An Insider’s View into the Edtech Market for Assessments
Assessments are crucial to evaluate how well our students are doing in the class and how effective our teaching methods are. Using the old methods, educators would have to administer and grade their exams by hand. It wasted a lot of paper and time compared to the new digital options available through the edtech market. The use of edtech for assessments is steadily growing and increasing teacher efficiency. However, we have to determine whether it is really meeting the needs in most classrooms.
What are early childhood, K-12, and higher education institution’s most pressing needs?
The needs of all three areas often align when it comes to the desire for better assessments. A quick formative assessment can give educators insight on which students grasp the material. This has always been a need, but teachers didn’t always have the time to issue quick assessments and grade them all immediately. Digital learning and edtech programs give them a better opportunity to see which students are tracking with the class.
When they do conduct these formative assessments, there should be a clear focus that can be addressed. Tests like these are designed to open the door for future feedback from the teacher to the individual student or the class. Overall, their most pressing need is to develop and quickly grade large volumes of formative assessments while opening the door for future discussion.
How can edtech companies meet these needs?
Edtech companies are already making excellent progress when it comes to meeting the needs of teachers at every level. They are making it simple for teachers to use programs to create documents and quickly grade their assessments. This is essential to opening the door for effective communication between the teacher and the student. Instant feedback for both the student and the teacher can lead to much greater success rates.
However, some edtech companies are also providing in-depth details that can be used to determine who may still be struggling. Educators need to look for assessments that allow them to see the time spent on each question, every click that was made on the screen, and more.
What are the 3 major companies that operate in this space?
When it comes to edtech companies who are already working on assessments, there are a few companies that are really dominating the field. Here are the top three that you should look into first.
- Socrative: Socrative is an easy-to-use program for educators who need to design several types of assessments. You can save and edit them all on your own library. The student answers pop up onto the teacher’s screen in real time to ensure that there is time for instant feedback.
- Edulastic: This platform is filled with thirty different question types so that not all formative assessments have to be the same. You can choose from premade questions and answers in their 20,000-question certified item bank. The highlights are the reports that can be generated to show real-time data, student growth, and standards mastery.
- Quizalize: Turn your formative assessments into a fun game to play as a class or for homework. Teachers can get instant insights into who needs help and who is doing well. Quizalize is a great way to get kids excited to take these assessments and give you the best results.