Types of Assessment

Formative and Summative Assessments

In general, there are two types of assessments—formative and summative.

Formative assessments have students perform tasks along their learning experience through a course.  Instructors should always provide students with feedback and, when appropriate, scores that reflect the students’ progress. Learner-centered feedback is the most important aspect of formative assessment.  This feedback gives students critical information regarding how they are doing in the class and what they need to do to improve and continue their learning. Formative assessments can also be used by instructors to make adjustments to an ongoing class, based on student performance, needs for remediation, etc.

Instructors usually administer summative assessments at the end of a course. This type of assessment measures students’ overall achievement of the learning outcomes of the course. Summative assessments are usually cumulative, although not necessarily comprehensive.  They should reflect the learning and skills students have developed from taking the class.  Summative assessments are used more formally to evaluate the course, identify areas where the course design or implementation can be improved, and compare student performances across several classes or semesters.

The pages in this section provide information and helps regarding best practices in assessment, planning assessments for your students, using student assessment data to provide feedback and to improve student learning, and other helpful topics regarding assessing student learning.