Tena Crews

Jesse,

I love formative assessment. It has been my experience that the more formative feedback the more engaged students are and the less time I spend on summative feedbacl.

Thanks!

Jesse Richter

Dr. Crews,

Wow, I must say I'm impressed to have received responses from you as my instructor! After taking literally dozens of online mini-courses like this, you are the first to actually respond to a post.

Thank you! I enjoyed the course and look forward to developing my skills more as the years tick by.

Best,
Jesse

Kerri Schewe

I like formative assessment as well. I think it is a great tool to help the students realize where the really are in the learning phase.

Tena Crews

Kerri,

Formative assessment can provide you, as the instructor, with so much important information.

Rebekah Benson

There are many benefits to formative assessment for both the teacher and the student. One of the greater benefits is the ability to determine achievement gains. Typically formative assessment improves student outcomes. Another benefit is the ability to increase classroom attendance and retention of learning. The instructor must be able to accurately assess variations in student achievement and then adapt their teaching style to ultimately meet the learning needs of their students, hence the need for formative assessment. Formative assessment emphasizes the process of teaching and learning and engages the students in that process. By encouraging students to be involved in the learning process the student also becomes committed to the process of life-long learning.

Becky

Tena Crews

Rebekah,

Right on. Formative assessments do help engage the students in the learning process. I believe it helps the students feel like they are a part of the learning process and they become more responsible for their learning. What a great thing!

Jacob Carroll

I am also a firm believer in formative assessment. It provides students with the opportunity to learn their strengthens and weaknesses so they can improve their work. While I understand both are important for different reasons, in some ways I feel formative assessment is more important than summative assessment. Through formative assessment an instructor has a better ability to judge learning growth from assignment to assignment. What do you all think?

Tena Crews

Jacob,

Me too. Love formative feedback. We need to know what the students understand and don't understand. Formative assessment helps with that.

Nicole Gulley

Becky,

Your observations about how formative assessment affects knowledge retention and attendance is very accurate. At one of the institutions that I teach for I facilitate some form of formative assessment in the first 15 minutes of each class. The assessment is not always written but it counts for half of the participation points for that day. That gets the student to class on time and it helps reinforce the learning from the previous weeks. It also allows me to make "course corrections" to what I teach. Of course, this is a classroom scenario that I described but I think it works in much the same way in an online environment.

Tena Crews

Nicole,

Nice job. Doing formative feedback at the beginning of class allows you to understand what the students have learned from previous lessons or previous classes. This is a great way to start your class.

Alan Grayson

That works for me Becky!

Reasons to evaluate a course include the following:
- Better student learning
- Better course delivery
- Increased student and increased instructor skills
- Improved curriculum
- Support for professional development
- Better quality and higher marks compared to benchmarks.

Tena Crews

Alan and Becky,

Thanks for continuing the conversation. You have provided a good list for us to connect to course evaluations.

Thanks!

Alfretta Earnest

Formative assessments are used to both provide student feedback to assist in the learning process, as well as to improve teaching methods. In essence, it is really a means for guiding the learning and instructional processes.

Tena Crews

Alfretta,

Right on. We can use them to help the students and the instructor. Like rubrics, it's a tool to help everyone involved. Thanks!