We can assess our students in two ways:

• Through summative assessment, a high stakes exam, paper, project, portfolio or capstone. Usually a significant portion of a student's grade. Allows the student the opportunity to showcase their mastery of the subject matter.
• Through formative assessment, a low or no stakes check-in, such as a quiz, class interaction, short reflection, etcetera. Formative assessments allow the teacher and the student the opportunity to gauge their understanding of the subject matter early and often.

Gauging your students' understanding of the learning process is essential. And most of the time, the midterm exam is much too late for many students who by that time, may feel lost and abandoned.

Instructors can significantly benefit from incorporating formative assessments in the classroom since they can better understand what material the students understand and what content requires more time and attention.

When teachers take the extra time to plan engaging formative assessments throughout the course, the students are better able to understand the course content and master the skills showcased in high stakes formative assessments.

This specific post will outline using Kahoot! as a fun and engaging method to gauge your student's understanding.

Create

Create a fun learning game in minutes – we call these ‘kahoots’. You can make a series of multiple choice questions or try our new game – Jumble. The format and number of questions are entirely up to you. Add videos, images and diagrams to your questions to amplify engagement.

Play

Kahoots are best played in a group setting, for example, a classroom. Players answer the questions on their own devices, while games are displayed on a shared screen to unite the lesson. It creates a ‘campfire moment’ encouraging players to look up and celebrate together. Besides creating your own kahoots, you can search among millions of existing games.

Share

Social learning promotes discussion and pedagogical impact, whether players are in the same room or on the other side of the globe. After a game, encourage players to create and share their own kahoots to deepen understanding, mastery and purpose, as well as engage in peer-led discussions. When a learner becomes a leader, that’s a true magic moment!

Reinforce

Practice makes perfect! With the challenge feature and our mobile app, you can assign kahoots as homework. Students play kahoots on their phones for revision and reinforcement, training their classroom superpowers anytime. In homework challenges, questions and answers will appear on their phone screens. Choose a kahoot, assign it as a challenge and share the link or PIN with your students. Make homework awesome!

Here are some additional articles on formative and summative assessment:

• Why It Matters (and examples)
• Comparison of Summative and Formative
• Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom
• Which to Use?
• ClassMarker: Create Web-Based Tests and Quizzes
• Video: Summative Assessment
• Free Math Test Generator
• Easy Test Maker
• eHow: Types of Formative Assessment
• Types of Summative Assessment (*.pdf)
• YouTube: Formative Assessment
• Kahoot!  A Game-Based Classroom Response System