastery of topics with which they struggle.

The following free assessment tools and apps are some of the best ones for gauging student progress at any point in the curriculum. Most make it easy to sign up for a free account with Google or other popular platforms. And although most of these tools are “freemium,” several are 100% free for educators. 

Best Free Formative Assessment Tools for Teachers 

Create Formative Assessments with an AI Chatbot With one simple prompt template, teachers can create multiple formative assessments across the curriculum. To make your formative assessment even more specific, tailor prompts to your desired specifications. Tech & Learning’s Best Free AI Quiz Generators details the pros and cons of various chatbots when creating assessments. 

iCivics Assessments The nonprofit iCivics platform is not only a free social studies lesson creation and planning tool but also a robust repository for formative assessments. Educators can simply create a free account, then click Teach >Tags>Assessments. Search for assessments filtered by grade level, type, standards, topic, and more. Each assessment is linked to lessons and extension activities.

NoRedInk A complete literacy curriculum designed to help teachers foster strong writing skills, NoRedInk’s free account allows formative assessments covering a variety of topics, from clarity and style to SAT skills. Teachers can create classes and assign quizzes through the platform. 

Woolclap A fun site for creating and sharing interactive presentations and quizzes of various types, including word clouds, multiple choice, polls, open-ended, and more. Although the free account only allows two questions per event/quiz, users can create unlimited events for up to 1,000 participants, and present real-time answers to the class.  

ASSISTments Formative Math Assessments Created by middle school math teachers in 2003, ASSISTments is a nonprofit that provides a fully free math assessment platform dedicated to the idea that high-quality formative assessments are the key to learning. Features include integration with Canvas and Google Classroom, strong professional learning resources, and an educator community forum. Assessments are tied to Common Core State Standards. 

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Nearpod Highly popular with teachers, Nearpod lets users create original multimedia assessments or select from a 15,000+ library of pre-made interactive content. Choose from polls, multiple-choice, open-ended questions, draw-its, and gamified quizzes. Free silver plan provides 40 students per session, 100 mb storage, and access to formative assessment and interactive lessons. 

Pear Deck Pear Deck, an add-on for Google Slides, allows educators to quickly create formative assessments from flexible templates, turning an ordinary slideshow into an interactive quiz. Free accounts provide lesson creation, Google and Microsoft integration, templates, and more.

PlayPosit The web- and Chrome-based Playposit platform provides customizable interactive video assessments, helping teachers accurately gauge their students’ mastery of video-based content. Free Classroom Basic account includes templates, free premade content, and 100 free learner attempts per month.

Flip This simple-to-use, powerful, and fully free learning tool allows teachers to initiate class discussions by posting videos. Students then create and post their own video response, adding enhancements such as emojis, stickers, and text. 

Formative Educators upload their own learning content, which the platform automatically transforms into assessments, or choose from the outstanding Formative library. Students respond on their own devices via text or drawing, continuously updated in real time on the teacher’s screen. Free basic account for one teacher offers unlimited Formatives, real-time student response, basic grading tools, feedback, and Google Classroom integration. 

Padlet Padlet’s seemingly simple framework— a blank digital “wall”—belies its robust capabilities in assessment, communication, and collaboration. Drag and drop almost any file type to the blank Padlet to share assessments, lessons, or presentations. Students respond with text, photos, or video. Free basic plan includes three Padlets at one time.

Socrative This super-engaging platform allows teachers to create polls and gamified quizzes to assess student progress, with real-time results visible on screen. Socrative’s free plan permits one public room with up to 50 students, on-the-fly questions, and Space Race assessment.

Google Forms One of the simplest and easiest ways to create and share formative assessments. Create video quizzes, multiple-choice, or short answer questions quickly. Link the Google Form to a Google Sheet in order to analyze responses. Before you share your quiz, be sure to check out 5 Ways to Prevent Cheating on Your Google Form Quiz .

Quizlet Quizlet’s vast database of multimedia study sets includes a variety ideal for formative assessment, from flashcards to multiple-choice quizzes, to the asteroid game Gravity. Free for basic features; the premium Quizlet Plus account allows for customization and tracking student progress. 30-day free trial, then $35.99 annually for teachers.

Edpuzzle Edpuzzle’s video-based learning and assessment platform helps educators turn one-way videos into interactive formative assessments. Upload videos from YouTube, TED, Vimeo, or your own computer, then add questions, links, or images to create meaningful evaluations. Free basic accounts for teachers and students allow interactive lesson creation, access to millions of videos, and storage space for 20 videos. 

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Formative Assessment of Teaching

What is formative assessment of teaching.

How do you know if your teaching is effective? How can you identify areas where your teaching can improve? What does it look like to assess teaching?

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment of teaching consists of different approaches to continuously evaluate your teaching. The insight gained from this assessment can support revising your teaching strategies, leading to better outcomes in student learning and experiences. Formative assessment can be contrasted with summative assessment, which is usually part of an evaluative decision-making process. The table below outlines some of the key differences between formative and summative assessment: 

By participating in formative assessment, instructors connect with recent developments in the space of teaching and learning, as well as incorporate new ideas into their practice. Developments may include changes in the students we serve, changes in our understanding of effective teaching, and changes in expectations of the discipline and of higher education as a whole.

Formative assessment of teaching ultimately should guide instructors towards using more effective teaching practices. What does effectiveness mean in terms of teaching?

Effectiveness in Teaching

Effective teaching can be defined as teaching that leads to the intended outcomes in student learning and experiences. In this sense, there is no single perfect teaching approach. Effective teaching looks will depend on the stated goals for student learning and experiences. A course that aims to build student confidence in statistical analysis and a course that aims to develop student writing could use very different teaching strategies, and still both be effective at accomplishing their respective goals. 

Assessing student learning and experiences is critical to determining if teaching is truly effective in its context. This assessment can be quite complex, but it is doable. In addition to measuring the impacts of your teaching, you may also consider evaluating your teaching as it aligns with best practices for evidence-based teaching especially in the disciplinary and course context or aligns with your intended teaching approach. The table below outlines these three approaches to assessing the effectiveness of your teaching:

What are some strategies that I might try? 

There are multiple ways that instructors might begin to assess their teaching. The list below includes approaches that may be done solo, with colleagues, or with the input of students. Instructors may pursue one or more of these strategies at different points in time. With each possible strategy, we have included several examples of the strategy in practice from a variety of institutions and contexts.

Teaching Portfolios

Teaching portfolios are well-suited for formative assessment of teaching, as the portfolio format lends itself to documenting how your teaching has evolved over time. Instructors can use their teaching portfolios as a reflective practice to review past teaching experiences, what worked and what did not.

Teaching portfolios consist of various pieces of evidence about your teaching such as course syllabi, outlines, lesson plans, course evaluations, and more. Instructors curate these pieces of evidence into a collection, giving them the chance to highlight their own growth and focus as educators. While student input may be incorporated as part of the portfolio, instructors can contextualize and respond to student feedback, giving them the chance to tell their own teaching story from a more holistic perspective.

Teaching portfolios encourage self-reflection, especially with guided questions or rubrics to review your work. In addition, an instructor might consider sharing their entire teaching portfolio or selected materials for a single course with colleagues and engaging in a peer review discussion. 

Examples and Resources:

Teaching Portfolio - Career Center

Developing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy and Teaching Portfolio - GSI Teaching & Resource Center

Self Assessment - UCLA Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences

Advancing Inclusion and Anti-Racism in the College Classroom Rubric and Guide

Course Design Equity and Inclusion Rubric

Teaching Demos or Peer Observation

Teaching demonstrations or peer classroom observation provide opportunities to get feedback on your teaching practice, including communication skills or classroom management.

Teaching demonstrations may be arranged as a simulated classroom environment in front of a live audience who take notes and then deliver summarized feedback. Alternatively, demonstrations may involve recording an instructor teaching to an empty room, and this recording can be subjected to later self-review or peer review. Evaluation of teaching demos will often focus on the mechanics of teaching especially for a lecture-based class, e.g. pacing of speech, organization of topics, clarity of explanations.

In contrast, instructors may invite a colleague to observe an actual class session to evaluate teaching in an authentic situation. This arrangement gives the observer a better sense of how the instructor interacts with students both individually or in groups, including their approach to answering questions or facilitating participation. The colleague may take general notes on what they observe or evaluate the instructor using a teaching rubric or other structured tool.

