Assessment Types

Whether you’re teaching in-class or online, assessments can be divided into two main types:

'A+' written on a chalkboard — Pachai Leknettip / Shutterstock

Summative Assessment

This is what we usually think about when we think about assessment: assignments or tests that are evaluated by the instructor and used to determine a learner’s grade. In other words, this kind of assessment can be called assessment of learning. This assessment is always graded.

Hand holding lightbulb where the lit filaments are a 3D rendering of a brain — PeachShutterStock / Shutterstock

Formative Assessments

Assessment that helps learners learn something new, practice what they are learning, or self-check their knowledge. In other words, this kind of assessment can be called assessment for learning. This assessment is usually not graded or graded as a complete/incomplete. It is a good idea to present at least one formative assessment for learners to complete prior to assessing them for marks.

Scenario

Watch the following video clip from the film Good Will Hunting (1997).

What kind of assessment is happening in this example?

Formative assessment. This professor has assigned a question to help learners learn. He has not (yet) taught them the skills to solve it, but rather, he is using this assessment as a teaching tool. Like most formative assessments, the math problem is not factored into the learner’s final grade.

When you are teaching synchronously, or even in a hybrid course, you have plenty of opportunities to check in with your class simply by engaging with them during live sessions, asking questions, hearing their thoughts, or even just seeing the looks on their faces. All of these opportunities for helping your learners learn are lost in an asynchronous course. The answer to this problem is that you build in plenty of opportunities for formative assessment in your learning materials.

In every lesson you design, your learners should have the opportunity to practice what they are learning with a short and low-stakes learning activity. Your formative assessment could include:

An ungraded Padlet exercise
An embedded H5P activity
A practice or self-assessment quiz built in Blackboard
A case study or application scenario
And more!

Let’s see how formative assessment works in practice by completing one now. Here is a short quiz that was built using H5P. This quiz will allow you to self-check your understanding of what you have been learning in this course. This quiz is untimed and ungraded, and you can take it as many times as you like.

Alternative Format

Download an alternative format of the H5P Formative Assessment Quiz (PDF, 155 KB)

Additional Resources

If you are not familiar with H5P and you are interested in using it for your online course, you can visit the H5P Studio to learn more about how to create your own. It is free after you register for an account with your Humber email.

Concept of building something on a website

Creating Assessments in Blackboard Ultra

Blackboard Ultra allows you to build the following assessment types. Review the following list and use the links to learn more about how to create any assignment type in Blackboard:

Assignment

The most versatile option on this list, assignments can be used for any kind of un-timed and un-shared assessment. Assignments are usually graded. learners will attach their work as a file and submit it to their instructor for grading. Assignments can also be set up as Group Assignments. You can choose to enable SafeAssign or to attach a rubric to assignments as well.

Discussion

Discussion boards are used when you want learners' work to be shared with the entire class, in order to generate collaborative discussion.

Journal

Journals are used as an ongoing means by which learners can share their personal learning journey with you. They can be graded or ungraded.

Quiz

Quizzes are used for practice tests or evaluated tests and exams. Quizzes can be timed, and attempts can be restricted. You can also choose to use strategies like Question Banks to ensure that each student sees a different version of the quiz.