Types of Assessment
Matching assessment type to teaching purpose
Formative and Summative
Formative and Summative Assessment
| |
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT |
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT |
| Purpose |
Estimate students' performance during the learning process |
Measure student performance at the end of a course of study |
| Result |
Actionable feedback to help students improve |
Grade or other evaluation |
| When to Use |
When students need practice with ongoing instructor feedback |
For a comprehensive measure of student achievement |
| Examples |
Essay drafts, practice assignments, labs, and simulations |
Quizzes and exams, final essay drafts, final projects |
More on Assessment Types
For more details, please see Vanderbilt University's page on assessment.
Assessment Techniques
Purpose vs. Technique
Note that Formative and Summative refer to the purpose of assessment, not a particular assessment technique, such as a quiz. For example, an ungraded practice quiz would be formative, but a graded quiz would be summative.
More on Techniques
For examples of assessment techniques, check out our Techniques page.
