Formative Assessment in Online Learning

Whether you are new to formative assessment or you are just hearing about it, it can seem daunting to apply it to online learning.  The more I dive into formative assessment the more I am convinced that online learning environments are the perfect place for formative assessment.   

Before I introduce Formative Assessment in Online Learning environments, I stress to other educators that formative assessment is NOT:

• Time-saving
• Creating quizzes with multiple hints, self-generating responses, responding to journals, designing custom instruction/assessment all take a lot of time to do well.
•  A way to reduce contact with the student:

o    The more feedback given the more the student is likely to contact you throughout the course as the communication is strengthened/encouraged/needed.

Giving assignments without a mark assigned, Feedback Only!

In a Ruth Butler study (1998) involving feedback to students in three groups of a similar age and ability. There were three different groups:

Group 1: Feedback as marks or grades;  
Group 2: Comment-only feedback;   
Group 3: Marks or grades alongside comments.

Her conclusion was that the progress (as improved exam results) was greater for students in the comment-only group, with the other two groups showing no real progress at all. http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/giving-effective-student-feedback/

“If we say this is for practice and we hold you accountable [by assigning a mark] for the practice, then it wasn’t really practice,” he said. “You almost want kids to make mistakes on formative assessments because that’s how you figure out your next teaching cues. Once we attach a grade, students try to hide their weaknesses.”
Scott Filkens, “Beyond Standardized Truth”

 I know what you are thinking; “My students won’t do it if it isn’t for marks!”  That may be true to some extent but with the lockdown features of online platforms, the task becomes much easier.  In our school, we have used the advanced grading rubrics in assignments and changed the settings so the marks don’t show but the criteria for each assignment and feedback is still visible to the student.

Scaffolding, Scaffolding, Scaffolding…

Below is a before and after shot of my manicure unit.  I feared that by adding in more assignments I would overwhelm the students but I found the opposite occurred.  The more I could break an assignment down into small manageable chunks (about 20 min each), the better the students worked.

Before I was not giving the student the opportunity to show their learning, get feedback, learn from their mistakes, and show their learning again.

Self-Reflection

• Feedback shouldn’t take the place of self-reflection. Self-Reflection is actionable by the student whereas Feedback by the teacher doesn’t have to be.
• It is better if the student can self-assess and identify their own strengths and weaknesses as this will help them to be an active participant in their learning.
• Ideally, formative assessment will have a component of both Self-Assessment and Teacher Feedback that can be applied to future learning.

Video Feedback

Research has shown that the most influential form of feedback is verbal. http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/giving-effective-student-feedback/  Our school uses Adobe Connect, regardless of whether or not the student is in the meeting, the video can be videotaped and sent as an online link.

Quizzes

Online quizzes can be an excellent way to test a student's prior knowledge and give immediate feedback.  If a student scores low on a pre-skill quiz you can set your course up to open different content and learning than would open for a student who scores high on the pre-test quiz. 

Are the students even reading/watching the feedback?

In Inside the Black Box, Black and Wiliam found that “for assessment to be formative, the feedback information has to be used”. In other words, students need to be accorded the time and opportunity required to act on the feedback.http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/giving-effective-student-feedback/

One way we have assisted the students to engage in their feedback and self-assessment is to have them complete a Pre Final Assignment Assignment: Making Sure I don’t keep Making the Same Mistakes,  where they identify areas of strength and weakness throughout the unit by going through the teacher feedback and their own self-reflections before completing the final assessment.