Educational assessments are more than just a set of questions—they’re a crucial way to shape and improve the learning experience.
While there are many different types of assessments—including formative, summative, and diagnostic—each one plays a different role in helping educators understand student needs. Each type gives educators different insights into what’s working in their teaching and what’s not. This helps them continuously improve the in-class experience and improve students’ chances of success.
Let’s take a look at how formative assessments can benefit your classrooms, as well as how tools like Poll Everywhere can help you create engaging formative assessments with its easy-to-use classroom response system.
What are formative assessments?
Formative assessments are check-ins and pulse surveys that help instructors understand how well their students are comprehending course material. Unlike graded exams or quizzes, formative assessments are intended to be low-pressure opportunities for students to demonstrate their newly gained knowledge.
This gives teachers a snapshot of students’ levels of understanding so they can adjust their teaching methods on the fly.
This is critical for ensuring all students feel supported and engaged in course content. One German education publication found that formative assessments had a positive impact on student participation and achievement. This shows that formative assessments can improve chances of academic success by engaging students and allowing educators to take pre-emptive action if they notice a student is falling behind.
In a sense, formative assessments can close the loop between student performance and teaching strategies. They provide a goldmine of feedback for instructors to adapt their lesson plans even if the semester is still underway.
This is somewhat different from diagnostic assessments, which are used to provide feedback on students’ levels of knowledge at the start of a semester and after it ends. Additionally, a third type of assessment—summative—provides a summary of all the student has learned through graded exams and quizzes.
All three types of assessments provide essential feedback for educators at different steps of the learning process.
7 types of formative assessments
Formative assessments come in all shapes and sizes, but here are a handful of examples you’ll commonly find in use in higher education classrooms:
- Student-created questions and peer evaluations
- Journals that track learning journeys over time
- Exit tickets or pop quizzes for quick looks at student understanding
- Gamified learning activities to promote engagement
- Collaborative group activities where students share feedback
- Homework exercises that review course concepts
- Question-and-answer sessions where students get immediate feedback from instructors
A 2021 study published in the Review of Education journal found that quizzes and peer feedback were some of the most promising types of formative assessments that were reviewed. The study noted that these approaches are beneficial when used to prompt students to retrieve knowledge and help educators spot misconceptions or errors.
Best practices for implementing assessments in education
You’ll need a game plan to effectively use formative assessments to tailor your course based on student feedback. Here are some things to consider when using formative assessments as part of your lesson plan.
- Align assessments with learning objectives: Ensure your assessments measure the knowledge you’re aiming to impart in your class. For example, if your learning objective is to teach students foundational concepts in algebra, your assessments should measure that.
- Craft clear grading rubrics: Make sure you’ve outlined what successful understanding looks like versus a need for additional support. You should also share your expectations with students to maintain transparency and consistency.
- Ensure accessibility: Every student deserves a fair chance to display their understanding of course material. Make sure your assessments are accessible to a diverse group of students and those with learning disabilities.
- Act on student feedback: Once you have the data, don’t just sit on it. Share your feedback on assessment results with students and be sure to also use this information to improve your teaching strategies.
How to use Poll Everywhere to create formative assessments
Poll Everywhere is a versatile tool that can help you engage students and gather insightful feedback through formative assessments. Here are some of our favorite ways to use Poll Everywhere in the classroom:
Gather anonymous feedback
Some students may be hesitant to share their feedback or ask questions during class. By allowing anonymous responses in Poll Everywhere, you can ensure everyone has a chance to be heard without fear of feeling judged.
Anonymous feedback also gives educators a chance to present that feedback and discuss it with the class as a whole. This creates opportunities for peer-led learning.
Use customized quizzes
Poll Everywhere’s easy-to-use polls and multiple-choice quizzes give you a real-time barometer of comprehension. This method of quickly checking in on how well students are absorbing the course material gives instructors a chance to adapt the lesson plan to cover any misunderstood concepts or questions.
Expert tip: Use Poll Everywhere to gauge student understanding before you start a lecture, then send out a quick quiz to compare levels of understanding after the lecture is over.
Use visuals to start conversations
The Word Cloud Activity is a great way to simultaneously collect answers from the whole class. That way you can spot any areas where students may need more instruction. The results can also prompt in-class discussions and opportunities to learn from peers.
Sentiment surveys
Find out whether last week’s homework was helpful to students or if the readings improved comprehension. Poll Everywhere makes it easy to use pulse surveys to gather student feedback.
One approach to collecting this type of feedback is to ask students to share two things they liked about the latest reading or homework along with one thing they didn’t like or still have questions about.
Interactive images
Use Poll Everywhere’s Clickable Image Activity to engage students with a visually interactive activity. This provides students with an alternative way to show their understanding of course material.
According to a 2022 survey, 86% of Gen Z students have struggled with test anxiety. A less formal approach like placing markers on an image may help students feel more confident in sharing their thoughts.
Keep tabs on student understanding with Poll Everywhere
Formative assessments help educators take the pulse of student understanding. By using this type of assessment throughout the course, instructors can quickly spot problem areas and adjust their lesson plans to bring all students up to speed.
Accessibility is a key requirement for formative assessments and gathering accurate data. Tools like Poll Everywhere provide instructors with a variety of ways to conduct these assessments—which in turn ensures students of all backgrounds and learning needs can interact and provide feedback.
Incorporating tech like Poll Everywhere into your lesson plan for regular assessment of student comprehension doesn’t have to be a challenge. Find out just how easy it is to use Poll Everywhere to engage students with interactive presentations and analyze learning outcomes with quick polls, surveys, and Q&A forms. (All of which work seamlessly with multiple LMSs and presentation tools.)
