We at Teq are huge fans of classrooms using mobile assessment instead of paper tests and quizzes—they increase engagement, allow for students to receive feedback when they need it, and best of all, saves teachers the time they would have used grading papers and generating data!  With this in mind, many companies have come up with their own forms of mobile assessment designed explicitly for the classroom. There are now more free tools for teachers than ever before: SMART Response, Socrative, Nutmeg, and many more.

However, not every form of mobile assessment  is appropriate for every school. Each one has a slightly different set of functions, and requires a certain amount or type of preparation to use properly. This can be confusing for teachers new to the mobile assessment world, so to help out, we’ve compiled a short list of questions every school considering going mobile should consider:

1. What kind of hardware does your school have available?

I always prefer to have hardware dedicated especially to school functions. Having the platforms separate from other technology limits distractions and is easier to guarantee that every student will have a device when needed if the devices are coming from the school. This is one of the major appeals of the SMART Response system for me: a complete set of reusable handsets created especially for the purpose of mobile assessment.
If that is not available, however, there are other options. Schools with iPad carts or computer labs can make equal use of a wide variety of mobile platforms. Just be sure that the platform you select is compatible with your hardware!

2. What kind of hardware can your students provide for the classroom?

A student population with ready technology can, with the right structures in place, fill in gaps in a school’s limited technology budget. Many mobileassessment platforms, like Socrative, Nearpod and Nutmeg, come in the form of free apps that can be downloaded onto any Apple device. These apps often allow the teacher direct control of when the assessment is taken. Other platforms can allow you to take advantage of students’ home computers or a flipped classroom and allow students more choice by setting an assessment to be open for a certain time window. One such platform is Nutmeg Education, which allows you to place an assessment up and take it down at specific deadlines.

3. Do your teachers have their own assessments and systems already, or will they need help to create them fresh?

Most mobile assessment platforms will allow teachers to import their own tests and quizzes. For them all that good work on paper doesn’t have to be redone, so much as reformatted, which is pretty easy. In addition, some platforms will provide banks of Common Core-based questions that teachers can use to build new assessments.  Nutmeg Education is my flagship example of such a platform. The question bank here is huge, and allows you to build Common Core-aligned tests without even leaving the platform.As far as systems, my primary focus will be on ways to identify the students taking the assessments. Some systems, such as Nutmeg or Infuse, allow you to assign students private ID codes. Other platforms will require a certain amount of legwork to ensure you know which students took the assessment, and what grades they’ve gotten. For example, the only logins for Infuse Learning and Socrative require the classroom’s ID and their name. These can be a big time-saver for organized teachers, or schools that already have an ID system in place. In the wrong situation, though, this can be dangerous—after all, what if a student puts in the wrong name, or grabs someone else’s handset?

4. What kind of questions/assessments do you want the platform to provide/grade?

Multiple-choice questions are practically made for mobile assessment; I haven’t found a platform yet that will not support them. However, beyond that, you find some questions that need answering. Want a platform that will help you grade short-answer or fill-in-the-blank questions? Try Nutmeg or the SMART Response System. Want to ask such questions, but grade them for yourself? You won’t have to worry about it with Socrative. Want options for questions that require sorting or drawing? Infuse Learning might be ideal.  Want to make Quick Checks or Exit Tickets on the fly? Infuse or Socrative is a great place to look. We have a short table below that you can use to help summarize this kind of information:

5. What kind of data do you want your mobile assessment platform to provide?

Most mobile assessment platforms will provide a certain amount of data: The overall grade, and which problems each individual got correct or incorrect. Again, beyond this is where the questions arise.Want your students to receive instant feedback on their work? Socrative and Nutmeg Education have functions that allow that.  In contrast, Nearpod’s platform allows you to combine your lesson with your quiz, to streamline the transition between the two and help students apply their thoughts.Want a platform that can help you pick out the most difficult topics for your students? Most platforms will provide a quick look at whole-class data in easy visual formats (for example, Socrative will show them in a color-coded spreadsheet).  The SMART Response system will even go a step further, allowing you to break down the quiz itself by the number of students who got each question correct. Once again, we’ve summarized some of the possibilities in a table:

Individual schools may have other concerns, but we’ve found that this short list can help narrow down the pool of mobile assessment candidates quickly. By asking them, you can find the platform that will fit your school’s needs, and make the transition easier for teachers, principals, and above all the students. We also have  guidebooks at this location and this location that may help you further in your search. However, don’t limit yourself to just the platforms in this post. There are many more options out there, and it’s only a matter of time before you find the tool that’s ideal for you!