Peer Review of Course Instruction

Preparing for a Teaching Demonstration - UC Irvine Center for Educational Effectiveness

Based on Peer Feedback - UCLA Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences

Teaching Practices Equity and Inclusion Rubric

Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS)

Student Learning Assessments

Student learning can vary widely across courses or even between academic terms. However, having a clear benchmark for the intended learning objectives and determining whether an instructor’s course as implemented helps students to reach that benchmark can be an invaluable piece of information to guide your teaching. The method for measuring student learning will depend on the stated learning objective, but a well-vetted instrument can provide the most reliable data.

Recommended steps and considerations for using student learning assessments to evaluate your teaching efficacy include:

Identify a small subset of course learning objectives to focus on, as it is more useful to accurately evaluate one objective vs. evaluating many objectives inaccurately.

Find a well-aligned and well-developed measure for each selected course learning objective, such as vetted exam questions, rubrics, or concept inventories.

If relevant, develop a prompt or assignment that will allow students to demonstrate the learning objective to then be evaluated against the measure.

Plan the timing of data collection to enable useful comparison and interpretation.

Do you want to compare how students perform at the start of your course compared to the same students at the end of your course?

Do you want to compare how the same students perform before and after a specific teaching activity?

Do you want to compare how students in one term perform compared to students in the next term, after changing your teaching approach?

Implement the assignment/prompt and evaluate a subset or all of the student work according to the measure.

Reflect on the results and compare student performance measures.

Are students learning as a result of your teaching activity and course design?

Are students learning to the degree that you intended?

Are students learning more when you change how you teach?

This process can be repeated as many times as needed or the process can be restarted to instead focus on a different course learning objective.

List of Concept Inventories (STEM)

Best Practices for Administering Concept Inventories (Physics)

AAC&U VALUE Rubrics

Rubric Bank | Assessment and Curriculum Support Center - University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Rubrics - World Languages Resource Collection - Kennesaw State University

Student Surveys or Focus Groups

Surveys or focus groups are effective tools to better understand the student experience in your courses, as well as to solicit feedback on how courses can be improved. Hearing student voices is critical as students themselves can attest to how course activities made them feel, e.g. whether they perceive the learning environment to be inclusive, or what topics they find interesting.

Some considerations for using student surveys in your teaching include:

Surveys collect individual and anonymous input from as many students as possible.

Surveys can gather both quantitative and qualitative data.

Surveys that are anonymous avoid privileging certain voices over others.

Surveys can enable students to share about sensitive experiences that they may be reluctant to discuss publicly.

Surveys that are anonymous may lend to negative response bias.

Survey options at UC Berkeley include customized course evaluation questions or anonymous surveys on bCourses, Google Forms, or Qualtrics. 

Some considerations for using student focus groups in your teaching include:

Focus groups leverage the power of group brainstorming to identify problems and imagine possible solutions.

Focus groups can gather both rich and nuanced qualitative data.

Focus groups with a skilled facilitator tend to have more moderated responses given the visibility of the discussion.

Focus groups take planning, preparation, and dedicated class time.

Focus group options at UC Berkeley include scheduling a Mid-semester Inquiry (MSI) to be facilitated by a CTL staff member.

Instructions for completing question customization for your evaluations as an instructor

Course Evaluations Question Bank

Student-Centered Evaluation Questions for Remote Learning

Based on Student Feedback - UCLA Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences

How Can Instructors Encourage Students to Complete Course Evaluations and Provide Informative Responses?

Student Views/Attitudes/Affective Instruments - ASBMB

Student Skills Inventories - ASBMB

How might I get started?

Self-assess your own course materials using one of the available rubrics listed above.

Schedule a teaching observation with CTL to get a colleague’s feedback on your teaching practices and notes on student engagement.

Schedule an MSI with CTL to gather directed student feedback with the support of a colleague.

Have more questions? Schedule a general consultation with CTL or send us your questions by email ( [email protected] )!

References:

Evaluating Teaching - UCSB Instructional Development

Documenting Teaching - UCSC Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning

Other Forms of Evaluation - UCLA Center for Education, Innovation, and Learning in the Sciences

Evaluation Of Teaching Committee on Teaching, Academic Senate

Report of the Academic Council Teaching Evaluation Task Force

Teaching Quality Framework Initiative Resources - University of Colorado Boulder

Benchmarks for Teaching Effectiveness - University of Kansas  Center for Teaching Excellence

Teaching Practices Instruments - ASBMB

Formative assessments

How this will help:

Face-to-face teaching frequently involves visual observation of students “understanding” a course. Faculty frequently use informal methods for what we call “formative assessment” but may not be familiar with the terminology or how to transform informal formative assessment to online.

Have you ever experienced teaching a topic in your face-to-face class and getting the blank  stare of students who just did not understand? Perhaps you use “clickers” to knowledge check students partway through a lecture or create practice tests so students can check their understanding. You may ask your students questions in-class to gauge how well a concept is being understood.

The above examples are formative assessment strategies that you may have encountered in your daily teaching. Formative assessment is the process of understanding the progress of your students’ learning rather than strictly their performance on a final assessment (like a paper or exam). Formative assessment benefits your class in several ways:

• Students get a low-stakes opportunity to check their understanding of a topic.
• Students potentially get feedback on their own knowledge of content.
• Instructors can adjust teaching strategies to try to reach every student.

Formative assessment often happens in low-stakes or informal ways. In a face-to-face setting, you may get physical cues that indicate that students may be struggling with content. In response, you may go over content again to reinforce a concept or explain a topic differently. If a student is not engaging, you may physically walk over to see how they are doing, or invite them to attend office hours.

A lot of these physical cues are absent in an online class. Sometimes instructors initially struggle with how to know how students are doing with content when they can’t “see” the student. In addition, online courses are often already text-heavy, and an additional assessment to grade may not be desirable.

However, there are ways to check in with students on their understanding of content for the week. You may find that a concept was not clear in a video based on discussion board or chat messages. You may get questions from students on a topic that suggests further explanation may be necessary. You can also be proactive about formative assessment by asking students to complete a weekly short content reflection or use online video response quizzes to see where they are at. 

Formative assessment works best when the stakes are low. The goal is not to assess student performance, but rather to identify places where misconceptions or where students are struggling with content. It helps when you offer a point or two of credit for completing formative assessments. In a face-to-face class, you might have a set of participation or engagement points.

Practical tips

• Create a “minute paper” check-in each week. Use a quiz or survey tool (even Google Forms works!), ask students 2 questions: What was the clearest point of content, what was the most confusing/muddiest point of content. You do not need to read this content closely, rather monitor the responses looking for points of confusion or what content really resonated with students. If you aren’t familiar with the “minute paper” concept, CRLT has resources on how to integrate this effective technique. 
• Use online polls to survey student knowledge on content that students frequently struggle with. Embed polls into a weekly discussion post or an email. [Link to the technology doc on using polls]
• Crowdsource a FAQ for each week’s content. In your discussion board, create a thread or forum for questions just for that week. Students can post questions (and possibly responses) to these questions. Be sure to monitor and answer questions as necessary. It’s also helpful to curate your responses because students’ questions may tend to stay the same each year. 
• Make it clear to students that although there may be points involved in these activities, the awarding of points is not tied to performance. Points are awarded for completion. 

University of Michigan

CRLT- Screencast on minute paper

Gikandi, J. W., Morrow, D., & Davis, N. E. (2011). Online formative assessment in higher education: A review of the literature. Computers and Education , 57 (4), 2333–2351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.06.004

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• Professional learning

Teach. Learn. Grow.

Teach. learn. grow. the education blog.

27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning

• New Clothes
• Dos and Don’ts
• Three Common Misunderstandings
• Yes/No Chart
• Three Questions
• Explain What Matters
• Big Picture
• Venn Diagram
• Self-Directed Response

Combining these 10 with 10 others we’ve blogged about in the past gives teachers 20 great formative assessment strategies for checking on student learning. Be sure to click through to learn more about these formative assessment strategies.

• The Popsicle Stick
• The Exit Ticket
• The Whiteboard
• Think-Pair-Share
• Two Stars and a Wish
• Carousel Brainstorming
• Basketball Discussions

Want more? Here are seven more strategies you can use to elicit evidence of student learning.

