This article is a part of our Transforming Assessment for Modern Learning Spaces series.
Author: Tim Palmer, instructional design specialist
Article Contents
Use Cases for Formative Assessment using Virtual Whiteboards
1. Concept Mapping or Flowchart Building
2. Case Study Solution Planning
4. Comparison Diagrams or T-Charts
Formative Assessment in Live Online Courses
Introduction
A Growing Need for Formative Assessment Strategies in Online/Live Online Courses
Navigating today’s increasingly AI-augmented online learning landscape requires a shift in assessment practices. Instructors have traditionally relied heavily on summative assessments: final exams, major papers, and high-stakes projects that serve as a single measure of student achievement. These assessments, while familiar and often easier to administer at scale, are particularly vulnerable to misuse with generative AI tools. Their “one-shot” nature, submitted at the end of a module or term with no scaffolding, can incentivize students to rely on AI assistance to complete assignments with little engagement or reflection.
When assessments are treated as obstacles to overcome rather than opportunities to learn, students are more likely to disengage from the deeper thinking and skill-building that courses intend to cultivate. Summative-only assessment structures can encourage a surface approach to learning, where the priority becomes performance over process.
The solution lies in incorporating formative assessments, which are activities designed to check understanding, provide feedback, and surface learning in progress. These low-stakes, timely assessments offer both students and instructors insight into how well students are absorbing material and how their skills are developing relative to course-level Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs). Formative assessments also support metacognitive reflection, allowing students to monitor their own learning and make informed decisions about how to improve. Moreover, formative assessments are harder to outsource or automate, particularly when they ask students to articulate, visualize, or collaboratively build their ideas in real time.
In both asynchronous and live online learning environments, it can be difficult to observe students’ thinking and reasoning as it develops. This is where virtual whiteboarding tools like Lucidspark and Lucidchart become especially powerful. These tools create space for formative assessments in which students externalize their ideas, collaborate visually, and demonstrate understanding through real-time or asynchronous interactions.
Use Cases for Formative Assessment using Virtual Whiteboards
Below are several examples of how Lucid tools can be used to create meaningful, process-oriented formative assessments. These activities are adaptable across classroom types, but are particularly effective in online and live online formats where opportunities to connect with and assess students more deeply are often limited.
1. Concept Mapping or Flowchart Building
Rationale: Encouraging students to visualize systems, relationships, or sequences fosters deeper understanding and reveals how students structure and connect ideas. It shifts focus from memorization to integration, a hallmark of authentic assessment.
- Activity: Students use Lucidspark or Lucidchart to create a concept map or process flowchart based on course content (e.g., how a policy is implemented, stages in a lifecycle, a decision tree). Consider providing a partially completed map or labeled nodes for scaffolding. You can create a template to deploy in your course; read Start with a Template (Lucid).
- Formative Insight: The instructor sees how students prioritize concepts, make connections, and interpret relationships, thereby surfacing potential misconceptions or gaps.
- Assessment: Offer feedback through comments or a short reflection prompt asking students to explain one part of their map and how it connects to course outcomes. In a live online setting, model a sample map and use breakout rooms for student application. Offer feedback through comments or a short reflection prompt asking students to explain one part of their map and how it connects to course outcomes.
2. Case Study Solution Planning
Rationale: Presenting students with real-world problems and asking them to work through potential solutions simulates professional tasks and helps assess applied critical thinking.
- Activity: Post a scenario on a shared board. In groups or individually, students identify the key issue, propose a solution, and justify their approach using sticky notes, visuals, or grouped elements. Use color-coded sticky notes for problem identification, supporting evidence, and proposed solutions.
- Formative Insight: Instructors can evaluate how students frame problems, apply course principles, and navigate ambiguity.
- Assessment: Use a rubric focused on process (e.g., problem framing, logic of reasoning, use of evidence). Optionally, ask students to revise their boards after receiving peer feedback. In live online sessions, run this activity in breakout rooms with a class-wide debrief afterward. Use a rubric focused on process (e.g., problem framing, logic of reasoning, use of evidence). Optionally, ask students to revise their boards after receiving peer feedback.
3. Visual Exit Tickets
Rationale: Replacing traditional written exit tickets with visual summaries promotes creativity and deeper processing. It helps instructors gauge what resonated with students and what requires clarification.
- Activity: At the end of a module, students select or draw a symbol or image that represents what they learned, place it on a Lucidspark board, and label it with a brief rationale. Offer rotating creative prompts (e.g., "Draw your takeaway as a journey or landscape") to maintain engagement.
- Formative Insight: Instructors gain a snapshot of students' conceptual takeaways and emotional reactions to the material.
- Assessment: Use a quick review to identify patterns (what’s sticking, what’s missing) and respond in a follow-up video or announcement. Asynchronously, allow students to post voice notes or video reflections along with their visuals. Use a quick review to identify patterns (what’s sticking, what’s missing) and respond in a follow-up video or announcement.
4. Comparison Diagrams or T-Charts
Rationale: Encouraging students to compare models, theories, or approaches sharpens analytical skills and prompts students to articulate subtle distinctions.
- Activity: Provide a blank chart or Venn diagram on Lucidchart. Students compare two course concepts and annotate their comparisons with examples. Ask them to tag each section with labels referencing relevant SLOs.
- Formative Insight: This reveals student reasoning, especially how they understand nuance and apply theory to practice.
- Assessment: Instructors can ask students to comment on a peer’s chart and explain where their interpretation differs or aligns. In a live session, build a master diagram together, assigning each group one dimension or comparison. Instructors can ask students to comment on a peer’s chart and explain where their interpretation differs or aligns.
5. Team Brainstorming Boards
Rationale: Collaborative ideation mirrors workplace practices and allows instructors to see how students co-construct knowledge. This activity supports social learning and engagement in asynchronous environments.
- Activity: Assign small groups a prompt or challenge and have them brainstorm solutions or project ideas in Lucidspark using sticky notes, drawings, or categories. Use @mentions or colored notes to identify contributors.
- Formative Insight: Tracks group dynamics, engagement levels, and ideation patterns.
- Assessment: Instructors can review contributions using revision history and ask each group to submit a summary reflection describing their process and decisions. Later, have students return to the board to annotate how their ideas changed based on peer feedback or new learning. Instructors can review contributions using revision history and ask each group to submit a summary reflection describing their process and decisions.
Formative Assessment in Live Online Courses
In Live Online (Zoom-based) courses, instructors can further enhance these activities by integrating Lucidspark in real-time. By sharing a Lucidspark board during a Zoom session, instructors can lead several different types of engaging activities to measure student understanding.
- Facilitate live group brainstorming or decision-making tasks using breakout rooms.
- Use the board as a collaborative note-taking space that evolves throughout a discussion.
- Observe how students think through problems by tracking sticky note trails or diagram changes.
- Embed quick concept-check activities such as matching terms or organizing process steps collaboratively.
Lucid tools also support anonymous contributions, which can encourage participation from students who are hesitant to speak. This real-time collaboration allows instructors to assess comprehension, redirect misconceptions, and keep students engaged with the material while it is being introduced or reviewed. By visualizing thought processes, instructors can provide timely, constructive feedback, make informed instructional decisions, and reduce overreliance on traditional assessments that are vulnerable to misuse. In doing so, educators promote critical thinking, self-awareness, and real-world skill development in the digital classroom.
Related Resources
Lucid Basics: Learn how to use the different features of our Lucid products, Lucidspark and Lucidchart.
How to Connect and use Lucidchart and Lucidspark in your Course (Instructors)
Lucidspark and Lucidchart for Students
Transforming Assessment for Modern Learning Spaces