An Exploratory Study of Student Self-Assessment in an Online Learning Context

Abstract

This paper reports the investigation of the application of self-assessment in an online learning setting based on action research. The research participants were students who completed their self-assessment when taking the course on Classroom Management taught by the teacher researcher. Although the analytic results show the lack of critical reflection in student self-assessment, the teacher researcher learned the following lessons: a) self-assessment helps the students to articulate their learning results in specific; (b) self-assessment can be a means to cultivate students’ abilities in information-integration; (c) using multiple evaluative tools for assessing self-assessment is recommended to better describe the levels of student reflection; and (d) effective and efficient implementation of self-assessment requires a redesigning of the learning management system. Finally, further research can focus on the possibility of promoting the level of student reflection by encouraging students to use evaluative tools to assess their self-assessment.