What Types of Student Assessments are used by Educators?

1. Traditional Assessments

Assessments can take on various forms and often serve different purposes. The majority of instructors use traditional assessments to measure student learning^[1]. Traditional assessments usually involve various testing techniques such as fill-in-the-blanks, multiple-choice questions (MCQs), essays, mid-term, as well as a final examination^[2]. These are common assessment tools used by educators. Essays, in particular, are used to evaluate students' writing skills and critical thinking abilities. Traditional assessments are cost-efficient with regard to time and resource allocation; however, they do not provide the instructor and learner with the required amount of feedback on their progress.

Traditional methods of student assessments hinder the ability of educators to apply a new teaching approach^[3]. Typically, they are single-occasion tests and primarily assess student knowledge at a specific point in time. Therefore, the grades obtained from these assessments do not provide insights on students’ knowledge development and can sometimes relay false information regarding the academic progression of the entire class. Since traditional assessments do not offer any forms of self-evaluation or provide feedback, it inhibits learning as they cannot effectively reflect on their strengths and weaknesses to improve their performance^[4].

Traditional assessments often include criterion referenced assessment and norm referenced assessment approaches. When rubrics are used, they help ensure all students are evaluated using the same criteria. The results are often used to determine academic standing, and analyzing the data from assessments. The classroom teacher plays a key role in implementing and interpreting traditional assessments.

To address these downsides of traditional assessments, such as a lack of feedback, educators employ improved student assessments, including diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments.

2. Diagnostic Assessments

Diagnostic assessments, also known as ‘Pre-tests,’ are used by educators to identify and evaluate students’ current knowledge about a specific topic or subject. These assessments are conducted before instruction begins to set goals and plan instruction for each student^[5].

Such assessments are usually low-stake as they are not calculated as student grades. This assessment method is usually based on written questions which can be either short answers or multiple-choice questions. Educators also use various strategies to diagnose the knowledge base and skills of students, including observation protocol, rubrics, and oral or written test questions. Diagnostic assessments can also reveal a lot about learning preferences, which further helps in personalizing instruction.

3. Formative Assessments

Educators use formative assessment to monitor the progress and provide continuous feedback throughout the learning process^[6].  This assessment enables educators to check whether students are on the right learning track and find specific areas where students are struggling^[7].

With this assessment’s help, educators try to evolve the students’ understanding before the summative evaluation occurs. Formative assessments can be easily implemented and offer immediate results so that educators can instantly make adjustments in their instructions, supporting differentiated instruction and evidence-based practices.

Such assessments can take various forms, including practice quizzes, informal questions (class discussion), one-minute papers, and so on. These methods reference the various techniques teachers use in formative assessment to monitor and improve learning outcomes in real-time.

Gamified assessments can also be used to increase engagement and accurately measure skills. Interim assessments can serve as periodic checkpoints within the formative assessment process. Overall, formative assessments offer instructors feedback about students’ current understanding of the topic and how to pick up the pace. This assessment method also encourages students to test their knowledge and practice skills without worrying about grades.

However, formative evaluation is no doubt a time-consuming and resource-intensive process if they are conducted on a monthly or bi-weekly basis. With Kritik360, professors implement a 360 degree peer review strategies while saving hours with grading and administrative workload. This helps develop students' communication skills as they find meaningful ways to collaborate and learn from each other.

Peer reviews also help students develop their self-assessment skills, thereby becoming more involved in their learning^[8].

See why Prof. Mark Jornd uses Kritik360 in his Business courses to build critical thinking skills.

4. Summative Assessments

Unlike diagnostic and formative assessment, summative assessments are used by educators to evaluate the learning of students when the term ends. Summative assessments are a key assessment of learning and represent one of several assessment types or types of assessment used in education. Educators compare this assessment against a set of standards/benchmarks^[9].

Summative assessments also refer to the final exams, essays, reports or final projects. This assessment’s purpose is to evaluate how much students retained information, knowledge, and skills at the end of the learning unit or semester. Summative assessments evaluate each individual student's performance against established standards.

