Formative assessment at university through digital technology tools

Abstract

Assessment in its various forms is a key element in any teaching process. This research focuses on how formative assessment can be used to improve the teaching-learning process and provide students with feedback about their progress rather than just grades. The main aim is to analyze how individual formative self-assessment processes—via the Socrative application (SA) and Moodle questionnaires (MQ)—affect the teaching-learning process and whether they improve student performance and satisfaction. The sample studied consisted of 374 students (315 women and 59 men) from the second year of the Teaching degree. Of these, 245 were part of a control group that did not participate in any self-assessment, and 129 were part of the experimental group. Results show that the use of self-assessment tools during the teaching process improved the academic performance by around one point out of ten and generated a good level of satisfaction among students and teachers. Overall, no significant differences were found between MQ and SA in relation to satisfaction level and performance. The results also indicate that the use of a self-assessment tool by itself is not sufficient to bring about a change in the way students learn. Thus, other factors should be investigated for greater insight into the variables involved in the student learning process.