Online Assessment Applications That Teachers Should Be Using

Assessments are most ideal when they can provide quick results that allow a teacher to then do something productive with the data.  Two free web applications that I feel do an excellent job of achieving this goal are www.socrative.com and www.goformative.com.  Keep in mind that there are some differences between the two that may cause one to be more effective depending on the task at hand.

Socrative is almost the definition of immediate assessment results.  Once you provide students with a class code, you need to decide if you want it to be True/False, Multiple Choice, or Short Answer.  Next, you can pose a question to students verbally or in written form and they can enter their response using their device.   As soon as students submit their response, it will populate on the teacher’s device.

You can also create quizzes, find and share quizzes in the Socrative Shared Quiz List, or have students compete on quizzes with the Space Race option.

Goformative is the next assessment tool that teachers should be taking advantage of.  While this web application has features similar to other online assessment tools, there are two distinct features that set Goformative apart.  

The “Upload/Transform” feature allows you to upload a document, such as a PDF or Word document, and then customize it with interactive content.  The interactive content can be images, text, youtube videos, and more!  I particularly like that you can add interactive answer choices.  For example, if you have a multiple choice question, you can add a button next to the question.  

When students click on the button, the answer letters appear for them to choose.  If you mark the correct answers when setting up the questions, then Goformative will do the grading for you.  Plus, with live results, you can see the answers and scores populate as students are working on the assignment.

The second feature I am going to mention is Whiteboard Content.  This allows your students to create a drawing or insert an image to complete a task.  Again, with the Live Results ability, you can see all of your students’ entries as they are submitted.

The video tutorials for this website are fantastic, so check www.goformative.com out for more detail!