Assessment: Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) and Informal Student Feedback

CATs and other informal student feedback techniques are formative assessment methods that help an instructor monitor learning throughout the semester. They answer questions such as "Was my teaching effective?" or "What is still confusing students?" or “How can I improve the teaching and learning in this course?” Informal feedback techniques are especially useful for providing information for improvement when appropriate learning is not occurring.

"Classroom Assessment Techniques," Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross. From Classroom Assessment Techniques, A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd edition, Jossey-Bass, 1993.
This introduction to CATs focuses on their characteristics plus suggestions for those just starting to use them.
Link: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/assess-1.htm

"Do You Know Where Your Students Are? Classroom Assessment and Student Learning." Speaking of Teaching, Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching, Winter 1993, Vol. 4, No. 2. PDF/Adobe Acrobat.
A discussion of the need for student feedback on learning plus strategies for achieving this.
Link: http://ctl.stanford.edu/Newsletter/do_you_know.pdf

"Classroom Assessment Techniques Examples," Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross. From Classroom Assessment Techniques, A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd edition, Jossey-Bass, 1993.
Five CATs are described with step-by-step procedures for administering them.
Link: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/assess-2.htm

Sample Classroom Assessment Techniques (Indiana University-Bloomington, Campus Instructional Consulting).
Descriptions of eight commonly used CATs, including what to do with the data for each.
Link: http://www.iub.edu/~teaching/ourservices/assess/samplecats.shtml

Classroom Assessment Techniques (Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville).
This page is an index to numerous examples of CATs and other assessment techniques such as a rubric for assessment of group work and a discussion of grading students. Click on an item to open a web page with complete instructions for the CAT and examples.
Link: http://www.siue.edu/~deder/assess/cats/grstandi.html

Field-tested Learning Assessment Guide (FLAG) for science, math, engineering, and technology instructors (National Institute for Science Education).
Click on "Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)" to find extremely thorough instructional modules for many CATs useful in the sciences as well as other disciplines. Click on "Matching Goals to CATs" to find appropriate CATs for your own course goals.
Link: http://www.flaguide.org/

A Handbook for Student Management Teams, Edward Nuhfer (Idaho State University, Center for Teaching and Learning).
The complete manual for using Student Management Teams (SMTs), a classroom strategy in which a team of students from the class meets regularly throughout the semester both with and without the professor “to discuss how teaching and learning might be improved and to define positive actions that will help reap immediate and long-term benefits.”
Link: http://www.isu.edu/ctl/facultydev/webhandbook/smt.htm