Module 3: Socrative
Socrative is an educational formative assessment tool. It is based on the prior development of questions, either by students or teachers, and offers three types of questions: short answer questions (open-ended), multiple choice, or true/false answers. To use it, students only have to use a device (computer, tablet, or mobile phone) and the code provided by the teacher to access the task, without the need to log in.
The great feature of Socrative is that the teacher can enter written feedback that will appear when answering the question, whether it is a success or a failure. This automatically provides immediate feedback to students, which can help them understand why their answer was wrong, for example.
This tool offers several ways of introducing the tool in the classroom:
"Test" or "Quiz": this is the best mode for learning (in our view). It is the simplest.
"Space race": this is the same as the quiz with the only difference being that it has a more competitive connotation and is related to gamification. Each student or team (each device) has a color associated with it and the teacher can project a race that is won by those who get the most questions right.
"Exit tickets" are an effective way to gather end-of-class feedback, allowing students to demonstrate what they've learned and for teachers to be sure that all teaching objectives were met.
Let's take a practical example, with pedagogical recommendations, of how to use Socrative:
The first thing to do is to think about the activity and the questions to be included (short answer, multiple choice, or true/false questions). Once the activity has been designed, we must specify how we want it to be developed when it is launched in the classroom, the app offers us three possible ways:
Student-guided: immediate results (and feedback if included by the teacher) are provided when answering each question (recommended option). The student does the activity at his/her own pace.
Student-guided (student navigation): Students will answer all questions and see the answers at the end (not so recommended). The student does the activity at their own pace.
Teacher-led: Where the teacher chooses which question they will answer.
In all these modes, the teacher can choose to randomize the order in which the questions appear to each student (or group of students). If the questions are in a particular order, it is best not to tick this option. On the other hand, if there is no problem in having them answered in a random order, this is a great option so that students are not attentive to listening to other pairs, for example, while debating which answer is correct.
Once designed and decided how we want to use the app, students or test participants must access the link "student login" and insert the code automatically assigned to that room. They can then start answering.
While they are answering, the teacher can see in real-time how many questions they have answered and whether they have got them right or not. This makes it possible to check if a student needs to be working or, on the contrary, if another student has answered too quickly without paying attention to the questions. Also, the report can be obtained at any time afterward (even days or weeks after the activity).
Practical recommendations from Socrative:
Socrative is a tool with many possibilities for formative assessment because through it we can dissociate grading from assessment, trying to analyze and monitor where our students are in their learning process, to emphasize the skills or content that we believe they need to improve or review. Socrative increases its formative power when students receive instant feedback on the questions, they are asked so that they can observe their mistakes in a clear way that is not distanced in time.
A pedagogical action that can be useful for both academic performance and learning is to perform different tests spaced over time to make students evoke content they have already seen and link it to the new content being taught. This is what we refer to as retrieval practice. This method is very effective when teachers propose different tests that involve small grades, promoting academic performance, and learning and serving to identify where the learning needs are and what needs to be reviewed. For further information visit https://www.kirschnered.nl/2022/01/17/the-6-benefits-of-retrieval-practice-a-visual-guide/
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