Best Classroom Summative Assessment Methods & Strategies in a Virtual Environment

The 2020-21 ALN sessions will explore implications for teaching and assessing in virtual environments. As educators and students embrace the responsibility to impact learning in new distance, virtual, and hybrid environments necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we will amplify and enhance what we know about good assessment practice and its ability to support learning.

Best Classroom Summative Assessment Methods & Strategies in a Virtual Environment
The shift to distance learning presents opportunities to expand our repertoire of classroom assessment methods. This session will demonstrate how educators can incorporate alternatives that emphasize meaningful tasks, afford opportunities to differentiate, and use feedback well, within the context of students’ social-emotional needs. This session will also share lessons learned about the importance of helping parents understand the role and purpose of assessment to support and advance learning.

Framing Questions

• How has distance and virtual learning expanded the repertoire of classroom summative assessment formats we might elect to use?
• What are the characteristics and features of virtual classroom summative assessment methods that engage learners, provide opportunities to differentiate learning, and assess complex skills and higher order thinking?
• What feedback opportunities exist in distance and virtual environments? Why is it important to use feedback—including empathetic feedback—effectively to support teaching, learning, and assessing?
• What do parents need to know about the role and purpose of classroom summative assessment so that they support their student’s learning from home?