What are Formative Assessments?

Unlock the Episode: Listen and Download the Free MP3 from My Podcast Today!

SUMMARY

In the dynamic landscape of e-learning, the importance of formative assessments cannot be overstated. Unlike summative assessments that gauge overall comprehension at the end of a course, formative assessments are woven throughout the learning journey, providing invaluable insights and fostering continuous improvement. In this blog post, we'll delve into the significance of formative assessments, explore four distinct types, and offer eight practical tips for their effective implementation in e-learning.

Formative assessments act as powerful tools to track learner progress, offering real-time feedback that can shape and enhance the e-learning experience. Instead of focusing on what learners should have already mastered, formative assessments pinpoint areas that require improvement, ensuring a more tailored and effective educational experience.

The blog post introduces four types of formative assessments. Firstly, reflection logs encourage learners to articulate their thoughts, feelings, and key takeaways, providing instructors with a valuable window into individual progress. Presentations, the second type, involve collaborative or independent creation of digital presentations, fostering both teamwork and skill development. Goal checks, the third type, set objectives at the beginning of a lesson, offering a measurable way to determine learner achievement and progress. Lastly, self and peer reviews encourage learners to reflect on their own progress and receive feedback from their peers.

The post then outlines seven key tips for utilizing formative assessments effectively in e-learning. Notably, assessing learners at the end of each module ensures alignment with course objectives and enhances the learning process. Providing immediate and constructive feedback is emphasized, as research indicates learners benefit more from timely corrections. The blog also underscores the importance of explaining correct and incorrect answers, ensuring a deeper understanding.

Customizing content based on individual learner needs is highlighted as a major advantage of formative assessments. By identifying areas of struggle early on, instructors can adapt activities and assignments to enhance comprehension. Keeping track of quantifiable data through scenario-based training or short quizzes is crucial, offering a tangible measure of progress.

The post advocates for keeping score values low in formative assessments, emphasizing progress over grades. Different types of questions, from true or false to gamified elements, are recommended to engage learners and cater to diverse learning styles. Additionally, the proficiency level of assessments should align with the learning objectives, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the material.

In conclusion, the blog encourages educators to integrate these practices into their e-learning courses, ultimately delivering a more engaging and effective educational experience. By embracing formative assessments, instructors can empower learners to identify and address areas of improvement while there's still ample time for course adjustments. With a focus on feedback, customization, and engagement, formative assessments emerge as indispensable tools for elevating the e-learning journey.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the eLearning and Instructional Design for Beginners podcast, where new and aspiring instructional designers start, grow, and advance their careers in instructional design and online learning development. I'm your host, Crystal Harper. I'm a former school teacher who transitioned to instructional design, all while working full-time as a single mom. Would you like to become a successful instructional designer without the burden of earning another degree? Well, then let's get started.

Formative assessments help you track learner progress throughout the duration of a course and offers your learners feedback to use to improve their e learning experience.

You're able to identify areas that might need improvement and pinpoint strengths during the e-learning course. Formative assessment is one of the most beneficial assessment strategies because it focuses on what still needs to be learned instead of what learners should have already mastered. Unlike summative assessments that are used at the end of an e-learning course to assess the comprehension of the learner, formative assessments are diagnostic in nature and used throughout the course.

In this training, you will learn about four different types of formative assessment and eight tips on how to use formative assessment in e-learning. Why is this important? Formative assessments should be mapped to the enabling objectives of an e-learning course. By doing so, the instructor ensures that the student is learning the concepts set out in the planning of that module or course.

When the student successfully completes the assessment, it provides both the learner and trainer with feedback showing knowledge they have gained, skills developed, and any areas that need to be further developed in that learning objective. Each successful demonstration of learning builds towards the overall learning for that student.

Now we will talk about four types of formative assessment. Number one, reflection logs. Reflection logs allow learners to log the details of what they are learning, their thoughts and feelings about the topic, and main ideas of the lessons learned. The instructor can use this log to track the student's progress.

Presentations. Learners can work together or independently to create a digital presentation that is presented to their peers via the online discussion board. The learners should be provided with a rubric beforehand that clarifies expectations and should specify which skills and information should be included in the project.

