TCU Online offers a variety of formative and summative assessment tools. The following comparison chart can help you consider various options and decide which to use.
| Quizzes | Surveys | Self-Assessments | |
| Feedback for student | Feedback is released based on setup of quiz by instructor, which may or may not be instant depending on settings. | Feedback is released after completion is in the form of a report. | Feedback is instantaneous after answering a question or completing the self-assessment. |
| Reporting for student/instructor | Instructors can see individual student answers and connect the results to a grade item in the gradebook. | Instructors can see the responses, but results cannot be tied to a grade item. | Instructors can see who has taken a self-assessment but cannot see how individual students did, or connect the results to a grade item. |
| Use Case | Formative/Summative – ideally suited for summative assessment; with formative assessment, the tool takes too many clicks. | Ice breaker to get students to access previous knowledge of a topic. | Diagnostic – to help students gauge retention midway through topic. |
| Use Case | Pre-Assessment – use the quiz tool to act as a diagnostic before the course begins. Set up release conditions to provide content that students need based on their answers. | Diagnostic – to help gauge student retention midway through topic. | Self-Awareness tool – students can test themselves without the pressure of a graded item. They are allowed to make mistakes. |
| Use Case | Acknowledgment – use the quiz tool as a form for agreeing to criteria in your course. “Check here to confirm you won’t cheat.” | Class Perception – builds a community of learning, as cohort can see opinions of other students. | Case Studies – use the power of storytelling to elicit answers to demonstrate new knowledge! |
| Use Case | Course/Instructor Feedback – great for getting feedback on how a course was perceived. | Ask your virtual tutor! – use self-assessments to bounce ideas off of and to act as your personal tutor. | |
| Use Case | Pre-Assessment – inspire students to engage with class material by seeing how much they already know, and convey the course objectives simultaneously. |