Formative Evaluation: What You Want To Know
Formative Assessment: What You Need To Know
Learning interventions would be like rudderless ships with no ratings. There are two types of assessments: formative and summative. In simple terms, a summative assessment is carried out at the end of the learning program to “summarize” the learning outcome and assess whether the learner has achieved the learning objectives.
On the other hand, formative assessments are distributed throughout the learning journey, which form the basis for learning effectiveness. Let us focus only on the formative evaluation. Formative evaluation generally uses subtle and continuous evaluation methods. It is based on small, distributed, continuous feedback to form the learning tone.
Why is formative assessment necessary?
Think of yourself as a learner going through a series of study materials. In the end, you take the summative assessment and realize that your performance needs improvement. You have effectively wasted all of the time going through the study material without knowing how close or far you were from achieving your learning goals.
Formative ratings are useful when you receive feedback on a regular basis. So you can easily see if you are on the right track. A well-designed formative assessment helps learners keep track of their learning journey, get continuous feedback on their progress, easily identify their skill gaps, and figure out what is important.
Importance of formative assessment in eLearning
In a classroom scenario, the presence of a teacher helps learners understand their strengths and weaknesses and change the learning path accordingly. However, in an eLearning scenario, the learner is alone and there is no one to help the learner. Formative evaluation comes to the rescue. It helps learners identify their progress and focus on the areas that matter. It serves as a guide for learners so that they can stay focused and get the most out of the learning journey. A well-designed formative assessment promotes learner engagement, active learning, and critical thinking, which will help maximize learning outcomes.
Benefits of formative assessment for the learner
Formative assessment benefits the learner in several ways:
- It helps in quickly assessing learning problems and gaps, if any.
- It provides continuous sources of performance records and prompts for feedback.
- It allows learners to focus on the most critical activities and not be distracted.
- It helps in developing critical thinking and self awareness.
- It inspires the learner to develop further with the learning material.
The formative assessment serves both the motivation and performance needs of the learner. It helps learners assess their work and find out if they are on the right track to achieve their goal. They can also plan what to do to improve. It also provides a necessary break from the monotony of learning. As learning management technology advances, formative assessments are becoming even more effective.
Today’s intelligent LMS use formative assessment to curate content and define the best possible learning path for the learner based on their strengths and weaknesses. xAPIs have become smart enough to collect data on learning activity, analyze learner performance and behavior, and suggest the best learning path.
Examples of formative evaluation:
There are several tools or components that are used for formative assessment. Some of the most popular formative assessment tools are:
- MCQ / questions to fill out
- Assignments
- Pop quiz
- Discussion forums
- Survey
- Peer / self-assessment
- Exercise scenarios / simulations
- Games
The choice of formative assessment depends entirely on the learning context. There is no single formula for choosing the right formative rating.
Conclusion
Formative assessment is one of those indispensable tools that make eLearning effective and efficient. It can fill the gap in the absence of human teachers in assessing learning progress and personalizing the learning path. L&D leaders can find the best ways to take advantage of formative assessment. It gives them the necessary insight into the learner’s performance as well as the learning material. Experts rightly say, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
Formative ratings give us the ability to measure before it’s too late. This is the only way to understand and improve learning outcomes. Many special formative assessment tools are available today, e.g. B. PeerGrade, Rubistar, Google Sheets Extension and Orange Slice, sli.do etc. With the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence, a formative assessment can be made really powerful.
HEXALEARN SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED
ISO-certified company for learning and software solutions.
Originally published on blog.hexalearn.com.
