Assessment is a vital part of training and providing feedback to learners. But assessment can be time-consuming and costly, especially when you are considering the development, implementation, recording, reporting, analysis, reporting and continuous improvement of assessment practices. Luckily for schools these days, there are numerous free online assessment tools available. These are particularly useful for digital education programs as they can save you money and time!
Have you ever wondered how assessment tools work? There are a lot of terms thrown around, a lot a buzzwords and big brands. It’s easy to get lost in it all. Especially if you have not yet used online or offline tools in any way or just want to learn more about the possibilities with digital assessment. In this article, I’ve put together a list with some of my favorite free online assessment tools.
Socrative
Socrative is one of the top-rated assessment tools for teachers according to hundreds of online reviews by educators and professional reviewers alike. It’s an interactive digital tool that lets you quiz, grade, and assess on-the-fly; “at the speed of learning.” Teachers can choose from quick questions for instant feedback, class counts to see who’s logged in, or full quizzes for deeper understanding.
This versatile tool lets you create polls and activities and shuffle questions, with or without student names attached. Quizzes are graded in real time, and you can store them for re-use with other groups. It works on smart phones, tablets, laptops, and other devices on MS Windows, Android, and iOS. It’s 100% free for students, and it’s simple, flexible, and aligns well with Common Core.
Google Forms
The best reason to use Google Forms as an online assessment tool for education? Ease of use. Google Forms is a go-to among teachers because it’s quick and simple to create and automatically grade quizzes even if it’s your first time using the tool. Create multiple-choice quizzes or short-answer quizzes, and make an easy answer key with point assignments for each question.
Google makes it easy for students to answer questions by clicking a drop-down, typing a fast text answer, or posting a short YouTube video. Teachers can view graphs and summaries of frequently missed answers for a quick bird’s-eye view of the class as a whole.You can also share grades with students at the click of a mouse. It’s COPPA/FERPA compliant, though some teachers note a few concerns around privacy. See UMass’s tutorial on how to use the assessment tool.“I have been using Google Forms a lot. I also assess by checking their daily IXL and iReady. Google Forms allows me to create the assessment and see fast results,” Margaret Waters Hall, high school teacher.
Padlet
Padlet’s seemingly simple framework— a blank digital “wall”—belies its robust capabilities in assessment, communication, and collaboration. Drag and drop almost any file type to the blank Padlet to share assessments, lessons, or presentations. Students respond with text, photos, or video. Free basic plan includes three Padlets at one time.
ASSISTments
ASSISTments is a forever free online math platform that makes it easy for teachers to assign online from their curriculum, and assess student progress in the classroom or remotely. When working on assignments within ASSISTments, students get immediate feedback as they go and teachers get actionable data, which they use to focus instructional time where students need the most support.
Edpuzzle
Edpuzzle allows you to turn videos into a quick assessment. Choose a video on YouTube, Khan Academy, Crash Course, or upload your own. Trim the video, insert a quiz anywhere and track your students progress. (Freemium, basic account is free, additional features available with paid accounts.)
Mentimeter
Pro reviewers and teachers score Mentimeter sky high among assessment tools used in the classroom. It comes pre-loaded with education templates for the classroom like a listening skills assessment, icebreakers, formative assessments, post-lecture surveys, and polls. Create quizzes and tests, manage student expectations, engage students, and even run a teacher training workshop.
Mentimeter gives everyone a voice, but it also has a neat feature to mute extra-loud students.It’s free to use and lets you create and host live quizzes either from its templates or from scratch. Pro versions for schools and universities add unlimited question slides per presentation, exports, unlimited quizzes, and support for a few dollars a month. The interface is 101-level simple, with tech support to smooth the bumps.
Poll Everywhere
Don’t trust assessment tools for teachers that try to control your every move? Give quizzes, take attendance, and gauge understanding your own way with Poll Everywhere. It integrates with Google apps like Google Slides or MS PowerPoint and Keynote; as you prefer. It’s used by more than 75% of all Fortune 500 companies and by 300,000+ educators around the world. It also works on iOS and Android phones and tablets.
Get a snapshot of where students are struggling by creating questions as word clouds, open student responses, or with multiple-choice options. Then let students answer with their phones, laptops, or tablets.Teachers can get real-time feedback in their question slides without calling on specific individuals to roll out assessment as an integrated part of a larger lecture. This is a great way to give students a voice in steering the direction of live lesson plans.
Edulastic
Edulastic is a complete assessment dashboard. Teachers can create and track assessments, and even align with CCSS. They also offer a district wide-platform for sharing district-wide assessments. (Free for teachers, district-sharing requires a paid license.)
Canvas LMS
Open, intuitive, and born in the cloud, Canvas LMS has become the most widely used learning management system by colleges and universities in North America, and the fastest growing worldwide. In K12, Canvas LMS becomes the digital learning hub that brings students, teachers, and tools together—whether in the physical, blended, or fully online classroom. Delivering dynamic, engaging learning experiences, its 99.99% uptime ensures instant connection between students and educators, anywhere, anytime. Canvas is part of the Instructure Learning Platform, a suite of edtech products and services supporting more than 30 million educators and learners in 70 countries around the world. Learn More @ https://www.instructure.com
GoReact
GoReact is interactive video assessment software for skill development. With simple tools for collaborative learning and personalized feedback, it amplifies human connection. Learners use GoReact to record or stream presentations, performances, and demonstrations. Educators and peer reviewers then assess their work with customizable rubrics, markers, time-coded feedback, and more. The result is higher engagement and faster skill development (see also: more aha moments). For educators everywhere, GoReact offers these key benefits: approachable software, time-saving tools, rich feedback, and highly-engaged learners.
Survey Anyplace
Survey Anyplace is a software platform to create your own online assessments questionnaires with auto-generated personalized reports. It helps you turn your expertise into a tool that delivers individualized advice at scale. Discover why companies like Capgemini, Eneco, EDF, and Bare International, as well as midsize consulting businesses worldwide, use Survey Anyplace to automate the delivery of personalized advice. Whether your goal is to scale your advisory business, generate leads, or simply save time through automation, Survey Anyplace makes it easy. Seeing is believing. Start your 7-day free trial with all functionality enabled to experience how you can automate your advice delivery with Survey Anyplace.
Edsby
Edsby® is an award-winning, next generation K-12 learning management system (LMS) with the broadest set of capabilities available in a single application made just for the specific needs of K-12 students, educators and parents. It enables improved teaching effectiveness and student success in and out of the classroom with a familiar, social-style user experience. Unlike other systems, Edsby goes beyond the standard definition of an LMS with a wide set of features (including modern assessment & reporting, timesaving tools for K-12 educators and parents and innovative analytics) for the full spectrum of K-6 and 7-12 learners in one platform that can be tailored to meet a specific district or region’s needs. Edsby is used district-wide by some of the largest K-12 districts in North America. It has been licensed for national use by the New Zealand Ministry of Education and has received more than 60 industry awards and distinctions.
Conclusion:
The digital age offers an abundance of learning activities that can be used through the World Wide Web. With this opportunity comes a lot of pressure and stress on teachers and students to achieve the best results and performance. These free online assessment tools can help you as you strive to help your students strengthen their knowledge and skills, as well as monitor their progress along the way.