Formative assessment at the college level

Before each class, Neiser sends the 60 students in his two sections of introductory physics two "warm up questions" to help them think through the concepts covered in the reading for that day's class. He also has an open-ended question that lets them raise further points they were curious about. These are low-pressure assignments - if they do a bunch over the term, they get a discount on the final. The grading is on a simple scale, and is based not on the correctness of the response but on how well they engaged the material. The J-I-T element comes in the hard part for the professor: he reads all of these responses before each class, and adjusts his teaching accordingly. The students' responses let him know if there are common misconceptions or pressing questions.

That's from the Gruntled Center, with more on how Professor Neiser's classes at Centre College are changed by this intensive effort to understand and then change student performance here. It's the same classroom concept as the P-12 formative concept, accelerated through technology, and being propagated through collegial discussion. And, once again, it's a concept that works.