Analyze how formative assessment design features (timing, frequency, feedback type, reflective prompts, self-/peer-assessment, rubrics, scaffolding) affect graduate students' metacognitive regulation (planning, monitoring, evaluating, strategy selection) in online higher-education courses. Scope includes interpreting research findings or sample data, evaluating measurement approaches (self-report, think-aloud, learning analytics), identifying contextual moderators (discipline, synchronous/asynchronous delivery), critiquing study designs, and proposing evidence-based assessment design recommendations for instructors and researchers.