Summative and Formative Assessment

Summative and formative assessment are both essential for effective learning, whether in traditional or online education. When used regularly, they help identify problem areas,
showing educators where content needs to be expanded or clarified in order to improve the learning environment. They also help teachers adapt their teaching practices to better support students’ needs. In addition, timely feedback and individualised guidance encourage students to stay focused and help them manage their work effectively. Finally, formative assessment acts as a positive stimulus by creating a supportive learning environment without the pressure of grades or marks.

Summative assessment — assessment of learning — can be provided continuously throughout the whole teaching programme. It not only evaluates overall student performance but
also indicates how effective the instructional design is. Formative assessment — assessment for learning — is used to encourage and motivate students and to help instructors understand their needs, current engagement, and how best to support their progress towards more satisfactory outcomes.

From a constructivist perspective, summative assessment should examine whether students can apply problem-solving techniques and engage in creative thinking. In assessment tasks, students should demonstrate that they can use the skills they have developed, understand the subject matter, propose their own solutions, and create meaning from their observations. They may be asked to write brief or extended responses to specific questions to show how they have made sense of new experiences. They may also be given closed-ended tests, provided that selecting the correct answers requires sound knowledge and deeper insight rather than guesswork.

Summative assessment is based on predefined criteria and grading scales that clearly define the standards students are expected to meet. It may contribute to grades awarded during the semester, at the end of a unit, module, or course, and to the final course grade. Through summative assessment, teachers evaluate students’ knowledge, understanding, skills, or performance against established standards, learning outcomes, or the required level of competence.

It can take different forms depending on the subject and learning objectives. These may include written and oral examinations, end-of-module tests, essays, research papers, reports, presentations, demonstrations, projects, portfolios, practical tasks, and dissertations. Rubrics
with several clearly defined criteria are often used to describe different levels of performance
and to help both teachers and students understand how grades are determined.

Formative assessment is often more effective than summative assessment in encouraging and motivating students during a course. Instead of receiving marks for every activity or
task, students receive information about whether they have achieved particular learning objectives and what they still need to improve.

To support students’ progress, teacher feedback should be timely, clear, and constructive. Students need to know whether they have reached a satisfactory level and where further work is needed. Feedback on underperformance should be phrased supportively and avoid negative wording.

Formative assessment can take the form of comments, suggestions, advice, reflection points, analysis, additional questions targeting problem areas, or descriptive evaluation. It can be delivered by email, through face-to-face or online chats and discussions, or as part of written assignment feedback.

Formative assessment also plays an important role in developing self-directed learning and building learners’ self-confidence. Since it helps students assess their own skills and knowledge and identify how they can improve their work, it is particularly important for lifelong learning. Developing the ability to recognise progress and achievement can be highly motivating and can strengthen students’ sense of autonomy in learning.

An e-portfolio is a digital collection of a student’s work that presents their skills, achievements, progress, and reflections over time. Unlike a traditional paper portfolio, it is stored and maintained online, making it easy to access, share, and update. It shows what students have learned, how their skills have developed, and how their thinking has matured throughout a module or course.

The main difference between e-portfolios and more traditional assignments lies in the degree of personalisation they offer. Students can decide what to include and how to present their learning outcomes. As a result, assessment can focus not only on the content itself but also on the skills involved in creating an effective portfolio, such as concise, precise, and focused academic writing. Students’ development can also be assessed both formatively and summatively.

E-portfolios can be particularly valuable when students are encouraged to make regular entries. Selected work can then be submitted for tutor or peer review.

On-demand testing is often used before a course or module to assess prior knowledge, during a course to monitor progress, during a lecture or longer activity to check understanding of difficult points, or before exams as a revision and self-assessment tool. Its aim is not to grade students’ work, but to identify problem areas quickly and help teachers or tutors adjust their teaching. This may involve clarifying content, expanding on more difficult topics, or adding more detailed explanations.

For students, on-demand testing, when combined with formative feedback, can act as a signpost, showing whether they have made progress or whether remedial action is needed. It usually consists of a few simple questions delivered through tools such as Moodle Feedback or online quiz platforms, including Kahoot!, Mentimeter, QuizMaker, or Jotform AI Quiz Generator. Students can answer these questions immediately, and the results can be used to guide the next stage of learning.

• Adapt summative and/or formative assessment procedures according to the type of activity, such as progress tests, examinations, case studies, projects, e-portfolios, written assignments, laboratory exercises, and answers to open-ended questions.
• Support summative assessment with descriptive formative feedback so that students understand how to improve if they do not meet the required standard.
• If closed-ended questions are used in examinations, make them complex enough to require deeper understanding, not merely information retrieval.
• Create a template for formative assessment of written assignments, including a range of reusable positive comments for assessing students’ work. Use emoticons to express appreciation and provide encouragement.
• Do not replace tutor marking with computer-based assessment when students’ reasoning processes, critical thinking, or creative responses need to be evaluated.
• Avoid using e-assessment when the stages of reasoning and understanding, rather than only the final answer, are important.