The purpose of formative assessment is to provide interim feedback to students on their progress to help them achieve the learning outcomes of the course. Feedback is most effective if it both conveys and explains the correct answers or the desired skills performance. Interim assessment exercises may also provide useful information to you about what students have and have not mastered. Naturally you are free to have an interim assessment count toward a student’s final grade or not, as you wish.
Here are a few assessment ideas that should not be overly time-consuming:
- Administer a quiz with multiple-choice questions, score it via Scantron, and distribute the correct answers and an explanation of them. (The quiz could also be created and scored via Canvas.)
- Administer a quiz with multiple-choice or short answer questions during class, display the correct responses, and discuss.
- Use a rubric (with a simple numerical scale) to quickly assess individual performance on a discrete activity or skill, give each student his or her rubric, and discuss in class what you had hoped to see.
- Have students write an essay in response to an exam-type question, discuss and distribute a model answer and a rubric, and ask students to self-assess their essays.
- Pose a hypothetical in class and give students a short period to write a paragraph identifying the applicable principles, then display a model answer and discuss. Alternatively, have students submit their paragraphs and give each student feedback using a simple numerical scale.
- Use available response system software to create questions and “push” them out to students to answer on their mobile devices. The instructor’s software can receive and track real-time responses during class (allowing you to quickly see the data and comment on it) and it is also simple to send the results to Canvas tied to each student.
Law Technology Services can provide guidance on using Canvas and response systems.