Formative and Summative Instructional Design Evaluation

Evaluation methodologies in the context of instructional design, which is the case in the siLang project, are normally divided into two broad categories: formative and summative:


 * Formative evaluation in the context of instructional design, often referred to as internal evaluation, refers to designing processes and methods for validating the value of an instructional program in progress. It further aims at examining the delivery of an instructional program, the quality of its implementation, and the organizational context. Tucker (1975) defines formative evaluation as a “judgment of the strengths and weaknesses of instruction in its developing stages, for purposes of revising the instruction to improve its effectiveness and appeal”. He further states that formative evaluation can be “a cost-saving measure to economically debug instruction”. In addition, Formative evaluation focuses on the process since it provides the opportunity to designers, learners, and instructors to monitor if and how well the instructional goals and objectives are being met by analyzing strengths and weaknesses and by uncovering either unexpected obstacles or opportunities.


 * Summative evaluation in the context of instructional design, often referred to as external, is a method of monitoring and summarizing the value of an instructional program upon completion of the program activities, namely upon summation of the program. Based on its nature, it can be argued that summative evaluation focused on the delivered outcome. Often referred to also as “summative assessment”, it implies the assessment of the learning procedure and reflects the cognitive development of learners at a particular time. It helps evaluate either the overall success of student performance or the instructional methodology and the effectiveness of educational tools. This type of evaluation usually is executed through the deployment of forms, check lists, and occasionally narratives.

Formative vs Summative

Scriven (1975) first suggested a distinction between formative evaluation and summative evaluation when describing their main objective and function. According to Scriven (1975), formative evaluation aims to foster development and improvement within an ongoing activity, for example the development of a product, the design of an instructional program, etc. Summative evaluation, in contrast, is used to assess whether the results of the object being evaluated met the stated goals. Saettler distinguishes the two types of evaluation as follows: 1) formative evaluation is used to refine goals and evolve strategies for achieving goals, while 2) summative evaluation is undertaken to test the validity of a theory or determine the impact of an educational practice so that future efforts may be improved or modified.

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