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Examples of Digital Formal Assessment Tools

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Examples of Digital Formal Assessment Tools

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Teachers need to know how well students are assimilating lessons so as not to leave anyone behind. You also have to assess each student at the end of the quarter, term, and semester and bestow a final grade that reflects both their understanding and their level of effort.

Online assessment tools for teachers are a necessary part of the remote learning picture. From one day to the next you need to know what your students understand. If you have a handle on their learning gaps then you can adjust your lessons to target them.

Grades matter, but so does understanding and being able to build on lessons to-date.

Formative or summative: What's the difference?

Different assessment tools used by the teacher can be formative or summative in nature, either for shaping ongoing lessons or for grading once the instruction is complete.

Formative assessment tools are the quizzes, assignments, and in-class questions and discussions teachers use to gauge and guide (or form) their students' learning process. That goes both ways, as teachers often use the answers in their students' formative assessment tools to guide their lesson plans and lectures.

Summative assessment tools are the final essays and tests given at the end of a project, course, semester, unit, program, or school year. Teachers use these to evaluate student learning by comparing performance to a benchmark. These are high-stakes exams with a high point value that figure heavily into a student's grades. Some examples are midterm exams, term papers, and AP tests.

See the top five list of assessment tools in education below for tracking student progress, with tips for how to use them.

1. Socrative - quizzes and questions with real-time grading

Socrative is one of the top-rated assessment tools for teachers according to hundreds of online reviews by educators and professional reviewers alike. It's an interactive digital tool that lets you quiz, grade, and assess on-the-fly; "at the speed of learning." Teachers can choose from quick questions for instant feedback, class counts to see who's logged in, or full quizzes for deeper understanding.

This versatile tool lets you create polls and activities and shuffle questions, with or without student names attached. Quizzes are graded in real time, and you can store them for re-use with other groups. It works on smart phones, tablets, laptops, and other devices on MS Windows, Android, and iOS. It's 100% free for students, and it's simple, flexible, and aligns well with Common Core.

2. Google Forms - easy to use and COPPA/FERPA compliant

The best reason to use Google Forms as an online assessment tool for education? Ease of use. Google Forms is a go-to among teachers because it's quick and simple to create and automatically grade quizzes even if it's your first time using the tool. Create multiple-choice quizzes or short-answer quizzes, and make an easy answer key with point assignments for each question.

Google makes it easy for students to answer questions by clicking a drop-down, typing a fast text answer, or posting a short YouTube video. Teachers can view graphs and summaries of frequently missed answers for a quick bird's-eye view of the class as a whole.

"I have been using Google Forms a lot. I also assess by checking their daily IXL and iReady. Google Forms allows me to create the assessment and see fast results," Margaret Waters Hall, high school teacher.

3. Mentimeter - pre-built education templates

Pro reviewers and teachers score Mentimeter sky high among assessment tools used in the classroom. It comes pre-loaded with education templates for the classroom like a listening skills assessment, icebreakers, formative assessments, post-lecture surveys, and polls. Create quizzes and tests, manage student expectations, engage students, and even run a teacher training workshop.

Mentimeter gives everyone a voice, but it also has a neat feature to mute extra-loud students.

It's free to use and lets you create and host live quizzes either from its templates or from scratch. Pro versions for schools and universities add unlimited question slides per presentation, exports, unlimited quizzes, and support for a few dollars a month. The interface is 101-level simple, with tech support to smooth the bumps.

4. Poll Everywhere - used by 300,000 teachers

Don't trust assessment tools for teachers that try to control your every move? Give quizzes, take attendance, and gauge understanding your own way with Poll Everywhere. It integrates with Google apps like Google Slides or MS PowerPoint and Keynote; as you prefer. It's used by more than 75% of all Fortune 500 companies and by 300,000+ educators around the world. It also works on iOS and Android phones and tablets.

Get a snapshot of where students are struggling by creating questions as word clouds, open student responses, or with multiple-choice options. Then let students answer with their phones, laptops, or tablets.

Teachers can get real-time feedback in their question slides without calling on specific individuals to roll out assessment as an integrated part of a larger lecture. This is a great way to give students a voice in steering the direction of live lesson plans.

5. Kahoot - game-based assessment tool

Students love Kahoot 's game-based approach to learning and assessment. Teachers can choose from more than 40 million ready-to-go learning games or create their own in minutes. Host games live or as assignments.

Students can even create their own "kahoots" to share with classmates, creating an interactive experience. Create a quiz game in minutes, import questions from spreadsheets, and search their 500-million item question bank.

Want to add drawings from iOS or combine several mini-kahoots into a larger assessment? Kahoot can do that, and it can insert YouTube videos into your questions.

