Four assessment tools you'll flip over.

"White Men by David Reeves"

The "flipped classroom" is a way of describing instructional methods that invert the traditional model of learning where the teacher dispenses content to her or his students during lessons and then sends them on their way to complete problems and meaning-making at home.

In flipped instruction, students front-load the content outside of lessons, typically using technology like video or interactive modules prepared by their teachers, and then participate in problem-solving and other consolidation activities during face-to-face time with the teacher.

The topic has been written about a lot lately as the lightning rod for the movement, Khan Academy, have certainly raised the profile of this style of learning some people think for the better, others for worse. No matter what you think about flipped instruction, the movement has resulted in a new crop of assessment tools for teachers so that they can collect data (which is critical in a flipped classroom) on student's understanding as they are learning and I'll highlight a few here.

Quizlet is a flash-card based tool that lets teachers and students create sets of cards and then quiz in a variety of ways. Teachers can set up groups where they can keep track of the progress of students. The site also has social media features where members of Quizlet can upload their sets of cards and find those uploaded by others.

See more videos from Quizlet on Vimeo or check out the teacher page.


Brain Genie is an environment that contain video learning modules for Math and Science. Teachers can set-up their classes and set goals for the students. After each module, students can check their progress by answering questions related to the content. Their progress is tracked and is then monitored by the teacher so they can pinpoint areas requiring further support for their students.

Class Dojo is a little different than all the rest of these as this site allows a teacher to easily leave formative feedback on behaviors for each student they set-up in their class. Each student is displayed as an avatar and you can set-up a customized list of behavioral criteria in two categories, positive (participating in discussion, helpful, organized, on task, etc) and negative (late, homework not done, disruptive, off task, etc).


From your laptop or any mobile device, you can see your class, and simply tap on a student avatar to leave some feedback. All the feedback is logged for the students and kept as an "overall performance" rating based on how many positive VS negative ratings they get.

Reports are easily generated and stored as PDF or emailed direct to parents.

Socrative allows you to set-up instant feedback from your students on questions that you present orally, write on the board, or present to them via the electronic quizzing function. The students log in to the teacher's online "room" using their secret number and once there wait for the teacher to ask a question. They can respond on any device with an internet connection such as a smartphone, iPod, tablet, or laptop computer. The teacher's interface displays a live record of the responses and with the quiz function, keeps a report that the teacher can use as an assessment grade.


Socrative introduction video (new) from Socrative Inc. on Vimeo

Quizzes are available from sources already made like these from the Times Educational Supplement for GCSE Science. Quizzes can also be set up by a teacher either in Socrative or using an Excel template.
Once created quizzes are easily shared between people simply by using a code that goes along with the quiz.

Socrative also has a "space race" game where individuals or teams of students can race against each other as they answer questions correctly. Another nice feature is the "Exit Ticket" that asks students to reflect on their learning for the day. The teacher can see the report and get a sense on how the students are feeling after the lesson so they can plan to follow up with those who are less confident about their learning.

So, whether you decide the "flip" is for you, these tools can make it easier for you to provide meaningful feedback to students more frequently and with less effort grading allowing you to target students for support.