Strategies for Assessing Students Remotely

By Carl Hooker published September 10, 2020

Assessing students remotely is a challenge, although there is a multitude of

best practices and tools to help

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(Image credit: Getty Images/Seventyfour)

Assessments can be particularly challenging in a remote learning environment. How can you
verify that the students just aren’t Google searching everything? What if their parents are
completing the projects for them? 

These and many other questions plagued educators in the spring (pardon the pun). While there is
no easy answer for assessing students in a monitored setting, there are strategies that educators
can use to make sure students are demonstrating their knowledge and understanding of their
learning. 

Defining terms
Before we get into strategies let’s define a few terms that will affect the timing and type of
assessments given remotely. Many of these strategies and terms apply with in-person
assessments as well.  

Formative vs. Summative: Are you trying to check for understanding or just knowledge of
material?
Googleable vs. Non-Googleable: Multiple choice, fact-based assessments can be easily searched
online. Assessments that focus more on opinion, process, and student voice are harder to search
with Google.
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous: Are you giving the assessment to the whole class at the same
time or is it a long-term project? Synchronous assessments lend themselves to multiple-choice
type tests whereas asynchronous are generally graded with a rubric in mind. 

(Image credit: Carl Hooker)

What is the purpose of the assessment?

Assessments can also hold several different purposes based on student goals and outcomes. The
graphic below defines three types. 

The biggest differentiator is whether or not the assessment is formative in nature (a continuous
feedback loop) or summative (final outcome). Knowing these types and the corresponding
definitions will help as we get into tools and strategies. 

(Image credit: Carl Hooker)

Focus on feedback
Feedback is a major part of assessment as it allows students to make corrections and learn from
their mistakes. Formative assessments generally involve feedback as part of the process for
learning, either from the teacher or the student’s own self-reflection. It can also be done in either
a synchronous or asynchronous environment, depending on purpose. 

Some things to focus on when providing feedback:

 Make sure it’s timely - Providing feedback weeks later doesn’t help the student learn and
adjust at the moment of the assessment. 
 Keep it appropriate and reflective - Encourage students to reflect on their process and
what they could do differently to improve. 
 Provide support - Allow opportunities for students to ask questions and grow. 
 Be honest - Students need to understand their mistakes to improve. 
 Medium matters - Giving critical feedback should be done with your own voice in an
audio or video format if at all possible. Written feedback that is highly critical doesn’t
allow for inflection and can be damaging to the trust and relationship with the student. 
Keeping in mind how you will provide feedback will help as you design your assessments for
remote learning. 

Polling for feedback

Before we dive into formative assessments, using polls can be a great way to provide feedback in
whole group settings. Polls can be done asynchronously, but generally are posted when you have
a whole group on a video call. Some video conferencing platforms such as Zoom(opens in new
tab) provide built-in polling features, or you can always supplement with tools such as Poll
Everywhere(opens in new tab), Mentimeter(opens in new tab), Slido(opens in new tab),
or Answer Garden(opens in new tab).
Synchronous formative assessment 
If the goal is immediate feedback and checking for understanding, giving an assessment
synchronously over a video call is the route to go. 

Here are some of the advantages of using a synchronous assessment:

 Provide instant feedback -  Students can adjust immediately based on feedback. 

 Adjust instruction based on student responses - Teachers can quickly adjust instruction
based on how well students understand the content. 
 Just-in-time support and intervention - Students who are struggling with a concept can
be provided support in real-time. 
 Help demonstrate student knowledge more than understanding 
While there are many tools out there that can help with this, some of the more popular choices
include apps such as Kahoot!(opens in new tab), Formative(opens in new tab), Quizziz,(opens in
new tab) Socrative(opens in new tab), and Quizlet(opens in new tab).
Gamified assessment
Some formative assessment tools such as Kahoot! and Quizlet Live add a competitive and time-
based element that keeps students engaged and makes it harder for them to use Google for their
answers. 

