This is the second of a two-part series on embedded formative assessment in remote learning environments.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been impractical for teachers to monitor students remotely during fact-based tests and quizzes. Students can cheat quite easily and, as a result, many teachers have decided to abandon fact-based summative assessments and rethink their approach to assessment. Fortunately, teachers can leverage tech-aided, embedded formative assessment to gather valuable student information for assessment purposes. In tech-aided, embedded formative assessment, assessment is interwoven with common teaching and learning practices to uncover student learning. 

Part I of this series outlined how teachers can leverage Nearpod to capture and record student participation during a slide presentation via embedded quizzes, surveys, interactive videos, whiteboards, post-it boards, and more. Part I also explained how a teacher can leverage Google Docs to review student note-taking (or essay/report writing) at any time during or after class and even initiate an online conversation with the student about the document. Finally, the article points out that teachers can turn to TeacherMade to add interactive content to their handouts so that student responses can be seen, analyzed, and graded. 

Part II introduces three additional tools aligned with three more common teaching and learning activities: 

1. Students create and manipulate objects on a whiteboard. Whiteboards are a common space for students to actively demonstrate their learning by creating, inserting, and manipulating objects, including images and text. 
2. Students reflect on a question and answer it verbally. Teachers often ask students questions that prompt them to reflect and students later answer the question individually.
3. Teachers collect student work for review. In an online environment, student work can be demonstrated and collected in a digital portfolio.

1. Jamboard

Jamboard is a free collaborative whiteboard tool from Google that facilitates the introduction and manipulation of various objects by individuals or groups in real-time (during class) or asynchronously. A Jamboard includes colored pens and sticky notes and enables users to add text, images, and drawings. There is even a laser tool for drawing attention to a particular region of the board. 

Each Jamboard can contain one or more panels to work on, so teachers can have students work individually or in groups within the same Jamboard. From there, students can brainstorm ideas and insert, manipulate, duplicate, and organize objects. For instance, students…