{"id":8880,"date":"2016-01-11T13:09:15","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T18:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/?p=8880"},"modified":"2021-01-23T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T14:42:08","slug":"formative-assessments-and-fitness-bands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/formative-assessments-and-fitness-bands\/","title":{"rendered":"Formative Assessments and Fitness Bands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Janice Florent<\/p>\n<p>In a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facultyfocus.com\/\">Faculty Focus<\/a> article, Dr. Karen Buchanan, associate professor of education at George Fox University, compared <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Formative_assessment\">formative assessments<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Activity_tracker\">fitness bands<\/a>. In the article, Dr. Buchanan explained how a fitness band changed the life of a colleague because of the continuous feedback provided about her progress toward her fitness goal.<\/p>\n<p>The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work<\/li>\n<li>Help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><div align=\"center\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/photos\/green-band-exercise-tracker-2557523\/\" title=\"fitness band\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2017\/07\/31\/11\/39\/green-2557523_1280.jpg?resize=512%2C341&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"person wearing a fitness band\" height=\"341\" width=\"512\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Fitness bands are popular because they work. The fitness band:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provides clear, timely data on users progress<\/li>\n<li>Helps users see where their current data sits in relation to their goals<\/li>\n<li>Provides users with feedback and\/or tips aimed at improving their performance<\/li>\n<li>Celebrates milestones using a variety of electronic methods<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The continuous feedback and progress toward goal is formative assessment. <\/p>\n<p>Can instructors be as effective as a fitness band? Here are two suggestions for providing students with helpful feedback:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be detailed in your feedback<\/strong> - Be specific and give examples. How can students implement your suggestions if they are missing, minimal, or vague?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stay current in grading<\/strong> - How can students implement your suggestions if they are not given in a timely manner?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Embracing the power of formative assessment will help you increase the quality of your teaching and help students to improve their <a href=\"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/metacognition-the-gift-that-keeps-giving\/\">metacognitive awareness<\/a> of how they learn.<\/p>\n<p>For more information read Dr. Buchanan\u2019s article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facultyfocus.com\/articles\/educational-assessment\/what-fitness-bands-can-teach-us-about-classroom-assessment\/\">What Fitness Bands Can Teach Us about Classroom Assessment<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><small>Image Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/photos\/green-band-exercise-tracker-2557523\/\">Image<\/a> by StockSnap from <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/service\/license\/\">Pixabay<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Janice Florent In a recent Faculty Focus article, Dr. Karen Buchanan, associate professor of education at George Fox University, compared formative assessments and fitness bands. In the article, Dr. Buchanan explained how a fitness band changed the life of a colleague because of the continuous feedback provided about her progress toward her fitness goal. <a href=\"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/formative-assessments-and-fitness-bands\/\" class=\"more-link\">...continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \"Formative Assessments and Fitness Bands\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[27,149],"class_list":{"0":"post-8880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-teaching","7":"tag-assessment","8":"tag-formative-assessment","9":"h-entry","10":"hentry","11":"h-as-article"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-2je","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5900,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/adapting-quick-formative-assessment-ideas-to-an-online-environment\/","url_meta":{"origin":8880,"position":0},"title":"Adapting Quick Formative Assessment Ideas to an Online Environment","author":"Karen Nichols","date":"February 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Karen Nichols Edutopia's 53 Ways to Check for Understanding offers several quick and easy activities for formative assessment. While these were established for a face to face environment, I think we can adapt several of them to our online\/hybrid courses. A number of the formative assessments listed require defining,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/online\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"tagxedo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagxedo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14447,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-124-posting-grades\/","url_meta":{"origin":8880,"position":1},"title":"Brightspace Tip #124: Posting Grades","author":"Janice Florent","date":"October 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The #1 Brightspace complaint we hear from students is that faculty don't post their grades online. When students don\u2019t receive meaningful and timely feedback about their coursework, they are unable to make the necessary adjustments to improve their performance. The Brightspace Grades Tool is useful for providing students with up-to-date\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Brightspace Small Plates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"a paper that is work in progress; it has a number of corrections on it","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/2621\/3917117425_aaed7972ee_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21476,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-519-quiz-survey-or-self-assessment\/","url_meta":{"origin":8880,"position":2},"title":"Brightspace Tip #519: Quiz, Survey, or Self-Assessment?","author":"Janice Florent","date":"June 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Brightspace has a variety of formative and summative assessment tools available for instructors to use in their courses. You may be wondering which tool you should use. This blog post explains the difference between the Quizzes, Surveys, and Self-Assessments (SA) tools to help you determine which of the tools is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Brightspace Small Plates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"man writing on paper","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/man-2562325_1280X502.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/man-2562325_1280X502.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/man-2562325_1280X502.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20435,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-451-quiz-survey-or-self-assessment\/","url_meta":{"origin":8880,"position":3},"title":"Brightspace Tip #451: Quiz, Survey, or Self-Assessment?","author":"Janice Florent","date":"May 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Brightspace has a variety of formative and summative assessment tools available for instructors to use in their courses. You may be wondering which tool you should use. This blog post explains the difference between the Quizzes, Surveys, and Self-Assessments (SA) tools to help you determine which of the tools is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Brightspace Small Plates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"man writing on paper","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/man-2562325_1280X502.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/man-2562325_1280X502.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/man-2562325_1280X502.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18064,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/icymi-allow-learners-to-reflect-on-their-learning-in-brightspace\/","url_meta":{"origin":8880,"position":4},"title":"ICYMI: Allow Learners to Reflect on Their Learning in Brightspace","author":"Janice Florent","date":"February 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Allow Learners to Reflect on Their Learning in Brightspace [54:36] Thanks to those of you who attended this week's Allow Learners to Reflect on Their Learning in Brightspace workshop. The workshop, the tenth in our #LEX Advanced series, helps you to build on the skills you learned in the #LearnEverywhereXULA\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Brightspace Small Plates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18478,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/icymi-assessments-in-a-virtual-environment\/","url_meta":{"origin":8880,"position":5},"title":"ICYMI: Assessments in a Virtual Environment","author":"Janice Florent","date":"June 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A common question in online learning is \u201cHow do we keep students from cheating in online exams?\u201d A shift from traditional means of assessment (quizzes, tests, exams) to authentic and alternative assessments is critical in virtual settings. If faculty try to assess their students the same way they did in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CAT &amp; Mouse: E-Learning","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/online\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"clipart of iPad screen with an online assessment","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/online-assessment-ipad.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16225,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880\/revisions\/16225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}