Initial Assessment
Initial assessment sometimes referred to as 'diagnostic assessment' or 'diagnostic testing' is often used to describe the process taken to collect information about learner's prior knowledge, skills and experience before they start their studies.
Why would I use technology to aid initial assessment?
- Questions can easily be reused for another purpose or the following year
- Questions can be selected at random (e.g. each learner sees 10 questions randomly selected from 30)
- Questions can be adaptive with the next question released based on the previous answer
- Questions can include multimedia such as images, audio, video or virtual simulations
- Results are calculated automatically
- Information is stored electronically so can be manipulated easily to be reused
How do I use technology to do this?
As with any initial assessment you need to start by considering:
- What information you want to collect?
- In what format you need this information?
- Whether the information is about skills and knowledge or background information about the student?
This last question will help to guide you in your choice of tool. Some technology is more suited to testing skills and knowledge whilst others are better for collecting background information.
Once you understand your needs you can start to develop the questions you want to ask. Writing good questions for surveys and tests can be tricky however there is lots of advice available on the web on how to do this.
What tools could I use?
The tools listed here can be used to support the above assessment approach.
- University supported tools will have support documentation provided
- External tools and services will link to the related website. When using external tools please consider the points made on the Using external services and tools to support learning and teaching page.
If you want to discuss the use of these tools further please contact the learning technology team on learningtechs@derby.ac.uk or ext 1865.
Knowledge and Skills tests
Background information collection
