Long gone are the days when students sat in neat little rows in the classroom watching their teacher write on the chalkboard while filling out a worksheet at their desk. These days, a teacher’s options for creating an innovative digital classroom environment are boundless, and modern students are learning in ways students of the past could never have imagined.

From interactive videos to slideshows, animations, podcasts, and recordings, students nowadays have a wealth of tools and knowledge at their fingertips. The only limit to what they can discover in the classroom is their teacher’s imagination.

But, classroom activities aren’t the only thing that has gone high-tech in the modern classroom.

Innovative teachers are now using digital tools to create formative assessments that provide crucial feedback to both them and their students here and now—allowing them to adjust their lesson plans as needed and provide the very best education to their students in real-time.

Video quizzing for formative assessment

Fortunately, you don’t have to master every tech tool to provide your students with cutting-edge formative assessments. 

With ScreenPal’s new video quizzing feature, you can turn any video into an interactive experience that provides you with detailed insight into what your students have already learned and whatever it is that they still need more assistance with.

With interactive video quizzing in ScreenPal, you can:

• Embed multiple-choice, true or false, or short answer quizzes or polls right into the beginning, middle, or end of any video you choose.
• Randomize the order of questions that appear on each of your student’s screens
• Allow or prevent questions from being skipped.
• Give automatic feedback on the correct answer and why it’s the right choice for that particular question.
• View individual student data or aggregated data for your entire class.
• Allow students to take quizzes or polls anonymously or require them to sign in. 

To help you get started, we’ll show you seven different formative assessment ideas that lend themselves well to ScreenPal’s software. In no time, you’ll be using video quizzes for formative assessment in your class, and your students will love it.

7 easy formative assessment ideas with video quizzes

1) Introducing new content 

The first idea for using video quizzes for formative assessment is when you’re introducing new content in class. This use works well for any grade level or subject area, particularly after you complete a warm-up activity that acts as an introduction to the new topic you’ll be studying.

For example, if your elementary class is beginning a unit on the water cycle, you can show pictures of clouds, rain, lakes, rivers, and oceans and ask students to share what they already know about each of these things as a warm-up. Then, once their brains are actively processing this new information, it’s time to show them an interactive video about how the water cycle actually works.

By adding a quiz directly into the video itself, you can get insight into which parts of the water cycle make the most sense to each of your students individually and which parts are slightly confusing to them. Not only does this data inform your teaching, but it also helps you set the pace for moving forward in the days and weeks to come.

Even the youngest students can answer quiz questions that pop up on their screen as they watch a video. And you can customize the questions you include to be as easy or as difficult as you would like. 

2) Understanding a process 

The second idea for using video quizzes for formative assessment occurs when your students watch a video to understand a process. Again, this option lends itself to any grade level or subject area. 

From how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich all the way to how to calculate the mean of a data set, videos are a great tool in learning any new process for the very first time because many of your students need to actually see something first hand in order to understand it fully.

For this example, we’ll look at setting up a double-slit experiment in a physics class. In the past, you may have simply handed your students a sheet of paper, aluminum foil, an x-acto knife, tape, a magnifying glass, and a sheet of instructions before sending them off to learn on their own. Now you can set them up for success by having them watch a video on how to conduct a double-slit experiment before they hit the lab.

Embedding a quiz question into the video after each step is explained in detail will ensure that students stay engaged during the entire process and help them recognize if any steps are confusing. That way, they can get their questions answered before they conduct the experiment all on their own. 

3) Solving a problem 

A third idea for using video quizzes for formative assessment is while your students are learning to solve a problem. 

For instance, let’s say you’ve tasked your math students with calculating the sale price of an item at the store. While they could just watch you calculate it on the board, you wouldn’t know which students were really getting it and which weren’t. So instead, you could have each of your students watch a video of you or someone else explaining how to solve this important math problem right on their own device. 

And throughout the video, you can provide multiple real-life scenarios in which your students may need to calculate the sale price of something they want to purchase and use the quizzing feature to have them perform these calculations on their own while getting instant feedback for each problem as they solve it. 

4) Performing analysis 

You can also use video quizzes for formative assessments when you’ve asked your students to analyze something. Whether it be data of some sort or the logic behind an argument in a political speech, interactive videos with embedded quizzes help your students think critically about a variety of topics.

To illustrate this point, you could have your students watch the video adaptation of a novel or play you’ve studied in class. 

Using the quizzing feature, ask your students a series of simple multiple-choice and true or false questions related to the main character, such as their physical traits, their likes and dislikes, and how they behave throughout the video as opposed to the text. Then, you can include short answer questions to help your students think deeper about this character. And the best part is that you can randomize the questions as they appear on each of your students’ screens.

5) Learning a new skill 

Using videos for formative assessment is easy when your students are learning a new skill. Some things are learned best by watching someone else do them first instead of simply reading about them in a textbook.

Let’s say you’re teaching your technology class how to use a new digital tool in the computer lab. While watching you demonstrate using that tool on video, your students can answer a series of quiz questions along the way in order to stay on track. Then, you can release them to try using the new tool on their own.

6) Accessing new information 

A sixth idea for using video quizzes for formative assessment purposes is showing students how to access new information. This option works particularly well when you’re planning to assign a research project in the near future.

One of the things students often struggle with most is how to locate accurate information. By using video, you can show your students the different ways to optimize search engine results, find reputable sources, and identify fake news. 

As students move through the video, they can answer quick quiz questions to demonstrate their understanding of this topic and review the content you’ve provided to them as they go. The quiz results help you know which students are ready to start the research process and which students could use a little extra help with the research phase of their project.

7) Reviewing content

Lastly, reviewing content is a great opportunity for using video quizzes for formative assessments. Just like when you’re introducing new content for the first time, it’s important to review content throughout a unit to keep things fresh in your students’ minds—especially before a summative assessment like a test or exam.

For instance, you just spent weeks teaching your students about Native American tribes. Using video, your students can review all the different tribes they studied in a matter of minutes, and the quiz feature helps them identify what sets each tribe apart in terms of housing, food, religious beliefs and practices, and family structure. 

Plus, you can use the short answer option to have students think even deeper, comparing and contrasting their own life to that of someone in a particular tribe or explaining what happened to a specific tribe after they came into direct contact with European settlers. 

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Ready to get started with video quizzes for formative assessment? Educators can turn any video into an interactive learning experience in minutes, and easily use video quizzing for formative assessment in any learning environment. Learn more about ScreenPal’s interactive video quizzing solution, available with all Solo Max Edu and Team Education plans. Then choose one of these easy formative assessment ideas to implement with your students!