Under the current pandemic scenario, it has already been months that the schools have, with many trials and errors, somehow managed to impart E-learning. Not to mention that many exams got cancelled or postponed, and only a few educational institutions went for online assessments.
The sudden shift to online education came as a shock to both teachers and students alike. Most educational institutions were unprepared to go entirely online at short notice. Also, there is uncertainty on when they can start taking offline classes.
Challenges facing teachers and students during the COVID-19 pandemic
The productivity of school teachers is getting hampered as they do not have any prior experience or training in preparing online teaching material. Additionally, some teachers do not even possess strong computer skills. They are experiencing stress and anxiety due to the pressure on them to be digitally savvy and efficient.
The new learning method is also adversely affecting the social life and learning of the school students. They have difficulty focusing due to distractions at home or online, network issues, and the absence of a disciplined classroom environment.
Despite the challenges, most schools are now conducting online classes. But, are students gaining knowledge, skills, and sound thinking out of their efforts?
The major challenge that the teachers are facing in the current COVID-19 situation includes:
- Not knowing if the students can follow the online instruction, and
- Inability to gauge the level of understanding that the students have acquired from the learning material.
The teachers can alter the e-learning material and make it relevant to benefit their students only if they get such feedback in the online scenario.
During offline classes, teachers ask impromptu questions to students and get to know if they understand the instruction or not. Sometimes, they get creative by conducting a class debate or a poll. Based on such feedback, they alter the study material for the benefit of their students.
But with online classes, school teachers usually struggle to keep students onboard and maintain discipline by avoiding online distractions, let alone gauging how well they understand the e-learning material.
So, how can school teachers ensure that the students understand the online learning material?
Here’s where Formative Online Assessments come into the picture!
So, what are Formative Online Assessments?
Formative online assessments are ongoing formal or informal tests that teachers conduct in between or at the end of a lesson to understand if the students are following the instruction or not.
Educational instructors have used formative assessments for ages to monitor student learning and get ongoing feedback to improve their teaching. With COVID-19, formative assessments need to get online as well.
Formative assessment strategies are more diagnostic than evaluative. They are quick to implement and fit into the instruction flow. The information gathered is analysed to know if the students understand the subject matter and to what level.
With online education becoming the new normal, its high time that teachers conduct formative tests digitally.
So, how do teachers take formative assessments online?
Instructors can conduct Formative Online Assessments in the form of:
- Impromptu online quizzes
- Anonymous digital voting
- Short comparative online assessments with MCQs
- One-minute papers to give a subjective answer on a particular subject matter
- Summarizing questions to know what the students learnt so far
Connect with our experts to know how Questy can help your educational institution with online formative assessments.
Summing-up
Technological advancements can help educational institutions save time and costs while improving the quality of online education and assessments if they use the right assessment tool. Questy is a comprehensive online assessment platform that serves as the one-stop solution to the issues faced by administrators, teachers, as well as students.
Get comparative analysis and comprehensive reports with Questy. Connect with us.