• Entrance Tickets. We’ve blogged about and explained the Exit Ticket, so why not have an Entrance Ticket? Here, the teacher asks a question at the start of a lesson, and students write their responses on index cards or strips of paper. Answers are used to assess initial understanding of something to be discussed in that day’s lesson or as a short summary of understanding of the previous day’s lesson. The teacher designs the lesson around the fact that information on student learning will be coming in at the start of the lesson and can be used to improve the teaching and learning in that lesson. Be sure to write the question so it is easily interpreted and analyzed, allows time for you and/or the students to analyze the responses, and leaves space for you to adjust the lesson, if needed.
• Keep the Question Going. With this formative assessment strategy, you’ll ask one student a question and then ask another student if that answer seems reasonable or correct. Then, ask a third student for an explanation of why there is an agreement or not. This helps keep all the students engaged because they must be prepared to either agree or disagree with the answers given and provide explanations.
• 30-Second Share. With this strategy, students take a turn to report something learned in a lesson for up to 30 seconds each. Connections to the learning targets or success criteria are what you’ll be looking for in the language used by the student. Make this a routine at the end of a lesson so all students have the opportunity to participate, share insights, and clarify what was learned.
• Parking Lot. This is an underused strategy for students and one that can surface questions before learning, as well as during and after. This tool also offers an anonymous place for questions that may be directly related to the content or tangential to the current topic and provide insight into student thinking. Simply save a spot on your whiteboard to write down ideas or questions that aren’t completely relevant in the moment but should be revisited later.
• One-Minute Paper. This might be considered a type of exit ticket as it is typically done near the end of the day. Ask your students, either individually or with a partner, to respond in writing to a single prompt. Typical prompts include:
• Most important learning from the day and why
• Most surprising concept and why
• Most confusing topic and why
• Something I think might appear on a test or quiz and why
• 3-2-1. At the end of the learning, this strategy provides students a way to summarize or even question what they just learned. Three prompts are provided for students to respond to:
• 3 things you didn’t know before
• 2 things that surprised you about the topic
• 1 thing you want to start doing with what you’ve learned
• Assessment Reflection. This strategy is a post-assessment reflection completed individually first and then shared in a small group. After an assessment, the teacher provides a list of questions so learners can reflect on their assessment experience. During group discussion, ideas are collected as new information to support students to better prepare for and engage in future assessments. Consider the following or similar questions. You might also use strategies such as Plus, Minus, Interesting, or Plus/Delta.
• How engaged were you with this assessment? Why?
• What did you feel most confident about? Why?
• What did you do that led to your success or confidence?
• What was the most difficult part of this assessment? Why?
• What would you do differently next time?
• What was the most confusing? Why?
• What do you know about the topic that the assessment didn’t allow you to show?

All 27 of these formative assessment strategies are simple to administer and free or inexpensive to use. They’ll provide you with the evidence of student learning you need to make lesson plan adjustments and keep learning on target and moving forward. They’ll also give your students valuable information so they can adjust their learning tactics and know where to focus their energies.

If you’re not quite sure where to get started, the following discussion questions can help.

Questions for teachers

• How do you use formative assessment data to inform instructional decisions?
• How can formative assessment strategies foster a learning environment of collaboration and engagement?
• How do formative assessment strategies elicit evidence of student learning?
• What is one strategy you could try tomorrow and why?

Questions for leaders

• How do you use formative assessment data to drive school-wide instructional academic decisions?
• How can you model formative assessment strategies in staff meetings, PLCs, and meetings with teachers?
• What are three formative assessment strategies you could bring to your teachers and staff? Why do you feel these would be most effective at your school?

Get more formative assessment tips and tricks in our e-book “Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice.”

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Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice

Formative assessment isn’t new. But as our education system changes, our approaches to any instructional strategy must evolve. Learn how to put formative assessment to work in your classroom.

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Formative Assessment

Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support .

The general goal of formative assessment is to collect detailed information that can be used to improve instruction and student learning while it’s happening . What makes an assessment “formative” is not the design of a test, technique, or self-evaluation, per se, but the way it is used—i.e., to inform in-process teaching and learning modifications.

Formative assessments are commonly contrasted with summative assessments , which are used to evaluate student learning progress and achievement at the conclusion of a specific instructional period—usually at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year. In other words, formative assessments are for learning, while summative assessments are of learning. Or as assessment expert Paul Black put it, “When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative assessment. When the customer tastes the soup, that’s summative assessment.” It should be noted, however, that the distinction between formative and summative is often fuzzy in practice, and educators may hold divergent interpretations of and opinions on the subject.

Many educators and experts believe that formative assessment is an integral part of effective teaching. In contrast with most summative assessments, which are deliberately set apart from instruction, formative assessments are integrated into the teaching and learning process. For example, a formative-assessment technique could be as simple as a teacher asking students to raise their hands if they feel they have understood a newly introduced concept, or it could be as sophisticated as having students complete a self-assessment of their own writing (typically using a rubric outlining the criteria) that the teacher then reviews and comments on. While formative assessments help teachers identify learning needs and problems, in many cases the assessments also help students develop a stronger understanding of their own academic strengths and weaknesses. When students know what they do well and what they need to work harder on, it can help them take greater responsibility over their own learning and academic progress.

While the same assessment technique or process could, in theory, be used for either formative or summative purposes, many summative assessments are unsuitable for formative purposes because they do not provide useful feedback. For example, standardized-test scores may not be available to teachers for months after their students take the test (so the results cannot be used to modify lessons or teaching and better prepare students), or the assessments may not be specific or fine-grained enough to give teachers and students the detailed information they need to improve.

The following are a few representative examples of formative assessments:

• Questions that teachers pose to individual students and groups of students during the learning process to determine what specific concepts or skills they may be having trouble with. A wide variety of intentional questioning strategies may be employed, such as phrasing questions in specific ways to elicit more useful responses.
• Specific, detailed, and constructive feedback that teachers provide on student work , such as journal entries, essays, worksheets, research papers, projects, ungraded quizzes, lab results, or works of art, design, and performance. The feedback may be used to revise or improve a work product, for example.
• “Exit slips” or “exit tickets” that quickly collect student responses to a teacher’s questions at the end of a lesson or class period. Based on what the responses indicate, the teacher can then modify the next lesson to address concepts that students have failed to comprehend or skills they may be struggling with. “Admit slips” are a similar strategy used at the beginning of a class or lesson to determine what students have retained from previous learning experiences .
• Self-assessments that ask students to think about their own learning process, to reflect on what they do well or struggle with, and to articulate what they have learned or still need to learn to meet course expectations or learning standards.
• Peer assessments that allow students to use one another as learning resources. For example, “workshopping” a piece of writing with classmates is one common form of peer assessment, particularly if students follow a rubric or guidelines provided by a teacher.

In addition to the reasons addressed above, educators may also use formative assessment to:

• Refocus students on the learning process and its intrinsic value, rather than on grades or extrinsic rewards.
• Encourage students to build on their strengths rather than fixate or dwell on their deficits. (For a related discussion, see growth mindset .)
• Help students become more aware of their learning needs, strengths, and interests so they can take greater responsibility over their own educational growth. For example, students may learn how to self-assess their own progress and self-regulate their behaviors.
• Give students more detailed, precise, and useful information. Because grades and test scores only provide a general impression of academic achievement, usually at the completion of an instructional period, formative feedback can help to clarify and calibrate learning expectations for both students and parents. Students gain a clearer understanding of what is expected of them, and parents have more detailed information they can use to more effectively support their child’s education.
• Raise or accelerate the educational achievement of all students, while also reducing learning gaps and achievement gaps .

While the formative-assessment concept has only existed since the 1960s, educators have arguably been using “formative assessments” in various forms since the invention of teaching. As an intentional school-improvement strategy, however, formative assessment has received growing attention from educators and researchers in recent decades. In fact, it is now widely considered to be one of the more effective instructional strategies used by teachers, and there is a growing body of literature and academic research on the topic.

Schools are now more likely to encourage or require teachers to use formative-assessment strategies in the classroom, and there are a growing number of professional-development opportunities available to educators on the subject. Formative assessments are also integral components of personalized learning and other educational strategies designed to tailor lessons and instruction to the distinct learning needs and interests of individual students.

While there is relatively little disagreement in the education community about the utility of formative assessment, debates or disagreements may stem from differing interpretations of the term. For example, some educators believe the term is loosely applied to forms of assessment that are not “truly” formative, while others believe that formative assessment is rarely used appropriately or effectively in the classroom.

Another common debate is whether formative assessments can or should be graded. Many educators contend that formative assessments can only be considered truly formative when they are ungraded and used exclusively to improve student learning. If grades are assigned to a quiz, test, project, or other work product, the reasoning goes, they become de facto summative assessments—i.e., the act of assigning a grade turns the assessment into a performance evaluation that is documented in a student’s academic record, as opposed to a diagnostic strategy used to improve student understanding and preparation before they are given a graded test or assignment.

Some educators also make a distinction between “pure” formative assessments—those that are used on a daily basis by teachers while they are instructing students—and “interim” or “benchmark” assessments, which are typically periodic or quarterly assessments used to determine where students are in their learning progress or whether they are on track to meeting expected learning standards. While some educators may argue that any assessment method that is used diagnostically could be considered formative, including interim assessments, others contend that these two forms of assessment should remain distinct, given that different strategies, techniques, and professional development may be required.

