Formative Assessment

LEARN: What and Why

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 discussion, quizzes, reflections, essays, projects, or 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 and Franklin, 2010; Trumbull and Lash, 2013)

ENGAGE: How to do it

Principles of Formative Assessment:

These principles can guide instructor strategies (adapted from Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) and the Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning):

 1. Keep clear criteria for what defines good performance

• clearly communicate expectations and criteria for any assessed (low or high stakes) activities, such as participation in discussion boards, journal entries, homework, groupwork, etc.
• encourage student discussion and reflection about these criteria

2. Encourage students’ self-reflection

• students can use course criteria to evaluate their own, or a peer’s, work – and to share what kinds of feedback they find most valuable
• students can reflect on the best qualities of their work, through writing or discussion

3. Give students detailed, actionable feedback

• 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

4. Promote a ‘growth-mindset’ approach in your course

• motivate and engage students by assuring them that their development is important
• for example: allow for rewrites/resubmissions to signal that an assignment is designed to promote development of learning. And, if appropriate, use automated online testing that is anonymous, and allows for unlimited resubmissions.

5. Provide opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance

• include opportunities for resubmission, give specific action points for writing or task-based assignments, and share study or process strategies that an instructor would use in order to succeed

6. Encourage teacher and peer dialogue around learning

• using midterm surveys, or other less formal processes (e.g. student meeting during office hours), students can identify:
  • where they are having difficulties in the course content/assignments
  • examples of feedback they found useful and explain how it helped
  • their own progress toward meeting the learning goals
• this information can be used to help adapt teaching approaches

APPLY to your course

There are a number of 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.

Common Formative Assessment Techniques and Online Tools

Creative CATs

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 Academy Techniques Video Library.  

Examples of CATs useful in online teaching

Review and Revise your Course:

1. Review your course, asking:

• Do you already have formative assessment?
• If so, how often do you use it?
• What types of approaches and methods do you use?
• Are they accessible? Is there variety?

2. Then, revise:

• Identify additional places where formative assessment could be using for both teaching and learning.
• Try adding in a new formative assessment, such as a Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT): use the resources and links above to help you.

References & Resources

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.