Which term refers to the assessment occurring during a unit or course?

The term that refers to the assessment occurring during a unit or course is formative assessment. This type of assessment is designed to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to enhance their learning. Formative assessments can take various forms, such as quizzes, discussions, or informal observations, and are typically administered throughout the instructional process rather than at the end.

The key purpose of formative assessments is to gather insights into how students are progressing with the material, allowing for adjustments in instruction as needed to better meet the students' learning needs. This is different from summative assessment, which occurs at the end of a unit or course to evaluate overall student learning. Diagnostic assessment is conducted before instruction begins to assess students' prior knowledge and skills, while criterion-referenced testing measures student performance against a specific set of standards or criteria, usually at a single point in time.