Some proponents of formative assessment also suspect that testing companies mislabel and market some interim standardized tests as “formative” to capitalize on and profit from the popularity of the idea. Some observers express skepticism that commercial or prepackaged products can be authentically formative, arguing that formative assessment is a sophisticated instructional technique, and to do it well requires both a first-hand understanding of the students being assessed and sufficient training and professional development.

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Teaching excellence & educational innovation, what is the difference between formative and summative assessment, formative assessment.

The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:

• help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work
• help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

Formative assessments are generally low stakes , which means that they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:

• draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic
• submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture
• turn in a research proposal for early feedback

Summative assessment

The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.

Summative assessments are often high stakes , which means that they have a high point value. Examples of summative assessments include:

• a midterm exam
• a final project
• a senior recital

Information from summative assessments can be used formatively when students or faculty use it to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.

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7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

Within these methods you’ll find close to 40 tools and tricks for finding out what your students know while they’re still learning.

Formative assessment—discovering what students know while they’re still in the process of learning it—can be tricky. Designing just the right assessment can feel high stakes—for teachers, not students—because we’re using it to figure out what comes next. Are we ready to move on? Do our students need a different path into the concepts? Or, more likely, which students are ready to move on and which need a different path?

When it comes to figuring out what our students really know, we have to look at more than one kind of information. A single data point—no matter how well designed the quiz, presentation, or problem behind it—isn’t enough information to help us plan the next step in our instruction.

Add to that the fact that different learning tasks are best measured in different ways, and we can see why we need a variety of formative assessment tools we can deploy quickly, seamlessly, and in a low-stakes way—all while not creating an unmanageable workload. That’s why it’s important to keep it simple: Formative assessments generally just need to be checked, not graded, as the point is to get a basic read on the progress of individuals, or the class as a whole.

7 Approaches to Formative Assessment

1. Entry and exit slips: Those marginal minutes at the beginning and end of class can provide some great opportunities to find out what kids remember. Start the class off with a quick question about the previous day’s work while students are getting settled—you can ask differentiated questions written out on chart paper or projected on the board, for example.

Exit slips can take lots of forms beyond the old-school pencil and scrap paper. Whether you’re assessing at the bottom of Bloom’s taxonomy or the top, you can use tools like Padlet or Poll Everywhere , or measure progress toward attainment or retention of essential content or standards with tools like Google Classroom’s Question tool , Google Forms with Flubaroo , and Edulastic , all of which make seeing what students know a snap.

A quick way to see the big picture if you use paper exit tickets is to sort the papers into three piles : Students got the point; they sort of got it; and they didn’t get it. The size of the stacks is your clue about what to do next.

No matter the tool, the key to keeping students engaged in the process of just-walked-in or almost-out-the-door formative assessment is the questions. Ask students to write for one minute on the most meaningful thing they learned. You can try prompts like:

• What are three things you learned, two things you’re still curious about, and one thing you don’t understand?
• How would you have done things differently today, if you had the choice?
• What I found interesting about this work was...
• Right now I’m feeling...
• Today was hard because...

Or skip the words completely and have students draw or circle emojis to represent their assessment of their understanding.

2. Low-stakes quizzes and polls: If you want to find out whether your students really know as much as you think they know, polls and quizzes created with Socrative or Quizlet or in-class games and tools like Quizalize , Kahoot , FlipQuiz, Gimkit , Plickers , and Flippity can help you get a better sense of how much they really understand. (Grading quizzes but assigning low point values is a great way to make sure students really try: The quizzes matter, but an individual low score can’t kill a student’s grade.) Kids in many classes are always logged in to these tools, so formative assessments can be done very quickly. Teachers can see each kid’s response, and determine both individually and in aggregate how students are doing.

Because you can design the questions yourself, you determine the level of complexity. Ask questions at the bottom of Bloom’s taxonomy and you’ll get insight into what facts, vocabulary terms, or processes kids remember. Ask more complicated questions (“What advice do you think Katniss Everdeen would offer Scout Finch if the two of them were talking at the end of chapter 3?”), and you’ll get more sophisticated insights.

3. Dipsticks: So-called alternative formative assessments are meant to be as easy and quick as checking the oil in your car, so they’re sometimes referred to as dipsticks . These can be things like asking students to:

• write a letter explaining a key idea to a friend,
• draw a sketch to visually represent new knowledge, or
• do a think, pair, share exercise with a partner.

Your own observations of students at work in class can provide valuable data as well, but they can be tricky to keep track of. Taking quick notes on a tablet or smartphone, or using a copy of your roster, is one approach. A focused observation form is more formal and can help you narrow your note-taking focus as you watch students work.

4. Interview assessments: If you want to dig a little deeper into students’ understanding of content, try discussion-based assessment methods. Casual chats with students in the classroom can help them feel at ease even as you get a sense of what they know, and you may find that five-minute interview assessments work really well. Five minutes per student would take quite a bit of time, but you don’t have to talk to every student about every project or lesson.

You can also shift some of this work to students using a peer-feedback process called TAG feedback (Tell your peer something they did well, Ask a thoughtful question, Give a positive suggestion). When you have students share the feedback they have for a peer, you gain insight into both students’ learning.

For more introverted students—or for more private assessments—use Flipgrid , Explain Everything , or Seesaw to have students record their answers to prompts and demonstrate what they can do.

5. Methods that incorporate art: Consider using visual art or photography or videography as an assessment tool. Whether students draw, create a collage, or sculpt, you may find that the assessment helps them synthesize their learning . Or think beyond the visual and have kids act out their understanding of the content. They can create a dance to model cell mitosis or act out stories like Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” to explore the subtext.

6. Misconceptions and errors: Sometimes it’s helpful to see if students understand why something is incorrect or why a concept is hard. Ask students to explain the “ muddiest point ” in the lesson—the place where things got confusing or particularly difficult or where they still lack clarity. Or do a misconception check : Present students with a common misunderstanding and ask them to apply previous knowledge to correct the mistake, or ask them to decide if a statement contains any mistakes at all, and then discuss their answers.

7. Self-assessment: Don’t forget to consult the experts—the kids. Often you can give your rubric to your students and have them spot their strengths and weaknesses.

You can use sticky notes to get a quick insight into what areas your kids think they need to work on. Ask them to pick their own trouble spot from three or four areas where you think the class as a whole needs work, and write those areas in separate columns on a whiteboard. Have you students answer on a sticky note and then put the note in the correct column—you can see the results at a glance.

Several self-assessments let the teacher see what every kid thinks very quickly. For example, you can use colored stacking cups that allow kids to flag that they’re all set (green cup), working through some confusion (yellow), or really confused and in need of help (red).

Similar strategies involve using participation cards for discussions (each student has three cards—“I agree,” “I disagree,” and “I don’t know how to respond”) and thumbs-up responses (instead of raising a hand, students hold a fist at their belly and put their thumb up when they’re ready to contribute). Students can instead use six hand gestures to silently signal that they agree, disagree, have something to add, and more. All of these strategies give teachers an unobtrusive way to see what students are thinking.

No matter which tools you select, make time to do your own reflection to ensure that you’re only assessing the content and not getting lost in the assessment fog . If a tool is too complicated, is not reliable or accessible, or takes up a disproportionate amount of time, it’s OK to put it aside and try something different.

• Teaching Tips

20 Formative Assessment Examples To Use In Your College Classroom

Informal assessments are an easy way to stay connected with your students and understand their progress in your course

Top Hat Staff

Formative assessments are where students are quizzed periodically throughout a learning unit. Unlike traditional assessments, these insights provide you with regular and reliable feedback on student progress. Whether it’s polls , discussions , debates or reflections, frequent, low-stakes assessments let students apply what they have learned thus far. At a time when students place increased value on frequent feedback from their educators, facilitating regular assessments is essential. Below, we share:

• What formative assessments are
• What the differences are between formative and summative assessments
• How to engage students with formative and summative assessments
• The tools you’ll need to run formative assessments
• The benefits of formative assessments

20 formative assessment examples for any course or discipline

What are formative assessments.

Formative assessments involve monitoring student progress regularly throughout a course so that educators can better gauge students’ learning gaps and address those early on. Basic formative assessment strategies may include concept maps, responses posted to a discussion board and an ungraded quiz or poll.

Watch the video below to learn how formative assessments in the classroom can benefit both educators and students. You’ll also get assessment ideas that Leslie Sprunger, Associate Dean for Professional Programs in the Faculty of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience at Washington State University, uses in her own courses.

