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Asessment in Higher Education – A study conducted at SEEUbe corrected and improved. At the same time alternative assessment are a great helpfor the teachers who will better design instruction.Formative assessmentFormative assessment is part of the instructional process. When incorporatedinto classroom practice, it provides the information needed to adjust teaching andlearning while they are happening. In this sense, formative assessment informsboth teachers and students about student understanding at a point when timelyadjustments can be made (Garrison and Ehringhaus, 2007, para.4). They furtherstate that, another feature of this type of assessment is that it involves the students aswell. If students are not involved in the assessment process, formative assessment isnot practiced or implemented to its full effectiveness. Formative assessment providesongoing feedback to teachers and students. The assessment provides information onprogress, and identifies and addresses areas that require further development.Summative assessmentSummative assessments are given periodically to determine at a particular point intime what students know and do not know (Garrison and Ehringhaus, 2007, para.2).Some examples of summative assessment are: state assessments, end-of-unit tests,chapter tests, mid-terms or final exams, etc. This type of assessment can also beused to evaluate school curriculum, student placement in different programs, etc.Recent studiesCarrillo-de-la-Pena and Perez (2010) conducted a study at a Spanish university,in the course of three consecutive academic years. There were two groups of thestudents involved: students under continuous assessment (the experimentalgroup) were compared with those of students under traditional assessment (thecontrol group). Total number of the participants was 903. The aim of the studywas to investigate the student progress which was assessed from the first-term tothe second-term evaluations in the experimental and control groups. The resultsof the study show that there positive impact of continuous assessment on allindices of academic outcomes considered. In addition, responses to a self-reportquestionnaire revealed that continuous assessment improved students’ satisfactionand was perceived by students as a procedure that promotes deeper learning.Another study was conducted by Sharifi & Hassaskhah (2011). They focusedon investigating the effect of using portfolio assessment technique and reflectionactivities on students’ writings. A quasi-experimental design was followed in thisstudy, which included a class of 20 students at Shahid Sattari Air University ofIran, for a term five pretests and five posttests were conducted. A set of pairedsamplet tests was run to compare the students’ tests and with this to see how much49Volume 1 - Number 1 - 2013