Besides these ‘trivia game’-like tools, there are now lots of different ways to do end-of-unit
reviews in the form of a game show or even live bingo. A tool such as flippity.net(opens in new
tab) gives teachers in GSuite districts the ability to edit a variety of interactive games with just a
Google sheet. Using gamification as a tool for assessment gives teachers another strategy for
assessing student understanding and keeps students engaged during synchronous remote
learning.
Interactive presentations with embedded assessment 
One of the downsides of using formative assessment tools is that requiring students to log into
various platforms can be time consuming and add a layer of technical challenges. Posting a link
to the assessments in the LMS or video chat can help with this transition time, but embedding it
in an interactive presentation can help keep students on the same page while teaching
synchronously. 

Interactive presentation tools such as Nearpod (opens in new tab)and Pear Deck (opens in new

tab)can keep your students on topic and allow you to send various polls and formative
assessments to check for understanding. Both of these tools also allow for a student-paced
asynchronous component so that if a student misses the video call or has connectivity issues,
they can catch up on their own and still give the teacher what they need.  
Asynchronous remote assessment 
Many teachers only have a limited amount of time with their students in a synchronous video
call. Using that time for teaching, discussions, and feedback means that you may not have
enough data to truly assess student understanding. Providing asynchronous assessments can
mean a little more work, but it can provide a wider range of data points that a multiple choice
quiz doesn’t provide. 

Some advantages to designing and providing asynchronous assessment:

 Flexible time to process - Rather than having to think and respond on the fly, students
have more time to research and process to build their understanding. 
 Not as internet dependent - One of the challenges of giving synchronous assessment is
that not every student has the same level of at-home access and may miss parts of a quiz
or video call due to connectivity issues. Asynchronous assessments can be done on the
student’s pace and are less bandwidth dependent. 
 Built-in reflection time - Research (opens in new tab)shows that learning is more
internalized when students have an opportunity to reflect on what they have done. 
 More focused on the process -  Learning is a process more than a product. Having high-
quality asynchronous assessments provide teachers insight on what a student is thinking. 
 Help demonstrate understanding more than knowledge 
When choosing the tools for asynchronous assessment, teachers need to focus on those that give
students an opportunity to explain their thinking and provide their voice and reflection.

Asynchronous feedback via Learning Management System

(LMS) 
Most LMS platforms provide ways for students to submit drafts and gather feedback from
teachers and/or their peers. In an asynchronous environment, teachers can utilize built-in tools to
give directions, set expectations in a rubric, and provide direct feedback as students check in
throughout the process.

Some LMS platforms offer portfolio options that can provide for both the student and teacher a
long-term view of progress and growth. Using these features can be cumbersome or limited
depending on the LMS, so teachers may need additional tools to provide and catalog
asynchronous assessments. 

Tools that provide voice, process, and reflection 

While an LMS can give a space for voice, process, and reflection, it can also quickly be
overloaded with announcements, discussion boards, and assignment postings. Having a tool or
tools to use specifically for asynchronous assessment can help streamline the process. 

Here are a few platforms that teachers gravitate toward for this purpose:

Flipgrid  (opens in new tab)- A teacher favorite as either an exit-ticket or for just having students
share their voice to a question or issue. Flipgrid now also comes with built-in white boarding so
that students can record an annotation of their thinking when they respond. 
Book Creator  (opens in new tab)- Now available on any device, Book Creator gives students a
chance to have a running interactive journal to document their learning by recording their voice
or capturing a hand-drawn picture. Teachers can see their students on a virtual bookshelf to
check their progress.
SeeSaw  (opens in new tab)- An LMS-type system that is geared toward younger students. It
offers a powerful set of tools for teachers to record verbal feedback for students to hear. 
Bulb Digital Portfolios(opens in new tab) - An eportfolio tool that gives students space to set
goals, reflect, and document their own learning processes. 
Final checklist for remote assessment
As teachers analyze the learning to assess this year, in either a remote or in-person setting, there
are a multitude of tools and strategies to help with this process. 

Some final things to consider prior to delivering a remote assessment:

 Will the assessment be synchronous or asynchronous? 

 Are you checking for understanding or knowledge? 
 Can students reflect on the learning process? 
 Do students have an opportunity to explain their thinking? 
The answers to these questions will help guide educators as they design assessments in the most
flexible way heading into what promises to be a very different fall semester of school.