How to engage students with formative assessments

Well-designed assessments encourage students to prioritize intellectual growth, while equipping them with marketable skills for their future careers. There are three main types of assessments instructors can incorporate into their higher educations courses.

• Assessments as learning opportunities: The best assessments are educational opportunities in which students can practice different methods of synthesizing, analyzing, and communicating what they have learned. There are many ways students can demonstrate mastery of the course content that go beyond traditional papers, quizzes and examinations. Giving students choice in how they express their knowledge, such as unessays, short films, collaborative blogs and field work also enables students to build their personal portfolios and resumes.
• Assessments that are self-reflective: Rather than objective assessments, instructors can create opportunities for students to reflect on their own progress. Consider asking students to students keep a journal throughout the class is a great way to create a record of their semester-long evolution. You can also ask students to evaluate their own work, as well as their peers. This way, instructors empower students to take ownership of the assessment process.
• Assessments that happen over time: One popular method is incorporating “scaffolding” into assessments. Instead of a paper worth a large proportion of the final grade, students submit several smaller assignments throughout the course of writing their paper, each worth a fraction of the overall grade and building towards the final product. For instance, they might first submit a topic and thesis statement, followed by their outline, then a rough draft, and then the final paper. This method provides students with feedback at various points, prioritizes the process of writing, and lowers the stakes for each graded piece of work.

Formative vs. summative assessment: The difference

Formative and summative assessments can easily be confused.  Summative assessment remains an essential part of every single college course being offered today. Despite its widespread use, however, an over-reliance upon it can turn the benefits into drawbacks:

• Every summative assessment is a high-pressure situation for students.
• Poor performance on an early assessment only increases the pressure on subsequent assessments. If a student earned a C on the midterm, they’ll feel the need to ace the final just to end up with a B.
• Poor performance on an early assessment undermines students’ confidence in their ability to perform better in the latter stages of the course. This creates an incentive to cheat: if they need to ace the final, they’ll find a way.

The best way to design any summative assessment is to make it an integral part of course planning.

Formative vs summative assessment: A structured approach

While formative assessment can take place informally through classroom discussion, it also benefits from a planned approach to its use. The challenge, for educators, is to strike the right balance between checking in on the progress of student learning and putting that learning to the test.

Choosing between formative and summative assessment for a particular course isn’t an either-or proposition. Formative assessment can’t substitute for traditional summative assessment, since exams and assignments remain essential as the best way to definitively measure student proficiency and assign a grade.

Some faculty who have embraced formative assessment choose to make the final exam worth 100 percent of their students’ grades, conducting formative evaluations throughout the semester to the point where come exam day, they and their students are confident of success. This formula probably wouldn’t work for every professor or every course, but it is a testament to the effectiveness of formative assessment, and to the value of making thoughtful use of both assessment types in every course you teach.

We share the key differences between formative and summative assessments in the table below.

Tools you can use to run formative assessments

Depending on what type of assessment you’re looking to run—whether a quiz or group discussion—the technology required will vary. Different disciplines, such as STEM or Humanities courses, may also require different formative assessment tools in order to run simulations or lab activities. 

That said, plenty of the 20 formative assessment strategies we share later in this post can also be facilitated with pen and paper or simple tech tools. If you’re looking to use ed tech to run your formative assessments, here are some platforms you may want to consider.

• Quizzes : Kahoot! , Quizlet , Socrative , Top Hat
• Video-based assessment : Animoto , Flipgrid , PlayPosit
• Discussions : Backchannel Chat , Discord , Top Hat (with anonymous discussion capabilities)
• Whiteboard or note taking tools : Dotstorming , Padlet , Limnu  
• Tools for STEM classes : BeyondLabz , Labster , Top Hat Labs
• Tools for Humanities classes : Annotation Studio , Audacity , Canva , Top Hat

Assessing course-related skills and knowledge

These formative assessment examples help evaluate learning of a given subject’s content by assessing student understanding and information recall from previous courses. Assessing this knowledge is especially important for instructors at the beginning of the term, in order to provide a clearer understanding of how to proceed with course material.

1. Exit tickets/exit slips:

Rather than a formal assessment, students use exit tickets to answer one or more assessment questions at the end of a class period or online course module to demonstrate how well they’ve absorbed that particular lesson. Each question should focus on a single concept or skill taught in that lesson. Download your free exit ticket formative assessment template for your next course.

2. One-minute paper:

In this informal assessment example, students are prompted to write a short response answering two questions related to a given week’s course content. Responses to one-minute papers can also be posted in online discussion forums to spur conversation between students. Questions can be as simple as: What was the most valuable, important or useful thing you learned in the lesson? What key questions, problems or issues remain unresolved?

Are you looking to further assess students in and out of your classroom? Top Hat’s formative assessment capabilities can help. Facilitate the one-minute paper exercise in-app using an interactive discussion board. Platforms like Kahoot! and Socrative can also be used for running polls and discussions as a quick formative assessment example.

Developing critical thinking and analysis skills

Consider structuring formative assessment examples around the development of higher-order thinking skills that rely on metacognition. Various modes of analysis, including the ability to break down information, problems and questions help develop students’ critical thinking skills. Students who think critically become instinctual problem solvers in class, engineering creative solutions to solve complex real-world case studies.

3. Think-pair-share :

Students work together in pairs or small groups to answer a question or solve a problem related to an assigned reading. These groups can use dedicated chat channels built into active learning platforms to communicate and discuss their ideas. First, the instructor asks an assessment question regarding the text for students to think about. Next, students pair up with one or more fellow students to discuss the question and their thoughts on the possible answers. Finally, each pair or group shares their conclusions with the rest of the class.

4. Defining features matrix:

Students categorize concepts based on whether or not they contain certain defining features. This is particularly useful for assessing how fully students understand certain factors distinguishing various concepts from one another and how well they can analyze whether a particular concept fits a certain category.

5. Socratic seminar:

Students help one another apply the ideas, issues and values reflected in a course text through a group discussion. Ask students to annotate the text in advance of class in order to familiarize themselves with the key themes and ideas discussed. Pose a general question and encourage students to share their responses with the group. Another student then responds to the last thought that was shared.

Encouraging students to think creatively

Quick formative assessments can involve creative expression. The following examples of formative assessments are used to understand student abilities when synthesizing information. By instructing students to express themselves creatively, students have the opportunity to think outside the box.

6. Word journal:

This assessment is conducted in two parts. In the first part, the student summarizes an entire lesson in a single word. In the second part, the student composes a short statement of one or two paragraphs explaining why they chose that particular word to summarize the lesson. These can then be submitted to the instructor for feedback directly through content delivery platforms or your learning management system (LMS).

7. Invented dialogue:

This strategy is particularly useful for demonstrating how well students have synthesized various historical or literary personalities, settings or themes. In this assessment, students compose a fictional dialogue between two real or fictitious personalities that demonstrate the students’ understanding of the topic. Teachers can opt to instruct students to incorporate actual quotes from primary sources into the dialogue or to simply invent plausible quotes of their own based on their comprehension of the content.

Enhancing problem-solving skills

These formative assessment examples assess students’ problem-solving abilities, including their ability to recognize the various types of problems and any causes and appropriate techniques to solve them. Learners can also use the time to draw similarities between various features of different problems, reflect upon them and adjust strategies for solving them accordingly. They are an important component for every educator to have on their formative assessment checklist.

8. Documented problem solutions:

Similar to a show-and-tell exercise or a how-to article, students write down each step they went through in solving a particular problem. This helps instructors understand how a student goes about thinking through problems and may highlight student obstacles when efficiently solving different types of problems. A variation of this is to document the student’s problem-solving process through an audio-video recording of the student demonstrating their process.

9. Problem-and-solution type recognition:

Effectively solving any problem requires the ability to identify the type of problem and, subsequently, the most appropriate methods of solving it. Students are given a problem and must identify its type, such as routine or non-routine, well-defined or ill-defined, and the most likely type of solution to apply to it, such as algorithm, heuristics or trial and error. Students can answer these problems through a short-answer question and the results can be shown to the class using a word cloud display.

Assessing student performance and application abilities

These formative assessment examples assess students’ understanding of how to apply the knowledge they’ve learned to specific situations. These informal assessment examples can stand alone as “temperature checks” or can be a part of a longer assessment, such as a scheduled test or quiz .

10. Directed paraphrasing:

Students take a lesson and paraphrase it with a particular audience in mind. This not only helps to assess a student’s understanding of the topic, it also helps to assess their ability to reframe it in a way that people in a different context and setting can likewise understand and apply it.

