Formative e-Assessment

There is a lot of slippage in much of the literature between terms like ‘assessment’ and ‘learning’, and ‘formative’ and ‘summative’ (especially in papers exploring computer-based assessment tools – Elliott 2008, Winkley et al 2008). Widely varying ideas about what formative assessment is in practice were illustrated at our first Practical Enquiry Day, which focused on presentations of assessment practices involving technologies (see presentations at http://snipurl.com/feasst). One participant finished with “Is what I’m doing formative or summative?”   

Not surprisingly, the more we consider the literature on formative assessment, the more the domain grows complex and contentious – and that’s before thinking about ‘e- assessment’. We think it’s important to establish some core issues which have emerged around formative assessment as a starting point for what should be included in models which capture its key processes.

Nearly all the studies we’ve looked at set out with their own ‘definition’ of formative assessment, many of them basing this on Black and Wiliam (1998). We’ve selected just a few examples which illustrate the key differences in understanding within the area, and which have implications for what we work with as examples of formative e-assessment and what might feed into decisions about relevant models for the project.

Some perspectives establish particular contrastive relationships between formative and summative assessment…(read more on the project wiki:  http://patternlanguagenetwork.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Groups.FormativeEAssessment/Literature+Review)