Question types may include whiteboard questions where students can show their work or video responses that can serve as proxies for in-person short answer or performance tasks. These expanded response options give teachers the ability to review a student’s cognitive process asynchronously so they can identify misconceptions and re-teach opportunities.
Product Features
The versatility of formative assessments means teachers can leverage the features of existing core or supplemental digital resources to aid in formative assessment. Literacy programs like Raz-Plus include recording features that allow students to record themselves as they read out loud. This is a useful feature that has endless possibilities. Teachers can use it as a literal check-in on reading, but they could also use the recording feature to engage students in summarizing texts, reflecting on the material, and displaying their comprehension. Additionally, digital running records and highlighting and stamping features provide a gateway into students’ learning that helps teachers individualize instruction and identify gaps during remote and hybrid learning.
Instructional Benefits
Each of these types of digital formative assessment provides teachers with concrete data to guide instruction. The data collection and output reflect a documentation improvement for teachers. Previous forms of formative assessment required a lot of manual grading or generalized insight into class performance. The data from digital formative assessment is actionable and can aid teachers in targeted individual intervention or provide insight for topics that may require a whole class re-teach. This tangible output increases the significance of formative assessment by ensuring all interactions within the classroom are geared toward student improvement by giving teachers data to drive instruction in the middle of a unit or lesson (Dyer, 2016; Andersson & Palm, 2017).
Digital formative assessments are beneficial to students as well. The variety of assessment options provides students with different learning styles an opportunity to display their knowledge in an authentic way. Automatic and digital scoring and reporting provide in-the-moment data to teachers, ensuring students receive more personalized instruction and intervention. Additionally, this instruction often more accurately addresses their needs because digital formative assessments provide an engaging platform for demonstrating student comprehension – leading to more accurate representations of their knowledge and skills. Digital formative assessments have great potential in helping teachers and students address interrupted learning in a powerful way.