Technology & Assessment: Digital Forms for Assessment

Assessment of student learning is an ongoing task for teachers. Making the collection of assessment evidence a seamless part of a teacher's workflow has never been easier with the growing features available in digital forms.

Digital forms allow users to capture, sort and transmit data easily and securely, and can eliminate the need for paper forms. In a busy classroom, this can prove to be both efficient and effective. Additionally, digital forms can be used for a variety of different purposes in the classroom as far as assessment is concerned, and while digital forms are often used exclusively for summative purposes, they can be used for a myriad of formative applications as well. It is worthwhile mentioning, however, that while digital forms can be very useful in the busy classroom, I am not suggesting that all methods of assessment should be replaced with digital forms.  A variety of assessment methods is always preferred, and digital forms can simply be another way to gather evidence (formatively or summatively) of student learning.

What's the Purpose?

When creating a digital form, it is important to identify your purpose for gathering evidence.  Will the form be used for judging and reporting on a student's performance in relation to the curricular standard(s)(summative purpose)? Or will the form be used to determine where a student is in relation to the standard and to guide decisions about what next steps will be taken to move the learner forward (formative purpose)? There are many different classroom purposes for using forms, and consequently, there are many different forms that can be created to meet those needs.

Examples of Different Forms for Different Purposes:

Examples of each of the forms in the table above can be found as links on the AAC Key Visual below. To access the examples, simply mouse over the visual to locate the links to the forms, and notice where they line up with the assessment processes they are next to on the visual. 

Explore the connections between Assessment and Digital Forms by clicking on the coloured icons located at various locations on the interactive AAC Key Visual above.

FREE Gift to You! A Collection of Google Forms for Assessment:  http://goo.gl/Yn3Ql6

Click on the link above to open a shared folder containing a variety of forms that you can make a copy of and use on your own can.

NB. BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD, MODIFY OR DO ANY THING ELSE WITH THESE SHARED FORMS, PLEASE MAKE A COPY OF THE FORMS YOU WANT AND MOVE THEM INTO YOUR GOOGLE DRIVE!