Goal checks provide learners with a goal or objective at the beginning of an e learning lesson or module. After the lesson is complete, they are given an assessment that determines whether they achieved the goal and how much they have progressed. Self and peer reviews. Learners should be encouraged to reflect on their own progress and determine their proficiency level or knowledge mastery.

They may also be evaluated by their peers.

This form of online assessment is usually paired with another e-learning activity, such as reflection logs. Now you will learn about seven tips using formative assessment in e-learning. Number one, assess learners at the end of each module. Formative assessment should be included after students complete each individual module in an e-learning course.

Assessing learners at the end of each lesson allows you to determine where the learning has happened in the way it was intended. Provide constructive and immediate feedback. The entire purpose of formative assessment in e-learning is to give your learners timely feedback in order for them to correct their misunderstandings and strengthen the desired knowledge.

Learners must be given feedback immediately after they make a mistake. Research shows that learners who receive immediate feedback gain more than learners who receive delayed feedback. If you notice that a student isn't fully grasping a concept or is unable to apply their knowledge, then it is the instructor's job to offer them the required feedback and guidance as soon as possible.

Explain to the learners the reasons why they got an answer correct or incorrect. Often a learner guesses the correct answer by chance. Be sure to provide feedback and formative assessments that encourage the student to continue learning. Using words like good attempt, when a learner gets an answer wrong, is good practice.

Most importantly, the feedback should tell them why the answer is wrong and what the right answer is. Customize the content depending on student progress. One of the biggest benefits of using formative assessment in eLearning is that you can customize the content to meet the individual needs of your learners.

If you find that they are struggling with a particular topic, formative assessments allow you to see this right away. You can then modify the activities, assignments, and assessments in order to improve their knowledge or comprehension of the content. As opposed to assessing at the end, you are given the opportunity to fix the incorrect skills during the actual learning process.

Keep track of the data. It's essential that you have quantifiable data that you can actually track. The online assessments help track your learner's mastery of the desired learning objectives. One way of doing this is by having students complete a scenario-based training at different points throughout the course and keep track of their progress.

Another way is by giving them short, low stakes quizzes that monitors how they are improving. Most learning management systems include these measurement tools in the platform. Keep score values low. The purpose of formative assessments in eLearning is not about the grades, but about the progress.

Formative assessments show you that they've mastered the learning objectives and that they are improving as they move through the eLearning course. These assessments in eLearning are designed to monitor students development and provide them with the feedback they can use to correct their misunderstandings and strengthen the desired knowledge.

Make the formative assessments of very low value, maybe one to two points, simply to ensure that the students will put in their best efforts but not result in dampening his or her spirit. Use different types of questions. Using different types of questions makes assessments more interesting for the learners.

The different types of formative assessment questions include true or false, matching, single or multiple select, fill in the blanks, crosswords, puzzles, or short answer written responses. Make assessments engaging. Making assessments interesting and engaging is super important to enhance the learning experience.

This will help unlock curiosity and drive the student's mental engagement. Engaging formative assessments hold learners attention by using various forms of media elements such as audio, animations, graphics, and gamification. These forms of media will make it more appealing to different learning styles and motivate students to try harder.

Consider the proficiency level. Formative assessment also needs to take into consideration the level of proficiency that needs to be demonstrated. For example, if students are required to demonstrate knowledge level proficiency of For example, the capital cities. An appropriate assessment might be a quick quiz asking them to list the capitals.

On the other hand, if students need to demonstrate synthesis level proficiency of identifying the risk of foodborne illness in a restaurant, the assessment would require students to access a number of sources of information to complete the assignment. Formative assessment in eLearning provides your learners with opportunities to identify areas of improvement and expand their knowledge while there is still time to make the proper adjustments.

Providing feedback is an essential part of formative assessment. This helps summarize what's taught in each module before moving on to the next. In this training, you learned about four different types of formative assessment and eight tips on how to use formative assessment in eLearning. You should now be ready to implement effective formative assessments into your eLearning course.

So what are you waiting for? Apply these practices discussed in this training and design the proper formative assessments and deliver a better eLearning course.