Pre-Assessment

What is a pre-assessment?

A pre-assessment is an assessment given to students before a new topic or unit begins to test their prior knowledge. Educators use pre-assessments to establish what students know and what they don’t know, then create tailored lesson plans to fill those gaps. Whereas post assessments are graded, pre-assessments are given as ungraded, formative assessments to establish a benchmark for student learning. 

Example: The pre-assessment for this unit—made up of five multiple choice questions and one written response—tested students’ knowledge of key concepts. 

Why are pre-assessments important?

Pre-assessments allow educators and trainers to meet learners where they are. Instructors use pre-assessments to help them personalize the learning experience based on learner knowledge. This saves time by uncovering misconceptions early. It also allows instructors to skip over material learners already know. 

L&D departments use pre-assessments before a new training initiative to help uncover what employees already know and where there are skill gaps. The pre-assessment establishes a baseline to compare with post-assessment results later on. Organizations use this data to measure learning gains against learning objectives, and to measure the effectiveness of their training program. 

Effective pre-assessment strategies in the workplace

Organizations use a variety of pre-assessment strategies to determine what their employees know. Generally, it’s best to keep it short. Instructional designers use microlearning and mobile learning modules to gather quick, relevant pre-assessment data. Many use simple multiple choice and true/false question formats, while others opt for more interactive, engaging assessment techniques. 

With Articulate Rise, instructional design teams can create matching activities, drag-and-drop activities, branching scenarios, and other knowledge checks in just a few clicks. Additionally, Articulate’s AI Course Drafts feature can generate a complete first draft of a course, complete with learning objectives, interactivity, and knowledge checks.