11. Student-generated test questions:

As a form of role-reversal, students devise test questions and sample appropriate answers that demonstrate their ability to comprehend concepts that underlie assigned readings. Rather than simply requiring students to recall what they’ve read, it asks them to hone in on the key elements that would indicate to them another person’s full comprehension of the concepts.

Understanding student self-awareness, attitudes and values

These formative assessment examples engage students and motivate them to develop their own attitudes, values, opinions and self-awareness through course-related activities. The three quick formative assessments below can be used as an exercise to generate discussion amongst students and ensure learning continues once class is over.

12. Opinion polls:

Students indicate how much they agree or disagree with a particular prompt or statement. This assessment data can help educators see how comfortable students are with regard to key objectives of learning activities and with specific course content in particular.

13. Profiles of admirable individuals:

This assessment in the classroom involves asking students to write a brief biography of a real person involved in a relevant field that highlights the admirable characteristics making them a role model. Instructors can use polling features for students to vote on which expert in the field they would like to research.

14. Everyday ethical dilemma: Students answer how they would go about solving a common everyday ethical dilemma related to the course or their discipline.

Activities that help develop individual awareness of self as a learner

These formative assessment examples help students clarify and express their self-concept and personal goals in ways that connect to the course content.

15. Focused autobiographical sketch:

Students write a brief memoir-style essay describing a moment or episode of their lives during the course in which they felt like they successfully reached a learning outcome.

16. Goal-ranking:

Students list three to five goals of their own that serve as their learning goals of the course, then rank them in order of priority. At the end of the course, instructors can go back to this exercise and have students evaluate their rankings and/or assess how well they did achieving each goal they set. Using Top Hat’s heat map question functionality, instructors can show how the class performed as a group.

Understanding student learning behaviors, strategies and skills

These formative assessment examples help instructors assess students’ learning habits. They can help create a more tailored learning experience.

17. Productive study-time log:

Students keep a log of all the time they spent learning and studying for a given course and, alongside each entry, the quality of that time. This acts as a form of self-assessment because it helps both students and educators see how effectively students are making use of their study time.

18. Punctuated lectures:

After listening to a lecture, students reflect (in writing) on how well they were concentrating on the material and, by contrast, how often they became distracted. They may also note how they brought their attention back to the material, if at all, so they can arm themselves with these tools in future lectures. They can even add how the lecture met their expectations and how they connected the lecture to knowledge they already possess. This can be submitted through the class’s live chat while lectures are occurring, so students are able to view their peers’ thoughts and opinions.

Assessing student reactions to learning

These formative assessment examples help instructors assess how well students can identify the key points and learning outcomes of a given lesson. These formative assessment ideas will let students thoughtfully reflect on a given reading or artifact.

19. Feedback forms:

There are several ways to solicit weekly feedback from students after a lesson. Educators can pose a series of questions, or even a single question, about the lesson’s effectiveness. These can be multiple-choice, true/false, yes/no or open-ended questions.

Students compose a brief statement regarding a particular lesson written in the following format: Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect, Comment. This can also take place in a discussion forum, so students can comment on each other’s questions and ideas.

Formative and Summative Assessments. (n.d.). Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments  

What is the difference between formative and summative assessment? (n.d.). Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html

50 CATS by Angelo and Cross. (n.d.). University of California, San Diego. https://vcsa.ucsd.edu/_files/assessment/resources/50_cats.pdf

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This page contains information on formative assessment and the Formative Assessment in the Year Before School Project.

Formative assessment refers to educators’ collection of formal or informal information during children’s learning experiences to inform teaching strategies and learning experiences for improved learning outcomes.

Formative assessment is an ongoing and integral part of the assessment and planning cycle used by teachers and educators in their everyday practice under the National Quality Standard, Quality Area 1 (Standard 1.3) , and the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 .

It is important that teachers and educators understand effective formative assessment and how to implement it in their context.

Benefits of formative assessment tools

Benefits for early childhood teachers and educators.

Formative assessment tools support teachers and educators to implement the assessment and planning cycle by providing a framework to:

• understand, interpret and document a child’s learning, wellbeing and development
• inform pedagogy and practice
• support the development, implementation and evaluation of educational programs.

Formative assessment tools can be used throughout the year to complement teacher and educators’ existing practices.

Benefits for children

Formative assessment can document the different pathways that children take in their learning journeys and make their own learning and development visible to them. Rich and meaningful information can be documented that depicts children’s learning in context, having their voices heard, their beliefs understood and valued; their sense of self affirmed and knowing more about themselves.

Benefits for parents and carers

Formative assessment can support the inclusion of parents and carers in the assessment and planning cycle, providing them with opportunities to reflect on and share information with teachers and educators about their child’s learning and development.

Formative Assessment in the Year Before School Project

In 2024, the NSW Department of Education is working with eligible early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to explore the use of formative assessment tools to understand how they may be used in NSW.

The project will inform the department’s approach to the 2025 national trial of the Preschool Outcomes Measure, which is a key reform of the Preschool Reform Agreement. This includes determining a formative assessment tool that complements existing teaching and learning practices in NSW ECEC services to support all children’s learning, development and wellbeing outcomes.

To participate, approved services must meet the eligibility criteria outlined in the project guidelines .

Services who are selected to be part of the project will be allocated formative assessment tools to explore in their service and will receive professional learning and up to $8,000 .

For more information on the formative assessment in the year before school project, including financial support, read the project guidelines .

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What Are Formal Assessments? (A Definitive Guide 2024)

Matthew Tang

eLearning & Instructional Design Expert

Review Board Member

Matthew Tang is a highly skilled eLearning consultant with over two decades of experience in delivering exceptional learning products. He has taught students in public schools and online, led online ... Read more

Matthew Tang is a highly skilled eLearning consultant with over two decades of experience in delivering exceptional learning products. He has taught students in public schools and online, led online education for a Fortune 50 company, partnered with university researchers to pioneer new learning technologies, and delivered expert learning solutions to clients of all sizes. With a genuine passion for helping individuals succeed and reach their academic or business goals, Matthew continually improves and innovates educational technology solutions, making him a trusted authority in eLearning. Read less

Author & Editor at ProProfs

Michael is a seasoned writer with 12+ years of experience in online learning and training. His work empowers organizations to harness the potential of knowledge in the digital era.

Ever wonder how decisions are made about who’s fit for school or the right pick for a job? That’s where formal assessments come in.

They’re the big tests—like the SAT or coding exams for techies—that help measure what you know and can do. Think of it as the key to unlocking new opportunities and getting a clear picture of your strengths.

So, why are these assessments so important, and how do they differ from the everyday, informal checks? 

Let’s find out how formal assessments impact learning and careers, all in a nutshell.

What Is a Formal Assessment?

A formal assessment is a structured evaluation method used to systematically measure a learner’s or candidate’s knowledge, skills, or abilities against a set of predetermined criteria or standards. 

This type of assessment often involves standardized tests, quizzes, essays, or practical examinations administered under controlled conditions. The results from formal assessments are typically quantifiable and can be used for making decisions regarding academic placement, certification, or employment suitability. 

Let’s see a formal assessment example:

The SAT ( Scholastic Assessment Test ) is a standardized test widely used in the United States for college admissions. It is designed to evaluate the readiness of high school students for college-level work in areas such as mathematics, critical reading, and writing.

What Are the Differences Between Formal and Informal Assessments?

Some of the major differences between formal and informal assessments are as follows:

What Are the Types of Formal Assessments?

Formal assessments can be categorized as follows:

1. Standardized Tests

This is a type of formal assessment test that is designed to be administered and scored in a consistent or standard manner, which makes it applicable in educational settings for admissions (e.g., SAT, ACT) as well as in pre-employment assessment for evaluating certain skills or aptitudes. For example, companies might use standardized coding tests to assess the programming skills of job applicants in a fair and measurable way.

2. Skills Assessments

Skills assessments measure proficiency in specific areas relevant to both academic achievement and job performance. In education, this might include language proficiency tests such as TOEFL or IELTS for non-native speakers. In the workplace, skills assessments could evaluate a candidate’s proficiency in software like Excel or specific programming languages. 

LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends report emphasizes the increasing importance of assessing candidates’ hard and soft skills.

3. Aptitude Tests

Aptitude tests evaluate the ability to perform certain types of tasks or to learn new skills. 

For example, the Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT) measure capacities in areas like verbal reasoning, numerical ability, and spatial relations, which are relevant for career counseling in educational settings and for assessing potential in job applicants.

4. Cognitive Ability Tests

These tests assess general mental capability, including memory, problem-solving skills, and logical reasoning. They are widely used in both educational environments to predict academic success and in employment settings to predict job performance. 

