Online quizzes and learning platforms provided by textbook publishers have become common components of undergraduate education. Here, I examine how participation in these formative assessments related to student course performance. Over multiple semesters, students completed either free online unlimited attempt quizzes or assignments from a publisher's learning platform. Both the scores students achieved and the number of times they completed quizzes or assignments were found to be good predictors of exam and course grades. The number of times students completed quizzes explained more of the variance in grades than quiz scores, while the opposite was true for assignments, indicating that the quizzes were a more effective formative assessment. Students that did not participate in either type of activity were more likely to fail or withdraw from the course, but the percentage of students doing so was higher when students were required to pay for access to the publisher's learning platform.
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