The efficacy of a World-Wide Web mediated formative assessment

Two studies evaluated the effectiveness of a WWW-based formative assessment pack:age used ire undergraduate psychology courses. Students taking on-lin e multiple-choice tests received instant feedback on areas of weakness and how to address them. In Study 1, students used the package as an integral p art of their course syllabus. Level of use correlated with performance in t he end-of-course summative assessment. In Study 2, the package was used as an 'optional extra'. Both studies found that students who used the package performed better than those who did not. Such systems may be useful learnin g tools which students may use to enhance performance.