--- title: "Do I want to use a survey or an assessment?" isPublished: true --- # Do I want to use a survey or an assessment? Surveys and assessments are both means to ask questions of a user. ## Surveys Surveys are questionnaires to ask for opinions. They allow the user to evaluate an instructor, a class, a building, etc. and there is not an expectation of one correct answer. ## Assessments Assessments are used to determine the user's comprehension of materials; it is a test or exam with correct and incorrect answers. Assessment is used to refer to tools educators use to evaluate, measure, and report on the educational needs, learning progress, or skill acquisition of students. An assessment is a tool allowing us to take a look at how much a student currently understands of a topic. You can use assessments to measure the progress a student has made on a topic. And you can use assessments to evaluate skills the student needs to learn or acquire. ### Different ways you may use an assessment **To evaluate educational needs** You may want to evaluate students before registering them for a class to evaluate if the class is the right level for them. Having students who do not have the skills needed for a class and having students that are too advanced for a class can cause everyone frustration. **Measure learning progress** You can compare students' learning progress by using the same assessment at the beginning and end of a course, module, or topic. This measures the skills students have acquired during training, and demostrates the value of the course. You may set up assessments following a segments in a course or at the very end of a course to measure how their learning and comprehension. **Report** Assessments are valuable tools to use when you need to report back to an employer or program showing that the student(s) is competent in the subject matter of the course.