Assessing students involves much more than assigning grades. You can use true and false and multiple choice questions in class, in assignments and on exams to gauge student knowledge before, during or after (BDA) a class discussion or activity. Often, these types of questions are used to review basic concepts from the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, while items such as essay questions (pdf) require higher order thinking.
While there is some debate over whether the use of technology aides or hinders learning when students are writing, that act of writing in and of itself can be used effectively to assess and engage students with content and to connect new information to what they already know (doc).
Some Types of Assessments:
- Formative: Gather feedback that can be used by the instructor and the students to guide improvements in the ongoing teaching and learning context. These are low stakes assessments for students and instructors.
- Summative: Measure the level of success or proficiency that has been obtained at the end of an instructional unit, but comparing it against some standard or benchmark.