Assessment

Formative Assessment and Monitoring Student Progress

An important part of a successful online course experience is active participation. As the instructor, Blackboard gives you many ways to check in our your students, and doing this is a very important part of your job as an online teacher and facilitator. Here are just a few of the ways you can do this:

• Comment on student work promptly. Keep the Grade Center up-to-date and encourage students to check in frequently. Research shows that students respond to timely and ample feedback.
• In Grade Center, you can see when each student last logged in. Use the Grade Center and its Reports to see when studnest have last logged in and which assignments they have completed. If students are falling behind or not logging in regularly, check in on them!
• You can use the Early Warning Stystem (in Assessment section of Assessment) to set rules to send emails to students and observers when certain criteria are met. For example, you could email students to set up a conference with you if they score below 60 on an exam.
• You can design formative assessment "check-ins" of many types like the "How's it going?" surveys in this course. If you set up these surveys, make sure to monitor closely the progress so that you can intervene as needed.
   

Additional resources:

• What Are Formative Assessments and Why Should We Use Them? (Scholastic; all rights reserved)
• Formative Assessment Strategies - pdf (_________, ___________)