What Engaging

Assessments
Look Like In
Online Learning
Environments

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Ensure success in online and blended
environments by creating assessments that test
students on more than just rote memorization

When we think of assessments, we usually think of tests and exams.

While these are an important part of an instructor’s toolkit, there are
many other methods and use cases for assessing students. Creating
feedback loops between students and the instructor, particularly
in online and blended learning environments, is one of the most
valuable outcomes of any assessment. Here we explore how high
and low-stakes assessments positively impact student learning and
provide more than 20 examples to try in your classroom.

Assessments allow instructors to view their students more

holistically by taking stock of their progress throughout the term.
Educators can apply assessments to many practical and proactive
uses. This includes determining a student’s readiness to advance or
identify where they may need further assistance. In the COVID-19
era, when many students are learning remotely, creating effective
assessments is even more important. They provide insights into
where students are succeeding and where they may need further
assistance.

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While there are many types of assessments, they generally follow a
similar process:

• Instructors formulate specific statements of the intended learning

outcomes for their students.
• They select and create the means of measuring student
achievement and progress toward those outcomes.
• They devise learning experiences to guide students toward
those outcomes.
• They apply assessment tools and methods to a given learning
experience to determine how effective the learning process was in
meeting their goals and how it may be improved.
• They adapt and adjust their educational programming to
accommodate the discoveries made in these analyses. And,
they use these insights to devise new assessment methods and
improve existing ones to further promote and advance
student learning.

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Types of Assessments
Different types of assessments are usually classified according to
their purpose. Assessments can also be classified based on the
point in the educational process that they come into play. Pre-
assessments, for example, are applied prior to beginning a new unit
or term. These are designed to provide educators with a baseline
view of student knowledge and understanding around a given topic.
Other common types of assessments are administered during an
educational unit or at its conclusion.

Assessments FOR learning

Student assessments for learning evaluate how well a student
comprehends a particular lesson or skill while learning is still
happening. Put simply, they provide a moment in time snapshot
of how individual students are faring. They are designed to allow
educators to monitor each student’s progress and create a feedback
loop they can also use to guide students and improve upon the
teaching process. With this information, instructors can adjust
and adapt lesson plans and classroom management strategies
accordingly. One of the main benefits of this type of assessment is
being able to quickly identify at-risk students before it’s too late.

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To be effective, assessments for learning must be actionable and
ongoing. In other words, they must involve specific actions for
students to take to demonstrate their learning. And they must
be used at least intermittently throughout the learning period to
properly evaluate student understanding. One of the most common
types of assessment for learning is the formative assessment.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

Educators administer this type of assessment in order to assess a

student’s progress while learning is underway. They allow educators
to adapt and improve their teaching techniques to meet each
student’s needs relative to that learning.

Other benefits and uses of formative assessments include:

• Refocusing student attention on the learning process, including

its importance, instead of on external rewards like grades or
standardized test scores
• Empowering students with feedback that helps them understand
where to focus and how to build on their strengths
• Increasing student awareness of areas of need and interest,
allowing them to steer their own path of learning and growth
• Providing students with more immediate and practical feedback
• Reducing achievement and learning gaps and raising and/or
accelerating students’ educational achievement

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Formative assessments are considered low-stakes assessments and
aren’t usually graded. Some examples of formative assessments
include:

• Minute papers – Students write short papers in one minute

summarizing what they just learned. Other similar approaches
that allow teachers to provide students with immediate feedback
include essays, journal entries, worksheets, creative works (art,
performance, design) and lab results.
• Exit tickets or exit slips – Teachers pose quick questions
to students upon the completion of a lesson to assess their
comprehension, comfort with the material and areas of difficulty.
Similarly, at the beginning of a lesson, teachers can present admit
slips or admit tickets with questions for students to answer.
These are used to assess how well they recall and understand the
material they learned in the previous lesson.
• Self-assessments – Teachers ask students to reflect on their own
individual progress during the course and express what they
learned. This includes what they’re struggling with and what they
feel they need to do to fulfill the expectations of the coursework
and their own personal learning standards. Similarly, teachers can
implement peer assessments in which students provide feedback
to one another.

