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CUC Faculty Instruction Resources: Assessment Tools

Online Assessment Tools

What are Assessment Tools?

What are online assessment tools?

Online assessment tools are designed to test the abilities of individuals based on the instructions and guidelines provided by the conductor. This method is used to evaluate and gauge people’s credibility, cognitive knowledge, aptitude, and other skills. Online assessment tools are not just limited to educational sectors; they are used by recruiters in professional fields.

Teachers can use online assessment platforms to combine creative, digital learning methods with the classroom curriculum. Learning should not feel constrained and rigid. Each student has different goals and approaches to achieving them. Online assessment tools provide interactive evaluation methods like game-based tests, quizzes, case studies, polls, etc.

1. Quick results

Gone are the days when it would take a fortnight for students to receive results from their tests and exams. Using online assessment tools, they can receive quicker results without having to wait for days or weeks. There are many online tests that even provide real-time results. The purpose of the evaluation is to assess students’ achievements, understand their skills, and learn about their learning status. Evaluation helps both the teachers and students improve their teaching and learning skills, respectively.

Assessment is an important part of education, and losing days or weeks waiting for results is not the mantra of modern education. Tests and exams are recurring activities that happen throughout the academic year. It is best to use online assessment tools to cut down on the waiting time between exams and results and instead utilize that period for more learning opportunities.

2. Saves manual efforts

Conducting an exam involves a lot of administrative work. The teachers have to manually prepare the question paper. They have to assign seat numbers, classrooms, and an invigilator or two for each exam hall. Post which they have to manually evaluate the exam papers, host an open house, display the results in the classroom, or allocate them personally. As opposed to this tedious process, using an online assessment tool, teachers can just create a bank of questions on the platform itself. Everything gets digitally assigned to students just through a link and login credentials. Online assessment platforms can be used to conduct formative as well as summative exams.

By using online assessment tools, the time invested in conducting, monitoring, and evaluating an exam manually, can be otherwise used to create new learning methods. The teachers themselves can indulge in more learning to enhance their teaching skills and develop their knowledge.

3. Customization of test modules

As it is rightfully said, "There is no one way to teach or learn," there is also not just one way to evaluate students. The traditional examination consisted of question papers with objective or subjective answers to be written by students. While that still remains as one of the examination patterns, there are many other ways teachers can evaluate their students.

The online assessment tools give teachers an opportunity to create their own test modules. This brings diversity and creativity to regular assessment methods. Using these tools, the paper patterns of examination can be diverse. They can be set according to themes, technology, subjects, or skills of the students.

4. Geographically flexible

One of the prime benefits of online assessment tools is that they are not bound by location. It has a worldwide reach. Teachers can teach from anywhere, and students can learn from anywhere. Similarly, the tests can be conducted from anywhere. Not just that, but these online assessment tools are also linguistically diverse. So, even if the assessment questions are in one language, they can be translated into the other as per the convenience of the examinee.

Online learning and assessment are also flexible in terms of time and pace of learning. Students can take online tests whenever they want. They can do it over and over again. They can do it at any hour of the day and at any time of the year. This gives an opportunity for personal evaluation. And if they are not satisfied, they can take another test with another set of unique questions.

5. Environment friendly

When today’s education system highlights the importance of the environment and its endangerment, it only makes sense if the learning methods are also environmentally friendly. Online assessment tools save paper and energy. If you look at this on a micro-level, you will understand that by going paperless, schools not only save paper but the manufacturing energy, raw materials, fuels used for transportation, water, etc.

Other Options to Consider...

Didn’t find a tool you loved in the list above? Here is an assessment tools list with 20 more formative and summative assessment tools for teachers list is from HP:

  1. AnswerGarden - Real-time polling and brainstorming tool
  2. Backchannel Chat - Teacher-moderated Twitter-type assessment tool for education
  3. Chatzy - Lets students chime in with questions or opinions during a lecture
  4. Coggle - Mind-mapping tool that lets you get a handle on student thinking
  5. eSurvey Creator - Make student surveys and questionnaires fast
  6. Flipgrid - Let students make quick videos that respond to teacher prompts
  7. Formative - Give live assignments, grade them, and give immediate feedback
  8. Lino - A sticky-note-based virtual blackboard that lets students chime in
  9. Naiku - Make quizzes that students can take on mobile devices
  10. Pear Deck - Create interactive presentations students can take part in via smartphones
  11. Plickers - Collect formative assessment data in real time with no need for student devices
  12. The Queue - Free educational chat tool that’s similar to Twitter and facilitates remote class discussion
  13. Quizalize - Create homework and quizzes quickly, with a fast-grading feature
  14. Quizlet - Develop tests, quizzes, flashcards, and study games for mobile
  15. Remind - Send quick texts to students and parents to check for understanding
  16. Sparkpost - Adobe app that lets teachers create exit tickets with visuals and graphics
  17. SurveyPlanet - Create quick surveys to get a grasp on student knowledge
  18. Typeform - Create polls with graphical elements
  19. VoiceThread - Create discussions around documents, videos, and other materials
  20. Zoho Survey - Make mobile-ready student surveys and get real-time results