Moreover, summative assessments are used to measure the educational environment, including curricula, educators, and overall learning programs. Also, the results derived from summative assessments offer a comprehensive description of the student’s learning status.

Kritik360 can be used for formative assessments by implementing peer feedback that encourages reflection on the course and its learning outcomes without consuming a lot of the instructors’ time and resources.

See why Prof. Thomas Holloway loves using Kritik360 for student engagement in his formative assessments.

5. Ungrading Assessments 

Many educators like Jane Barnette, are now shifting their focus from traditional grading towards no-grading assessments. In their viewpoint, traditional assessments and their grading render the development of authentic relationships in the classroom and reduce the students’ motivation and creativity. Besides, grading assessments also fosters the fear of failure among students while undermining their interest in the subject^[10].

In contrast, this model of ungrading assessments puts emphasis on providing feedback to encourage self-reflection, collaboration, and critical thinking. These assessments are designed to support students in their learning journey. Ungrading assessments often incorporate self-assessments, enabling students to monitor their progress, set goals, and reflect on their learning. Ungrading assessments are great in remote learning as they promote interaction between students and thereby strengthen the sense of community in an online classroom^[11].

6. Criterion-Referenced Assessments

Criterion-referenced assessments are designed to measure student performance against a set of established criteria or learning objectives, rather than comparing students to one another. This type of assessment is commonly used in both formative and summative assessments to determine whether students have achieved specific goals or mastered particular skills. By focusing on clear, referenced assessments, teachers can assess student understanding in relation to curriculum expectations and success criteria. Criterion-referenced assessments provide a transparent way to evaluate student performance, making it easier to identify areas where further instruction or support is needed. This approach ensures that all students are measured by the same standards, promoting fairness and clarity in the assessment process.

7. Ipsative Assessments

Ipsative assessments focus on measuring a student’s progress by comparing their current performance to their own previous results. Rather than evaluating students against external benchmarks or the performance of other students, ipsative assessments highlight individual growth and development over time. This approach encourages students to take ownership of their progress, set personal learning goals, and reflect on their achievements. By tracking their improvement through ipsative assessments, students can develop a growth mindset and become more motivated to engage in the learning process. Teachers can use this information to celebrate student progress and provide targeted support where needed, fostering a positive and supportive learning environment.

Differences between Diagnostic, Formative, and Summative Assessments

Timing and Resource Allocation

One of the major differences between these student assessments is timing and resource allocation. Diagnostic assessments are executed before starting the lesson or unit. However, formative assessments refer to the ongoing activity and, therefore, are executed throughout the instructional period to monitor student progress. Interim assessments can also be used as periodic checkpoints to monitor student progress and identify areas for improvement during the learning process.

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On the other hand, summative assessments often occur either as the mid-term exams or final exams after completing the unit. Out of all three, summative assessments are commonly used but they consume a lot of time and resources, especially in the collection and management of assessment data, to provide quality feedback to every student.

Strategy 

Additionally, the strategies to evaluate students’ learning can differ between diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. For instance, in diagnostic assessments, instructors strive to get information about students’ current understanding of the unit/topic right before starting instructions, and the results are used to plan instruction by setting learning goals and designing personalized teaching strategies. Educators use formative assessments to examine whether students are on the right path by monitoring their ongoing learning progress, and the information gathered is used to inform instruction by guiding teaching strategies, resources, and learning environments. When conducting these assessments, various assessment tools and techniques teachers use—such as quizzes, observations, and discussions—help evaluate student learning and adjust instruction accordingly. However, summative assessments help educators assess whether students have achieved their learning objectives or not, which is determined by their final grades. Unfortunately, summative assessments don’t allow students to retain information at a high level. In contrast, formative assessments help students retain learning through ongoing feedback^[12].

Implement Kritik360 for your Assessments!

With Kritik360, our educators curate new and improved courses using the students' insights that are derived from formative assessments. Professors using Kritik360 know that every student requires personalized feedback, which serves as the roadmap for their improvement. In this regard, formative assessments are conducted every week. Based on the ongoing feedback obtained through formative assessments, students are encouraged to focus on their own learning rather than worrying about grades.

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