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Assessment OF learning
Assessments “of learning” are designed to help educators evaluate
achievement upon the conclusion of a lesson or term. Educators
usually administer this type of assessment at the end of a learning
unit or grading period to determine how well a student absorbed the
material. Assessments of learning typically compare each student’s
achievement against a standard or benchmark, such as the class
average. Assessments of learning usually culminate with a grade that
communicates a student’s achievement relative to their peers. One of
the most common types of assessment of learning is the summative
assessment.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

Educators administer summative assessments upon completion of

an educational period. The goal is to assess student retention and
comprehension of the material covered in that term.

This type of classroom assessment differs from an ipsative

assessment (described in the section below). A summative
assessment compares student performance against a set of criteria.
An ipsative assessment, on the other hand, compares student
performance purely against that student’s own prior performance.

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Another way teachers may use summative assessments is as
“practice tests” to help students prepare for future assessments,
such as exams or a major standardized test.

Many schools also use forms of summative assessment as

benchmarks at interim periods during coursework. Because they are
more comprehensive than most formative assessments, they provide
bigger picture insights into how closely students, in general, are
meeting the expectations of the course.

Summative types of assessments are considered high-stakes

assessments because they are typically graded and have a bearing
on a student’s ability to progress academically. Examples of
summative assessments include:

• End of lesson, chapter or unit quizzes

• Midterms or end of semester tests and standardized tests
• Performance tasks or demonstrations of learning. These include
capstone projects that students work on throughout the semester
with a presentation or formal report serving as the finale.

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Assessments AS Learning
Similar to assessments for learning, these also take place throughout
the instructional period. The main difference is that assessments
as learning engage students in the assessment process. Consider
encouraging students to devise specific assessments pertinent to
their own educational achievement. These can then be used to
evaluate and measure their progress. This way, students are not
only empowered to excel but also develop valuable skills in critical
thinking and problem-solving. Two common types of assessments as
learning are self-assessments and peer-evaluated assessments.

IPSATIVE ASSESSMENTS

Ipsative assessments evaluate student progress by examining

the student’s previous work in the course, unit or school year. As
opposed to other forms of assessment that compare the student’s
prior work to a particular set of criteria, this type of assessment
evaluates the student’s achievement by using their own incremental
performance as a benchmark. This type of assessment focuses more
on the educational progress of the student rather than how well
they conform to a uniform set of standards. Examples of ipsative
assessments include:

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• Performance assessments – Such as student portfolios of work or
other demonstrations of learning
• Capstone projects – Extended projects students work on
throughout the assessed period, like a semester or full high school
education. A best practice here includes providing students with
iterative feedback throughout the project.

DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENTS

These provide teachers with the data they need to evaluate the
understanding of a particular topic by a student or group of students.
Examples include:

• Classroom discussions
• Flow charts
• Graphic organizers
• Journal entries
• KWL (Know, Want to know, and Learn) charts
• Mind maps
• Real-world case studies
• Short quizzes
• Student interviews
• Student reflections

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Teachers can also use diagnostic assessments to benchmark
a student’s progress. This can be done by providing the same
assessment at the beginning and end of a unit and comparing the
two results.

Assessments that build skills for

the workplace
Remote assessments can also be beneficial when they’re tailored
toward real-world skills and settings, such as research. Collaborative
assessments, meanwhile, in which students work with one another
on a project or assignment, could be challenging to coordinate and
execute in remote settings. Nevertheless, devising assessments that
compel students to collaborate in spite of their remote circumstances
has many benefits beyond the classroom. By learning and practicing
collaboration in alternative ways, students will master the required
technology while developing a critical skill for success in the modern
workplace.

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We empower educators to engage students and
unleash their potential. Learn more about the
capabilities of the Top Hat platform.

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