Engaging large cohorts of students in online formative assessment to reinforce essential learning for summative assessment.

Abstract

Assessing large numbers of students is a challenging prospect for educators; they must identify suitable assessment methods to establish that students have achieved the desired learning outcomes, but must also meet tight deadlines for marking, moderating and submitting results. In view of this we developed a new assessment strategy with the aim of replacing a paper-based quiz with online formative and summative quizzes. The rationale for introducing these quizzes is outlined together with a description of the planning, development and implementation process. The advantages of this innovation are discussed in light of relevant literature. The changes made allow a more flexible, student centred approach that fosters student engagement, reinforces essential learning, eliminates errors in marking, and reduces the resources and time required to run the assessment. This strategy to use online quizzes with structured for both formative and summative assessment is pedagogically sound and offers many benefits that stimulate learning and student engagement.