"The road to success is always under construction." Lily Tomlin
- “Not to be overly prescriptive…”
- “We are not telling you how to run your classroom, but…”
- “In our opinion, we think you can do better in the area of …”
Do any of these quotes sound familiar? A common finding when reviewing allied health, EMS, and nursing programs around the globe is the vast differences among education programs of the same profession. In particular, the large variables among them when comparing testing requirements from term to term, semesters, or graduation. One school may have a reputation for putting students through the wringer by making every quiz a must-pass exam. While another may take a different approach by weighing performance on an exit exam as the true test of success.
In the academic domain, tests are frequently referred to as Formative Assessments and Summative Evaluations.
Formative tests in many university handbooks are described as ongoing quizzes and tests that help students identify whether they are learning the material being taught. On track or needing remediation. Often labeled as low stakes because they don’t influence grades significantly one way or the other. And boy are they popular with some faculty. Being used like a colander filtering out the weakest candidates. And offering huge insight into student performance along the way guiding how future content should be delivered.
Summative exams on the other hand are best explained as decision-makers for both students and instructors. Referenced as high stakes because there are usually benefits or penalties associated with performance on them. You may call them midterms, modular tests, and finals. Outcomes are regularly weighted heavily in the gradebook to assure major impact on overall letter grades. Methodically making them a major factor in learners passing or failing a course.
Downward pressure is repeatedly put on the school and lead instructors as well when it comes to summative tests, unlike formative exams. It is common that there are punitive consequences tied to poor results. Not to mention reputations and penalties revolving around scores on them. Hence, we see intense scrutiny of purpose-driven reviews being done retroactively, so they can be declared valid and reliable.
Which is better? Our team recommends educators blend both types of evaluations into your schedule. Both have their plusses and minuses and should be integrated into programs that last more than a day long.
Take home message: Platinum’s trainers, customer service advocates, and educators find that our clients will rely on us for either their Final exams or quizzes and class tests, not both. This in our opinion is unfortunate because we are convinced these customers are leaving tools in the toolbox. We feel by building high-quality formative tests and delivering our prefabricated summative examinations online together you can win big. What to know more? Drop us a line anytime or book a training slot or demo with us.