As we continue to provide feedback to each other, I am very aware of time as a factor in formative assessment. Some of the feedback I have received has been done in a timely manner, allowing me to make changes while I am in the early stages of designing my e-Portfolio. Other feedback on early work has come much later when my e-Portfolio is almost finished, making it much less effective. For my own purposes, there were no major changes required so the effect is minimal. However, I can see that if the structure or framework of a particular product needed major work, receiving feedback when the work is almost finished would be quite devastating to a person and require an enormous amount of extra work.
As a teacher, I need to carefully consider not only what I am assessing, but the purpose of assessment as well. Formative assessment allows changes to be made in process and is therefore tied to a time frame. This is not to say that timeliness does not matter for summative assessment. Summative assessment reveals knowledge gaps and as such it is critical to have that feedback as-soon-as-possible in order for both the student and teacher to understand where there are gaps in knowledge. This understanding can then be turned into learning opportunities that occur in a timely manner. The danger of late summative feedback is that it may no longer be relevant because the teacher and learners have moved on to another area of learning.
As a teacher, I need to carefully consider not only what I am assessing, but the purpose of assessment as well. Formative assessment allows changes to be made in process and is therefore tied to a time frame. This is not to say that timeliness does not matter for summative assessment. Summative assessment reveals knowledge gaps and as such it is critical to have that feedback as-soon-as-possible in order for both the student and teacher to understand where there are gaps in knowledge. This understanding can then be turned into learning opportunities that occur in a timely manner. The danger of late summative feedback is that it may no longer be relevant because the teacher and learners have moved on to another area of learning.