Formative assessment is a method that essentially increases the frequency with which students receive feedback , and it is being used more often in higher education. About 80% of students in introductory undergraduate biology courses perceived that use of formative assessments had a positive influence on their learning, and roughly one-third of such students perceived that it specifically improved their learning . In the courses examined in this study, multiple mechanisms were used to facilitate frequent feedback to students, e.g., regular group work during which instructor feedback routinely followed in-class activities, and multistage assessments on which students received individualized comments, the majority of which were not judgments of correctness but rather involved use of inquiry, e.g., asking students how they can improve specific aspects of their work. Such practices may explain why students here perceived instructor feedback as highly influential on their learning. It would be of further interest to know why students perceived asynchronous remote discussion as least influential on their learning. One possible explanation is that asynchronous activities preclude the possibility for real-time instructor feedback. Given the challenges the global pandemic has posed for education, in addition to the increasing popularity of massive open online courses (MOOCs) that use asynchronous learning approaches, this data suggests caution for educators around the use of asynchronous methods while highlighting the importance of synchronous ones.