Assessments are typically defined as either formative or summative. To best support teaching and learning, a course needs to include a mixture of both. While formative assessments are frequent, low-stakes assignments and activities that are designed to help students learn, summative assessments, also known as assessments of learning, are cumulative assessments designed to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional period.

In essence, the purpose of summative assessment is to evaluate what students have learned at the end of a program, course, or unit of work that sums up the teaching and learning process, but they are also wonderful tools for assessing what we have taught!

Before we roll up our sleeves and start designing our assessments, please watch the following short video (6 Minutes), narrated by Bill Moore from the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment:

Using Assessment to Improve Instruction

Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment. (2008, April 11). Using assessment to improve instruction [Video file].