Making Learning Visible: Assessment and Feedback

By Natalie Tubman, CommBox Head of Customer (NZ)

In earlier weeks, we explored setup, collaboration, and inclusion. This week focuses on assessment and feedback and how interactive displays help teachers see learning as it happens.

Assessment does not always need to be formal or time consuming. Often, the most powerful insights come from observing how students think, explain, and respond during learning.

Making thinking visible

Interactive displays give teachers a window into student thinking. When students work at the board, explain their reasoning, or annotate shared content, teachers can quickly identify understanding, misconceptions, and next steps.

This supports formative assessment that happens naturally within the lesson rather than after it.

Using the screen for real time feedback

The interactive display allows teachers to respond immediately. Teachers can highlight strong examples, model corrections, or ask guiding questions directly on the screen.

This feedback is visible to the whole class, which supports collective learning. Students learn not only from their own work but from seeing others think through problems.

Practical assessment routines

Here are a few simple routines that work well with interactive displays.

• Worked example review

  • A student completes a task on the board. The class discusses what worked and what could be improved. The teacher annotates in real time.

• Exit thinking

  • Students add a short response to the board before leaving. This might be a key idea, a question, or a confidence rating.

• Group solution comparison

• Different groups present their approach to the same task. The class compares strategies rather than just answers.

  
  

These routines help teachers gather meaningful information quickly and adjust teaching accordingly.

Saving evidence of learning

The CommBox Classic S5 allows teachers to save whiteboards and annotated work as digital files. This creates a record of learning that can be revisited by students, shared with whānau, or used for reflection.

For students, seeing their learning captured and valued builds confidence and ownership.

Supporting student feedback skills

Interactive displays also help students learn how to give and receive feedback. When feedback is modelled visually and discussed openly, students develop language for improvement and reflection.

This builds a classroom culture where feedback is part of learning, not something to be feared.

Next week

We will look at how Collaboration Enabled Classrooms can be scaled across a school, supporting consistency, professional learning, and shared practice.