Troy Priest, Senior Instructional Designer

Faculty spend a lot of time creating and grading assessments while providing students feedback on their performance. These can include projects, papers, presentations, exams, and quizzes, and are an integral part of teaching and learning 

Summative assessments measure how well students have achieved the course learning outcomes; they make sure that the courses and the students have met the rigorous standards of the programs objectives; and they ensure that when students graduate from Stony Brook University, they are qualified and credentialed within their discipline and major. These are assessments of student learning and are typically what we think about when deciding on how to assess students. 

Formative assessments are often low stakes (or no stakes) assessments or activities that provide feedback to students and faculty in order to better understand what students have learned, but more importantly what they still need to learn or are struggling to comprehend and/or master. They refer to a variety of assessment methods that faculty and students can use to identify what students have learned as well as address any gaps. These are assessments for student learning and their importance can often be overlooked. 

Below are a few simple, formative assessment techniques, most of which can be facilitated and managed by using tools such as Blackboard, Google, or Qualtrics. These suggestions are techniques that are easily implemented and do not require any significant course or assessment redesign.

Assessing formatively before the class

It is useful that we gauge what our students know coming into a course or lesson. Assessing students’ background knowledge helps the instructor to know what content and concepts may need extra emphasis and attention. A background knowledge probe is a short and simple questionnaire that gauges students’ background knowledge on and assumptions about a topic or unit. This can be done prior to the start of the course or unit or could be done at the beginning of a class. 

Assessing formatively during class

In-class assessments provide instant feedback on students’ understanding of material being presented in class. These can include ‘low-stakes’ or ‘no-stakes’ assessments using a polling tool (Turning Technologies clickers, Zoom polls, Google forms, etc.) or an in-class chat tool  (Zoom chat, Google chat, Google Docs, etc.) where faculty can ask questions and gauge what students understand (or don’t) in real time.  

Real-time, in-class formative assessments can be very powerful when lecturing by allowing instructors to adapt and respond to students’ questions as they arise. 

Assessing formatively at the end of class

Quick formative assessments at the end of the class can not only help faculty gauge their students’ learning and mastery of the content, it can also provide them with feedback on how well the lesson or lecture hit the mark. They can also help faculty identify if their assumptions about students’ understanding, experiences, and expectations of the content were correct. Some examples include:

• One minute papers where students spend only one minute reflecting on a question or concept and summarizing what they have learned or what is unclear.
• Critical incident questionnaires where students are given five-question surveys at the end of class to reflect on points in the class that were most helpful, most confusing, and most surprising. 
• Muddiest points where students write short, simple reflections about what they found to be most confusing or most unclear points during class. 

Assessing formatively outside of class

A great way to understand what students have learned or what they are still struggling with is by asking questions through reflection. Some examples using tools available in Blackboard include: 

• Discussion boards where students can reflect on their learning by responding to open-ended questions and each other. 
• Journals where students maintain reflections of their learning, ponder unclear points, and make connections. This feature also allows instructors to respond and give feedback on students’ posts.

These are just a few, easily implemented formative assessment techniques that any instructor could implement in their courses. However, if you would like to explore these further or rethink your course or assessment strategies, please contact an assessment specialist or instructional designer in CELT for a consultation.