The Wonderlic test is a good example, often used by employers to assess the cognitive abilities of potential hires . Research has shown cognitive ability tests strongly predict job performance across various industries.

5. Personality Tests

Personality assessments are used to understand an individual’s traits, motivations, and compatibility with certain environments or roles. 

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a popular tool in both education for career planning and in the workplace for team building and hiring. Despite its popularity, the scientific validity of the MBTI as a predictive tool for job success is debated among psychologists.

6. Integrity Tests

Designed to assess an individual’s honesty, dependability, and ethical stance, integrity tests are used by employers to mitigate risks in hiring. While not commonly used in educational settings for academic purposes, the principles behind these tests are relevant to educational integrity, such as adherence to honor codes.

7. Norm-Referenced Formal Assessment

A norm-referenced formal assessment is a type of evaluation that compares an individual’s performance or scores against a predefined group or norm group. The aim is to establish a ranking or distribution of performances across the population being tested, allowing an individual’s performance to be understood in relation to others. This method is particularly useful for identifying relative strengths and weaknesses within a large group.

8. Criterion-Referenced Test

A criterion-referenced test measures an individual’s performance against a specific set of criteria or standards rather than comparing scores against the scores of other test-takers. This type of test assesses whether or not test-takers have mastered a particular skill or knowledge area and to what extent. The focus is on determining what individuals know and can do independently of how others perform.

These are some of the formal assessment types, and after this, let’s check out the benefits and paybacks of the formal assessment procedures.

What Are the Benefits of Formal Assessments?

Formal assessments offer a myriad of benefits, facilitating a more structured and objective approach to evaluating skills, knowledge, and performance. 

Here are some of the major benefits:

• Standardized Measurement and Comparison: 

Formal assessment strategies provide a universal benchmark for measuring and comparing the performance of individuals or groups , ensuring consistency across different settings. 

For instance, standardized tests like the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or ACT (American College Testing) offer a common data point for college admissions, helping to equate applicants from diverse educational backgrounds on a uniform scale.

• Identification of Strengths and Weaknesses: 

These assessments are instrumental in pinpointing areas where individuals excel and where they may need improvement. This targeted identification allows for personalized development plans, significantly enhancing learning outcomes. 

Studies conducted by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance have demonstrated that interventions based on assessment results can lead to marked improvements in areas like mathematics.

• Objective Decision Making: 

In both educational admissions and employment, formal assessments provide a concrete basis for decision-making, cutting through subjective biases to focus on actual abilities and potential. 

Psychometric assessments in recruitment are a prime example, enabling employers to gauge a candidate’s suitability for a role beyond the resume or interview impressions.

• Setting Benchmarks and Goals: 

Formal assessments set clear benchmarks, guiding individuals in their personal and professional development by establishing clear, achievable goals. 

According to the Association for Talent Development, the use of these assessments in the corporate world is extensive, with 80% of Fortune 500 companies leveraging them for employee development and performance benchmarking.

• Tracking Progress Over Time:

The ability to monitor progress over time through repeated formal assessments is invaluable for gauging development, the efficacy of interventions, and long-term trends. Educational longitudinal studies often rely on such assessments to track academic growth and the impact of educational policies over the years.

• Motivation and Engagement: 

By providing clear feedback and goals, formal assessments can motivate individuals to engage more deeply and improve in their areas of assessment. Gamified assessments in the workplace have been shown to boost engagement and motivation, leading to better performance and retention.

• Regulatory Compliance and Accreditation: 

Formal assessments ensure that educational institutions and organizations meet regulatory standards and achieve or maintain accreditation. These standards often include the use of standardized testing results to prove adherence to quality education benchmarks.

• Informing Policy and Practice: 

The data derived from formal assessments offer critical insights that can inform policy and practice in both educational and employment settings. 

For example, the analysis of the Programme for International Student Assessment ( PISA ) results has led to educational policy reforms worldwide, highlighting the practices of top-performing countries.

Best Practices for Implementing Formal Assessments

(Image Source: Sketch Bubble)

Implementing formal assessments effectively in educational or employment settings requires a strategic approach to ensure they are fair, accurate, and useful for decision-making. Here are some key best practices:

• Clear Objective

Begin with a clear understanding of what the assessment aims to measure and why. Objectives should be directly linked to the curriculum in educational settings or specific job competencies in employment contexts. This clarity ensures that assessments are purposeful and aligned with desired outcomes.

• Inclusive and Fair Design

Design assessments to be inclusive and fair, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their background, have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. This includes considering language proficiency, cultural backgrounds, and disabilities. Using a variety of assessment methods can help accommodate diverse needs and learning styles.

• Validity and Reliability

Ensure the assessments are both valid (accurately measuring what they are supposed to measure) and reliable (providing consistent results over time and across different groups). This often involves a thorough testing and review process, including pilot testing and statistical analysis of items.

• Clear Instructions and Expectations

Provide clear instructions and criteria for assessment. Participants should know what is expected of them, how they will be evaluated, and the significance of the assessment results. This transparency helps reduce anxiety and improves the accuracy of the assessment outcomes .

• Training for Assessors

Those who design and administer assessments should be properly trained. This training should cover not only the technical aspects of the assessment process but also how to interpret results and provide constructive feedback. In employment settings, it’s crucial that assessors understand the competencies being measured and can make unbiased evaluations.

• Use of Technology

Leverage technology to administer, score, and analyze assessment results. Technology can improve the efficiency and accuracy of assessments, provide instant feedback , and enable more sophisticated analyses of results to inform teaching or training practices.

• Ongoing Review and Improvement

Regularly review and update assessments to ensure they remain relevant, valid, and fair. This involves analyzing assessment data to identify trends, biases, or areas for improvement and updating the formal assessment tools and processes accordingly.

• Feedback and Development

Provide detailed, constructive feedback to participants based on their assessment results. Feedback should be actionable, offering clear guidance on how to improve or develop further. In educational settings, this might involve personalized learning plans, while in employment contexts, it could lead to targeted training or professional development opportunities.

• Ethical Use of Data

Handle assessment data ethically, ensuring privacy and confidentiality . Use assessment results responsibly, focusing on supporting and improving individual performance rather than punitive measures.

Implementing these best practices can significantly enhance the effectiveness and fairness of formal assessments, making them valuable tools for educational advancement and professional development.

How to Create Formal Assessments Using Online Tools

Many tools in the market allow you to create formal assessments absolutely free. Let’s take the example of ProProfs Quiz Maker and learn how to create a formal assessment in two different ways:

Creating Formal Assessments using the AI Quiz Tool

Step 1 : Click “ Create a Quiz ” on the dashboard.

Step 2: Go to “Generate with ProProfs AI” to use the AI quiz generator .

• Provide the topic of your quiz and some additional information about it. 
• Next, select the question format, the number of questions, the difficulty level, and whether you want explanations for the answers. 
• Click “Generate Questions” to generate your formal assessment.

Step 3 : Choose the questions you want to include in your quiz and click the “Add to Quiz” button. 

Then, you can either click the “Add more questions” button to generate more questions or the “Go to Quiz” button.

Step 4: Click “Edit Cover” to add a title, description, and cover image for your quiz. 

You can also add images, videos, or audio clips to your quiz to make it more engaging or visually appealing.

You can manually add or import some questions from the question bank of over a million ready-to-use questions .

And that’s it. 

You can share this assessment with the candidates and enable automatic grading and scoring to offer quick feedback. 

Creating a Formal Assessment From Scratch

If you’ve already thought of and drafted your questions, you can choose the “Create Your Own” option to build your formal assessment from the ground up. Here are the steps.

Step 1: On your dashboard, click “ Create a Quiz .”

Step 2: Click the ‘Create Your Own’ button on the next screen. You’ll be taken to the quiz editor window, where you can start building your quiz.

Step 3: Click “Edit Cover” to add the quiz title, description, and cover image. 

Step 4: Click “Add Question” on the panel on the right and choose a question format.

You can choose from 15+ question types, as shown in the video below.

Repeat this step till you’ve created all the questions. You can create your quiz with a single question type, such as MCQ, or have a mix of questions to make your quiz more interesting and fun. 

Step 5: Add Instant Feedback

You can display instant feedback when a question is answered. Doing so helps your learners identify knowledge gaps and improve their learning.

Also Watch: How to Create an Online Quiz in Under 5 Mins

Decoding Performance with Effective Formal Assessments

Formal assessments play a crucial role in both educational and employment sectors by providing a structured approach to evaluating knowledge, skills, and performance. These assessments offer invaluable insights into learners’ and employees’ competencies, guiding future learning paths and career advancements. 