Students can plan the assessment games by themselves or as a team, and teachers can add multiple choice or true/false questions to the games. The games are timed and scored, with point scales set up by the teacher. Plus, you can download basic reports in spreadsheets. It's free to schools, with added features for $12 per year.

More online assessment tools for teachers

Didn't find a tool you loved in the list above? Here is an assessment tools list with 20 more formative and summative assessment tools for teachers.

1. AnswerGarden - Real-time polling and brainstorming tool

2. Backchannel Chat - Teacher-moderated Twitter-type assessment tool for education

3. Chatzy - Lets students chime in with questions or opinions during a lecture

4. Coggle - Mind-mapping tool that lets you get a handle on student thinking

5. eSurvey Creator - Make student surveys and questionnaires fast

6. Flipgrid - Let students make quick videos that respond to teacher prompts

7. Formative - Give live assignments, grade them, and give immediate feedback

8. Lino - A sticky-note-based virtual blackboard that lets students chime in

9. Naiku - Make quizzes that students can take on mobile devices

10. Pear Deck - Create interactive presentations students can take part in via smartphones

11. Plickers - Collect formative assessment data in real time with no need for student devices

12. The Queue - Free educational chat tool that's similar to Twitter and facilitates remote class discussion

13. Quizalize - Create homework and quizzes quickly, with a fast-grading feature

14. Quizlet - Develop tests, quizzes, flashcards, and study games for mobile

15. Remind - Send quick texts to students and parents to check for understanding

16. Sparkpost - Adobe app that lets teachers create exit tickets with visuals and graphics

17. SurveyPlanet - Create quick surveys to get a grasp on student knowledge

18. Typeform - Create polls with graphical elements

19. VoiceThread - Create discussions around documents, videos, and other materials

20. Zoho Survey - Make mobile-ready student surveys and get real-time results

Assessments are for more than grades

During remote learning, teachers will have to evaluate students for more than educational proficiency. The best online assessment tools for teachers let them interact with students on a personal level, often through video conferencing.

How are they feeling? How is everything going at home? Are they able to focus on assignments? Teachers may not come out and ask these questions, but body language cues can telegraph them at a glance.

"Actually seeing and talking to the students through online video calls and communication platforms is so important. Our students can be going through a lot more than we realize being isolated at home. Sometimes the assessment has to be on a level deeper than academics," Clifford Sullivan, high school teacher, Fayetteville PK-8, Fayetteville, WV

In conclusion

It's easy to assess student progress in the physical classroom. Paper tests, quizzes, and spot questions are just a few of the tools used in assessment we take for granted. The best online assessment tools for teachers give the same level of feedback for targeted virtual learning. Our top picks are Socrative, Google Forms, Mentimeter, Poll Everywhere, and Kahoot for their accessibility and features.

These tools allow for easy quiz creation and administration. They let teachers choose whether to host activities live or as assignments. They also allow flexibility for written questions, video chat, and spot-questions. And they provide key features like instant grading, graphs, spreadsheet results delivery, and quick, automatic grade-sharing with students.

Related content you might enjoy:

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5 Best Online Assessment Tools for Teachers | HP® Tech Takes

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HP® Tech Takes list of different assessment tools used by the teacher, including formative tools, summative assessment tools and how to find them, and tips for use.

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Formative Assessments are the assessments that are used to inform the teacher about their students' ongoing acquisition of knowledge. Formative assessments will give insight into the struggles and successes of each student. Teachers can use this information to tweak future lesson plans to focus more on topics which their class is weak. It can also help teachers understand if a new method of teaching was effective.

Formative assessments usually comprise of the following key aspects

Low-stakes assessment

Goal of informing instruction

Gain insight on learning status

Helps identify knowledge retention and understanding

Daily, weekly, or otherwise frequent checks

Generally short and quick checks

Comes in many forms: quiz, exit ticket, artwork, venn diagram, game, presentation, etc.

(Tookoian, 2017)

Formative assessment tools are the quizzes, assignments, and in-class questions and discussions teachers use to gauge and guide (or form) their students’ learning process. That goes both ways, as teachers often use the answers in their students’ formative assessment tools to guide their lesson plans and lectures.
(Gerencer, 2020)

Examples include:

Socrative

Google Forms

Mentimeter

Poll Everywhere

Kahoot

Sources:
Gerencer, T. (2020, April 11). 5 Best Online Assessment Tools for Teachers. HP® Tech Takes. https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/best-online-assessment-tools-for-teachers
Tookoian, J. (2017, July 14). Everything you wanted to know about formative assessment. Edulastic Blog. https://edulastic.com/blog/formative-assessment/

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Here is a list of reasons an educator may decide to use a performance assessment:

Performance assessments can engage and pique the interest of students.

