Product Overview of Formative
Formative is a comprehensive educational platform designed to enhance teaching and learning by providing a robust set of tools for creating, assigning, and assessing educational content. Here’s a detailed look at what the product does and its key features.
What Formative Does
Formative allows teachers to create and assign various types of educational content, including quizzes, tests, homework, bell ringers, lessons, and essays. The platform supports both in-person and remote learning, facilitating real-time interaction and feedback between teachers and students. It aims to improve student engagement, track progress, and provide actionable insights to inform instruction.
Key Features and Functionality
Real-Time Feedback and Assessment
- Formative enables real-time feedback, allowing teachers to see student responses as they work on assignments. This feature helps in identifying areas where students are struggling and provides immediate support.
Auto-Grading and Scoring
- The platform includes auto-grading capabilities, which save teachers time and ensure accurate scoring. Features like partial credit scoring and the ability to add to the answer key while grading enhance the accuracy of auto-grading.
Student Growth Tracking
- Formative offers tools to track student growth over time, tied to specific standards. Students can access their personal progress trackers to see their improvement.
Collaboration and Assignment Settings
- Teachers can assign formatives to individual students or groups, set time limits, and schedule open/closed times for assignments. The platform also supports batch scoring and feedback, making it easier to manage large classes.
Enhanced Question Types and Feedback
- Formative allows teachers to add a “Show Your Work” canvas to any question type, enabling students to demonstrate their thought process. Teachers can draw feedback on submitted responses and create rubrics for open-ended questions.
Integration and Data Export
- The platform integrates with Google Classroom, allowing scores to be passed back seamlessly. Teachers can export unlimited formative data and view student responses in various formats, including summary charts and frequency charts.
Class Management and Differentiation
- Formative offers improved class management features, such as the ability to display each item as a separate page to increase student focus. Teachers can also use student release groups to differentiate pacing for live synchronous activities.
Video and Multimedia Support
- Teachers can upload or embed videos and link questions to specific timestamps, enhancing multimedia-based learning experiences.
Privacy and Security
- The platform ensures student privacy by preventing students from accessing other students’ work or sending messages to peers. All interactions between teachers and students are secure and private.
AI-Generated Content
- Formative has introduced AI generation tools to help teachers create questions quickly, which can be easily edited to suit classroom needs. This feature is particularly useful for saving time and enhancing the creation of formatives.
Summary
Formative is a powerful educational tool that streamlines the process of creating, assigning, and assessing educational content. With its real-time feedback, auto-grading, student growth tracking, and enhanced collaboration features, it provides teachers with the tools they need to support student learning effectively. Whether teaching in person, remotely, or in a hybrid setting, Formative offers a comprehensive solution to enhance teaching and learning outcomes.