Whatever the format of your class, checks for understanding (CFU) are a valuable instructional tool for providing actionable feedback on students’ progress toward learning. CFU are short formative assessments designed to be low stakes and frequent. They provide instructors with evidence of what students know and can do. The difference between CFU and other formative assessments, is that they are:
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Timely—directly following the concept taught and one that you plan to assess. Some CFU can be one question, some might be a short activity.
Immediately Acted Upon—feedback is provided immediately or as close to immediately as possible. LSA has a number of tools that make it feasible to provide immediate feedback, even in large courses, including Canvas quizzes with feedback comments already entered.
Low stakes—The key to a successful CFU is that students participate because they are motivated by desire to improve their skills, not motivated by a grade. If the CFU is too high stakes, students will not respond positively because they have not had adequate time to master the material.
Instructors can use the results of CFUs to inform instruction, for example to plan reviews of learned material, or to identify students in need of individualized support. Students benefit from CFU by getting a regular snapshot of their current knowledge and skills. This frequent feedback makes learning visible to students, allowing them to identify gaps in their understanding in time to make necessary shifts in their study.
Integrating CFU into your lessons also ensures learning is active. CFU require students to show their understanding or to use a new skill. This takes students out of the passive role of listening or reading and puts them in the position of showing their learning in active modes such as speaking and writing.
To use CFU most effectively, first identify learning goals for each lesson. Pay particular attention to difficult concepts that you know from experience students will struggle with. Once those concepts are clearly outlined, design informal check in questions, mock exam questions, or low stakes in class activities that will provide observable evidence of conceptual understanding for each one. If you are considering changing your assessment style from multiple-choice exams to some other mode, such as open-book exams or project-based assessments, you already have a set of CFU created in those exam questions!
Some additional examples of CFU are included in the table below.
Thumbs up / thumbs down |
Ask students to self-assess their understanding using hand signals: thumb up if you understand, thumb down if not. Use this quick and easy feedback to determine whether you should continue instruction or review material. |
Post it up |
To gather student responses quickly during instruction, ask students to respond to a question on a sticky note and post it somewhere in the room. For larger classes, you can use Padlet, a virtual sticky board. |
Show Me |
Like Post it Up, Show Me asks students to answer a question during class time and show their responses on a whiteboard. You can use mini white boards, classroom whiteboards, or a virtual whiteboard, like Jamboard. |
Choose it |
This CFU attempts to uncover student misconceptions. The instructor presents a statement and asks students to choose the correct response. Popular question types are true/false and agree/disagree. Responses can be gathered in class by cold calling, having students share out in small groups or pairs, or using polling tools like Zoom polls (remote) or iClicker (live and remote). |
Exit Quiz |
To check students' understanding of material covered during class, design a mini quiz for students to complete at the end of class. This should be low stakes, as the purpose is to help you identify concepts for later review. Consider creating an ungraded quiz in Canvas with unlimited attempts. |
One Minute Paper |
Similar to the Exit Quiz, the one minute paper is an opportunity to assess student understanding of a key concept or give students time to ask questions. You can use pen and paper for this exercise or virtual tools like Google Forms and Canvas. |
Picture It |
Ask students to create a visual representation of a learned concept. They can draw a picture or concept map to show their understanding. In addition to pen and paper options, there are many free electronic applications students can use to create concept maps such as Bubbl.us, Lucidchart for Google, Coggle, CMap, or MindMaple. Once completed, you can also ask students to complete a gallery walk of all visuals. |
Troubleshoot It |
Give students common incorrect responses to questions and ask them to correct the error and explain their answer. This is a great activity for students to complete in pairs or small groups. |
Summarize it |
Asking students to write a summary of a learned concept helps learners identify gaps in their own understanding. Doing this in class allows the instructor to address learning gaps before moving on. You can collect summaries in a variety of ways. Post it notes, shared google doc, discussion board post, or external chat tools. |
Turn and Talk |
Ask students to orally summarize, explain, or clarify a new concept. Students can turn to the student next to them or, in a virtual environment, you can send students to Zoom breakout rooms. |
Think, Write, Pair, Share |
This is similar to Turn and Talk, but this activity provides students with more intentional processing time. Before students pair up to discuss a discussion prompt or share an answer, they write their response down. This method provides scaffolding for students who find it difficult to express themselves when speaking. |
Required Office Hours |
While you can use office hours to check in on student understanding of course material, requiring students to attend office hours as a class activity is a great way to check their understanding of large assignment/assessment expectations and to make sure your perception of a student’s performance is accurate. |
Mini Class Presentation |
Normally, class presentations would be a graded assignment, but when used as a CFU, it becomes an opportunity for students to apply what was learned and attempt to explain it. The presentations can be quick, with or without supporting materials and given by an individual student or small groups. |
Homework |
Homework is also a tool to allow students processing time and a way to discover gaps in understanding. For this reason, it is important to provide timely feedback. You can use online grading tools like Gradescope, Speedgrader, and Canvas quizzes to help with grading. |
If you would like to discuss how to use CFU most effectively in your course, or have any other course design issues you’d like to speak with someone about, please feel free to reach out to the [email protected] or request a consultation here.
Resources
https://www.marshall.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Check-for-Understanding.pdf
https://www.edutopia.org/article/8-quick-checks-understanding