Performance assessments can be accurate indicators of what students know and whether they can use their knowledge.

Performance assessments can increase instructor confidence by allowing them to evaluate lesson plan effectiveness.

Performance assessment tasks can identify how well an instructor is teaching and provide progress reports for student learning.

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​Performance assessment is a useful tool for assessing a student's understanding of a subject and if they are able to apply their knowledge in a specific situation. Educators often use performance assessments to identify the best way to teach and assist students throughout their learning process in a course.

A performance assessment involves applying and demonstrating skills and knowledge through a variety of performance tasks. ​The purpose of a performance assessment is to improve a student's learning experience and to assess the effectiveness of a lesson plan. These assessments measure how well a student can apply what they have learned, rather than whether they can recall the knowledge. Performance assessment often uses the following components:

Developmental checklists

Portfolios of student work

Progress reports

Educators use performance assessments to identify if students have knowledge of a subject or are gaining knowledge in a subject throughout the year. Educators can administer a performance assessment at any point, though they often use them at the beginning and end of the course. A performance assessment often asks students to use problem-solving skills or critical thinking to produce a report, experiment or give a performance that displays their ability to apply what they have learned.

Examples of Performance Assessments:

Use relatable communication and situations.

Incorporate multiple stages of completion of a performance task and problems that use creative thinking.

Ask students to produce a product, report, experiment or performance.

Involve interaction between instructor and self.

Allow for self-evaluation.

Make testing standards and expectations obvious to the student.

Administer assessments regularly in classroom settings to monitor implementing performance assessments.

An explanation of why the assessment is being used and how you will evaluate it.

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Assessments as learning are a formative* assessment done by the student themselves. These can be self assessments or peer driven assessments where students are looking at what they've learned and coming up with the next steps to their own learning.

Peer driven assessments are also an example of assessments as learning. These could be in the form of mock tests made by students where they are asking the questions to each other. This gives them a chance to show what they think is important to be tested on.

*Although these are almost always formative assessments - I have been putting an "information dump" page at the back of all the final exams. This is a page where students get to show me what they know, but it's not something they were tested on. It could be something they studied but didn't have a question to answer and they need a chance to show me. This acts as almost a self assessment where they need to think back to what they learned and show what they think is important.

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Formative assessments are ongoing assessments that are designed to stimulate the learning process and to inform the teacher about future teaching objectives. Formative assessments are done much more frequently than summative assessments and often don't have a grade attached to them, which depending on the students, could be a problem.

Formative assessments could be teacher led but also peer or learner led. These can be peer assessments, self assessments, or small teacher assessments. They can be done individually, or in groups.

Example of Formative Assessment: One formative assessment used in my classroom is a student led revision quiz. These are small quizzes (3-5 questions) created by the students to give to each other. They are often done in grammar lessons, where a previous lesson's material is vital for this lesson. One example could be reviewing different 2nd and 3rd conditional sentences and quizzing each other before teaching mixed conditionals.

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Diagnostic Assessments are essentially pre-tests that help instructors figure out how much knowledge students have about a particular subject before teaching a unit, lesson, or the concept as a whole. These types of assessments are low stakes and are not counted towards any type of grade. Their only purpose is to inform teachers as to how they should tailor their lessons for the upcoming year or semester.

Example of a Diagnostic Assessment:
At the beginning of the year for a grade 1 ELL English class, the teacher may give a pre-test covering reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Based on the classes' performance, the results will inform the teacher on what areas of the subject to focus on. For example, the class may already be excelling in oral English, but may struggle with writing and reading comprehension. This will help the teacher form effective lesson plans and draw teaching focus to where it is needed most, for both the class as a whole as well as individual students.

Here is a helpful resource that breaks down diagnostic assessments even further:
What is a Diagnostic Assessment?

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These are assessments of what the student has learned in the class. They judge the skills or knowledge gained through the class and gives the student a chance to show this.

Assessments of learning are primarily summative assessments. They are done during specific time periods and are usually graded, as this provides a good metric for student achievement and progress.

The main thing about assessments of learning is that the assessment is always done by the teacher, and the student is the one being assessed.

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Summative assessments are generally the larger assessments that summarize what students have learned over the course of a unit, term, semester, or even the year.

They are tracked and often graded. They provide not only data for student improvement and feedback, but data on where there are gaps in teaching and instruction.

Summative assessments can be in the form of final tests, final essays, or group presentations

Example of Summative Assessment:
The most common example of a summative assessment is a term or final exam. In the case of what I teach, it's a multi-part test that covers two days. The first day is primarily grammar, vocabulary, reading, and listening. The second day are the two productive skills of speaking and writing. This is designed to combine all units which were studied over the course of the term and is graded heavily.