FLVS Discussion-Based Assessments (DBA): What to Expect (2026)

A Discussion-Based Assessment, or DBA, is a short live conversation with your FLVS teacher, usually by phone or video call. Your teacher asks about the module you just finished and you answer in your own words. It's graded like any other assessment, and it's also how teachers confirm the work in your course is really yours.

DBAs make a lot of students nervous, mostly because they don't know what to expect. They're usually shorter and more relaxed than people think. Here's what happens and how to prepare.

What happens in a DBA

• •You schedule it with your teacher, or your teacher calls during a time you set up. Courses usually list where the DBAs fall.
• •It's often 5 to 15 minutes.
• •Your teacher asks a few questions about the main ideas of the module. Expect 'explain', 'why' and 'give an example' questions, not trivia.
• •If you get stuck, teachers usually rephrase or give a hint. It's a conversation, not a pop quiz.
• •Your teacher may also ask about an assignment you turned in, like how you got an answer or what a paragraph means.

How to prepare in 15 minutes

1. 1Open the module's lessons and read the objectives and summaries. Those are what the questions are built from.
2. 2Write three or four key terms on paper and say what each means out loud.
3. 3Re-read anything you submitted in the module, especially written work. Be ready to explain it.
4. 4Pick one example or real-life connection for the main idea. Teachers love a concrete example.
5. 5Be somewhere quiet, with your phone charged and your camera working if your teacher uses video.

Why DBAs matter if you use Revolt

Revolt can't do a DBA, and nothing else can either. It's a live conversation with a person. Revolt treats DBAs as work that stays with you: Auto Advance notes each one, skips it, and when it reaches the end it lists everything that needs you.

That's also why the smart way to use Revolt on FLVS includes reviewing what it covers. If Revolt finished a module's quiz and worksheet, spend a few minutes on that module's lessons before your DBA. A student who aces every quiz but can't explain the topic on a call is exactly the pattern teachers follow up on.

Academic integrity calls

Sometimes a teacher sets up a call because something in your work looks off: a writing style that doesn't match your other work, an answer copied from a website, or a lot of work done in a very short time. It works like a DBA. They ask you to explain your work. Revolt's Auto Assignment writes worksheet answers in a consistent voice and humanizes the writing because FLVS uses Turnitin, but you still need to know what you turned in.