Why Use Formative?
There is a lot of competition in the formative assessment market. There are many software and hardware products that are pitched at K-12 and Higher-Ed instructors for implementing formative assessment in their instruction. Formative has features that set itself apart from others in this market:
Content Banks
Formative offers a public library of assessments prepared by teachers that are shared with all users of the application. This is a growing database of free content, which is available to both users of the free version, and users of the subscription versions.
Live View
The instructor can view the responses of learners as they are working. This allows use for quick polling in-class, or observing the methods that learners are using to solve a problem.
Many possible question types
There are many possible question types, ranging from the expected standard M/C, numeric, short answer, essay or true/false response types, to more sophisticated graphing, show your work (whiteboard or attached image of paperwork) and audio responses.
Embeded multimedia in questions
The instructor can embed audio files, URLs, images, video files, or a white board space into question stems.
Quick and Easy Custom Content
In what one educator described as a "game-changer", instructors can quickly and easily move their existing content (in PDF or Word or Google Docs) into Formative with very little effort.
LMS Integration
Formative will pass grades into learning management systems like Google Classroom, Clever, Canvas, Classlink, and others. It interfaces with several to automatically create assignment tasks in the LMS, from within Formative.
Visualizations of Learners' Progress
Formative provides a quick and easy visual of student success, with colour-coded responses on a class view:
Easy reporting based on standards.
Formative provides a quick and easy visual of student progress in relation to state standards.
Enthusiastic adoption
A study commissioned by Formative, conducted by the non-profit American Institute of Research (Clements, et. al., 2018) showed that for those who tried Formative in their practice,
Formative fit easily into their weekly schedule
Formative is a valuable tool for their classrooms
formative improves students' achievement