If you are looking to navigate through the complexities of creating effective formal assessments, ProProfs Quiz Maker can be a good partner. Its intuitive design, extensive question bank , and detailed analytics, along with the efficient AI quiz generator, make it an ideal choice for crafting assessments that are not only comprehensive but also tailored to meet specific educational and employment needs.

Learn More About Formal Assessments

Is a worksheet a formal assessment?

A worksheet can be a formal assessment if it is designed to evaluate learners’ knowledge or skills against specific standards systematically. In this context, formal assessments are structured, employ standard scoring methods, and contribute to official grades or evaluations. However, worksheets can vary in nature; they can also be informal, intended for practice or reinforcement of concepts, without affecting formal assessment records. 

Can a formal assessment be formative?

Yes, a formal assessment can serve a formative purpose. Although formal assessments are structured and standardized, they can be utilized formatively to gather data on learning during the instructional process. The goal of formative formal assessments is to provide feedback that educators can use to adjust teaching strategies and help them improve their understanding.

Is a formal assessment the same as a summative assessment?

Formal assessment encompasses more than just summative assessment. Summative assessments are a subset of formal assessments designed to evaluate student learning at the conclusion of an instructional unit or course. They are typically structured and standardized and contribute to final grades. However, formal assessments can also be formative, aimed at guiding instruction and improving the learning throughout the course. 

What are the cons of a formal assessment?

Formal assessments face several drawbacks, including inducing stress among learners, emphasizing memorization over critical thinking, and potentially narrowing the curriculum to what is testable. They may not accurately reflect a learner’s full range of abilities or learning progress, especially in areas like creativity or problem-solving. Also, preparing for and administering formal assessments can consume valuable teaching time, detracting from interactive and explorative learning opportunities.

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About the author

Michael laithangbam.

Michael Laithangbam is the senior writer & editor at ProProfs with 12 years of experience in enterprise software and eLearning. Michael's expertise encompasses online training, web-based learning, quizzes & assessments, LMS, and more. Michael’s work has been published in G2, Software Advice, Capterra, and eLearning Industry.

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Formative Assessment in the Year Before School Project 2024

Key information

• Status: Open
• Grant amount: Participating services will receive up to $8,000 (ex GST) of funding
• Application opened: 7 May 2024
• Application closes: 20 May 2024, 7:00 pm

Program objective

The NSW Department of Education (the department) is inviting services to participate in the Formative Assessment in the Year Before School Project ( Project ). The purpose of the Project is to explore formative assessment tools that can complement existing practices in NSW early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to support all children’s learning, development and wellbeing outcomes.

The department is committed to working in partnership with the ECEC sector and would like to draw on the experience and expertise of the sector to ensure a best practice approach is adopted.

The key objectives of the Project are to:

• inform the department’s approach to the 2025 national trial of the Preschool Outcomes Measure (POM)
• determine what resources and supports will help to uplift and sustain effective formative assessment practices across all NSW ECEC services
• explore formative assessment tools that can complement existing teaching and learning practices in NSW ECEC services.

The department is the primary agency responsible for administering this project.

The POM, is a key reform of the Preschool Reform Agreement (PRA). A National trial of the POM will occur in 2025 – separate to this Project. Find out more information about the POM and national trial at the  Australian Government Department of Education .

This program is administered by Department of Education.

Eligibility

Who can apply.

Services that provide a preschool program for children in the year before they start full time school may be eligible to participate in the Project. This includes public preschools, community preschools and long day care services.

The department will assess applications based on the following eligibility criteria. Please note, due to the limited number of places available, submission of an EOI does not guarantee inclusion in the Project.

To participate, approved services must meet the below eligibility criteria.

• Be an approved education and care service under the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 ( National Law ) and Education and Care Services National Regulations ( Regulations ).
• Be delivering a preschool program in 2024 for children in the year before school designed by a degree-qualified Early Childhood Teacher ( ECT ) in accordance with the requirements under the National Quality Framework . This includes public preschools, community preschools and long day care ( LDC ) services.
• Have a current quality rating against the National Quality Standard. Services rated Significant Improvement Required or Not Yet Assessed are ineligible to apply.
• Submit an EOI application by Monday 20 May 2024.
• Have accepted the Early Childhood Education Grants Program Funding Agreement – Terms and Conditions (1 January 2024 – 31 December 2024) (LDC and community preschool providers only).
• Should not have an unresolved compliance matter with the NSW ECEC Regulatory Authority. (If a service does, this may be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.)
• Be willing and have the capacity to dedicate up to two ECT’s and/or early childhood educators to participate in all Project activities, including evaluation activities.

(The department reserves the right to use its discretion for smaller-sized services where only one ECT/educator is available. These applications will be assessed on an individual basis. Small services are encouraged to apply).

Types of projects funded under this grant

Please refer to the Project Guidelines for full details. 

What your application needs to include

Prepare your application with this checklist.

Applicants must complete all compulsory fields in their submission. 

Address the eligibility criteria

Each applicant, as part of an application response, must confirm that they meet the eligibility criteria.

Applicants that do not address the eligibility criteria in full may be excluded from the application process at the department's discretion.

Address the assessment criteria

Applications may be competitively assessed against the assessment criteria outlined below:

• number of enrolled children in the year before school;
• services with high proportion of children in the year before school with a language background other than English, in 2024;
• services with high proportion of children in the year before school who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in 2024;
• services with a high proportion of children in the year before school with a disability and/or additional needs in 2024;
• services that operate in a regional, rural and/or remote location or in a disadvantaged area (SA2) with a low SEIFA classification; and;
• other prioritisation categories that reflect and support the purpose and intended objective of the project.

Start the application

Applications must be submitted via the SmartyGrants website by an Approved Provider or authorised officer of an eligible ECEC service.

• You are strongly encouraged to view the project guidelines  on the NSW Department of Education website.

To be considered for participation, you must complete all sections and submit the online application form.

You can save your application as a draft and save changes at any time until you submit.

• If you are a new applicant, you will need to register before you log in.
• You will need to provide your name, email address and create a password.
• You can also use an existing Facebook, Twitter or Google account to register.

After the application is submitted

Successful applications will be decided by: The Executive Director, Service Excellence, within the Early Childhood Outcomes Division

The department will assess applications and determine suitability to participate in the Project based on eligibility criteria outlined above.

Only eligible applications will progress to assessment against the assessment criteria in line with the Project guidelines and the overarching Project objectives.

The submission of an application does not guarantee participation in the Project.

Services that meet one or more of the assessment criteria will be given priority in the assessment process.

Anticipated assessment outcome date is from 3 June 2024

Anticipated date for funding deed execution with successful applicants is by 14 June 2023

Support and contact

For questions relating to the Formative Assessment in the Year Before School Project, please contact the Project team:

• via email at [email protected]  or
• via the Early Childhood Education Information and Enquires phone number on 1800 619 113 .

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Three Michigan Students Named U.S. Presidential Scholars

May 09, 2024

LANSING – Three Michigan youth who have been named 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars represent the great work that the state’s high school seniors have been doing, State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice said.

The Michigan scholars are Anish Jain, a student at Avondale Senior High School and resident of Auburn Hills; Aanya Shah, a student at Troy High School and resident of Troy; and Olivia Jaden Stepnioski, a student at Center Line High School and resident of Warren who is a presidential scholar in career and technical education.

“All of Michigan can be proud of these outstanding scholars,” Dr. Rice said. “They have worked hard and achieved great things with the support of their teachers and families. Their futures are bright. I look forward to continuing to follow them and observe more great things that they are sure to accomplish.”

The three Michigan scholars were among 13 semifinalists in the state earlier named by the Commission on U.S. Presidential Scholars.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona today announced the 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars, to recognize 161 high school seniors for their accomplishments. The Presidential Scholars Class of 2024 will be recognized for their outstanding achievement this summer with an online recognition program.

The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars selects scholars annually based on academic success, excellence in the arts and in technical education, through essays, school evaluations and transcripts, as well as a demonstrated commitment to community service and leadership.

Of the 3.7 million students expected to graduate from high school this year, more than 5,700 candidates qualified for the 2024 awards determined by outstanding performance on the College Board SAT or ACT exams or through nominations made by chief state school officers, other partner recognition organizations and YoungArts , the National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists.

As directed by presidential executive order, the 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars are comprised of two students from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and U.S. families living abroad, as well as 15 chosen at-large, 20 scholars in the arts, and 20 scholars in career and technical education.

Created in 1964, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program has honored over 8,200 of the nation’s top-performing students.

A complete list of 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars is available at http://www.ed.gov/psp .

Media Contact:

Media Contact

Public and Governmental Affairs

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517-241-4395

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