Designing assessments

7. Formative assessment and feedback to students

Assessment, especially formative assessment, also serves to provide students with feedback on their achievements, as well as advice on how and what to learn.

In formative assessment, particular emphasis is placed on assessment for learning and assessment as learning, as opposed to assessment of learning (summative assessment).

Formative assessment can contribute to the final grade (through points), but these contributions are usually significantly smaller than those from summative assessment. In this way, the role of formative assessment as support for learning is emphasized. At the same time, students are motivated to participate in formative assessment, as they can also accumulate points that affect the final course grade. However, formative assessment does not have to include points and can be exclusively focused on practice and providing feedback to students.