It is a well-known fact that Formative Assessments play a key role in delivering effective online training. These assessments help learners check their comprehension of the subject and reinforce their learning.

How can you create good formative assessments for your e-learning courses? Well, among the various aspects you need to consider, providing Feedback is inarguably the most important. Today, we will look at 5 best practices of providing effective feedback in a web-based assessment.

5 Best Practices of Providing Feedback in Online Formative Assessments

1. Assess the Learner at the End of Each Chapter

Ensure that you include a formative assessment at the end of each chapter of your e-learning course. This goes a long way in providing feedback required to rectify undesirable learning behaviors and strengthen favorable behaviors. By providing feedback at the end of each chapter, you can enable staff members to tie the feedback to the learning that has just taken place. This goes a long way in improving knowledge retention levels, thereby facilitating better learning.

Here are 15 ways you can make online formative assessments interesting.

2. Do NOT Score Formative Assessments

Formative assessments are intended to test the comprehension levels of a learner; they are not indicators of the learner’s mastery of the subject-matter. So, it’s important to ensure that the formative assessments of your web-based course are designed to monitor the learner’s progress. Grading learners can result in de-motivating them. Make sure the feedback you provide encourages learners. More about encouraging feedback in a moment.

3. Avoid Negative Feedback

See that the feedback provided in online formative assessments does not dampen the spirit of your learners. Ensure the language you use motivates learners. For instance, when he answers an assessment question correctly, you need to tell him that he is right and congratulate him. Words such as Bravo! Well done, That’s the perfect answer!, and so on can be used. On the other hand, when the learner gets an answer wrong, you need to use words such as Try again! and Well tried! But, that’s not quite right, to encourage.

4. Provide Explanatory Feedback

Many a time, learners guess the right answers while attempting questions in formative assessments. So, to make sure learners know why an answer is right, provide explanatory feedback. See that the feedback lists the reason(s) why the answer is right or wrong. After all, formative assessments are used to check and improve comprehension levels. Aren’t they?

5. See that Feedback is Immediate

Make sure you provide feedback immediately after the learner attempts a question in a web-based formative assessment. Studies at the University of Minnesota showed that immediate feedback enables learners to evaluate how well they are doing easily and adjust and self-regulate their behavior accordingly. Needless to say, this results in better learning.

Formative assessments go a long way in evaluating learners’ comprehension of the subject matter. By following the best practices discussed above, you can design effective formative assessments for your e-learning courses.