Most students are first introduced to self-assessment during their school years. For example, your teacher may ask you to write your exam answers down in pencil on a paper test and then grade it afterwards with a red pen alongside the rest of the class. When students grade their own work together, not only does this save the teacher time, but it gives students a chance to experience a mild form of self-assessment.
Self-assessment has advanced beyond the notion of pen and pencil. By including this revolutionary idea of self-grading, teachers could leave their typical responsibilities in the hands of their students. If self-assessment introduced you to this task earlier in your educational experience, such as in primary school, it may have stuck with you during your formative academic years. Having a grasp on independence and gaining the trust of your instructor may have made grading your own exams feel exciting, humbling, and like an adult.
Today, students can now frequently access this once “on-paper” format in the digital atmosphere. For students, instructors, and parents alike, self-assessment is extremely helpful in improving communication, comprehension, and skills surrounding the educational experience and future careers.
What is Self-Assessment?
Self-assessment is both a personal and social learning practice. It requires internal reflection so you can understand yourself better and (ideally) feedback from others to identify the accuracy of self-judgements. You might look inside yourself to find what you like. You may take notes about yourself and explore your strengths and weaknesses before you work on adjusting and enhancing them.
Educational self-assessments allow students to mark their progress as they work. It has advanced over the years from the early days of simply marking your own test paper with red ink. Technology provides the educational sector with techniques and shortcuts to personalise the learning experience. Having a database of information for students can help:
- Track the learning gaps between students to identify issues or ways to close the gap
- Encourage peer-review and an added comfortability with it
- Support students and provide them with resources to excel
- Focus on student skills and learning styles to present them with the best experience possible
In the educational sector of online technology, all this information is easy to access. This article will provide further insight into how you can learn about yourself as a student.
What is the Purpose of Self-Assessment?
What is the purpose of self-assessment? Although self-assessment is a popular format used in remote learning, students may question the method it applies. Self-assessment not only takes a lot of additional time and work, but can push many people entirely out of their comfort zone. Students who feel this pressure to become independent thinkers without much experience can cause more struggle than healthy progress.
In “contrast [to regular assessments], [self-assessment] helps students to become autonomous learners, to think about what they should be learning. Having learned self-assessment skills, students can continue to apply them in their careers and other contexts throughout life.” In short, if students are unfamiliar with self-assessments, they may push against it.
We feel that the purpose of self-assessment is to encourage students to not depend on a specific institution or instructor to further their development. No matter which school they switch to or which new classes they enrol in, students can develop skills that help them to think independently, discover what works for them, and assess their current and future situations accordingly.
Who is Self-Assessment For?
Who is self-assessment for? One of the most obvious answers is teachers. There is a misconception that teachers will only assign self-assessing coursework because they are lazy or wish to take a load off their own work. This is untrue. Grading exams together as a class can indeed help a teacher save time, but these self-assessments are an excellent investment for everyone involved. Here is a detailed rundown of how self-grading and review can benefit the entire classroom and those outside it, too:
Teachers & Professors
Instructors who opt for self-grading methods find themselves with more time to better educational resources for their students. Most self-assessments can be particular to the given assignments; for example, teachers can easily use these methods for exams or short quizzes. Since classrooms typically have several quizzes and exams throughout the school year, adding a self-assessment aspect to the process should be a simple integration. These opportunities can even be personalised to student learning styles
Many online resources present these assessments with clear rubrics and organisation. A teacher can spend class time explaining why the correct answer was correct, helping students follow along on their own paper tests as they see where they went wrong. Discussing the questions and their answers aloud as a group will ensure that students can remember the steps to the process when they see similar questions in the future.
Students
At a certain point, students become accustomed to the routine of feedback from one person: their teacher. Quiet self-assessment opportunities allow students to reflect accordingly without seeking pressure to be right in the way a teacher would appreciate. They can learn from their own mistakes and make notes on their progress. This process then challenges them to become more independent. With our online classroom structure, students can also utilise a variety of online resources and software platforms during their academic careers. Having one concise online application can be a highly effective way to learn.
Parents
Students may feel ashamed or embarrassed when receiving a low score and hide this from their parents or guardians. With self-assessment programs, parents can monitor the progress of their children. Parents can then implement strategies to assist their children in the area they need extra help–additional tutoring, parent-teacher meetings, and other helpful resources.
Additionally, since students are grading their own work, they may be able to explain the areas where they are struggling with their parents, allowing them to gain the specific help they need. Often, these engaging classroom discussions can be much more helpful than a simple X the teacher leaves on the paper.
Tutors
Having a long-term tutor during the semester can be beneficial for students. Tutors can collect information and data about their progress that can be helpful towards the end of the semester. This added assessment can also prove suitable for students who need a second pair of eyes on their work. Tutors can also send this work to professors to support students’ progress.
The Institution
As institutions collect data on their student’s progress, they can showcase how self-assessment technology benefited them and benefited incoming first-year students and students.
So what? Is the purpose of self-assessment to save a teacher time and nothing more? We believe there’s more to self-assessment than simply being a time-saving tool, and that’s what we’re here to help with.
The Benefits of Self-Assessment
The bitter cycle of digesting long forms of information to be spitballed onto an exam sheet is exhausting. Many studies have shown that standardised tests and grading are the best way not to gauge a student’s level of knowledge and skill on a specific subject. While some students are naturally great at tests, others may retain the same information but have trouble recycling it onto the page in a short amount of time.
- Develop unknown skills
- Advance techniques in the classroom for future students
- Academic research
- Working with peers
These benefits are just some of the core responsibilities of understanding how students learn. These independent students will gain the skills to adapt to more demanding challenges in college.
Individual Learning
The modern learning era has continued to pivot drastically with the new age of online systems. What we label as individual learning for one student may be a less common practice for another–one who may feel more comfortable leaning on others for support.
Online educational systems benefit a variety of students, some of whom need less support than others. If self-assessment has been introduced to students during their early education years (such as primary school), they may have a higher chance of adapting quicker to these systems. At the same time, students who require more support may consider it a challenge.
Who Benefits?
As mentioned above, self-assessment benefits students and those involved in that student’s educational well-being. But even more so, the benefits will be stored and studied for years.
Students who benefit from one form of learning can lead the pack for those to follow behind. By the time students are at the high school level and choosing their classes, the concept of individual learning and working has already impacted the way they will approach their upcoming options. They may rely less on outward help when they can fully understand their needs.
Technology
As technology develops and shapes our lives, we can mould it around our personal lives. For entertainment purposes or the everyday career-driven person, having immediate access to this technology and data provides us with the information to understand ourselves.
Online systems can easily integrate this data storage into custom learning software that’s helpful for teachers to set up and personalise. Teachers can relay this research into other formats of assessment technology.
Academic Assessment Software
To get the most out of self-assessment, consider turning to assessment software for higher education. Technology is the leading resource used today to monitor and develop self-assessment practices. This learning management software allows teachers to relay this research into other formats of academic assessment software.
For example, a recent study about educational software for reading and writing concluded that many teachers saw noticeable improvements in student learning when they used academic assessment software for higher education that can address the needs of different students and their learning styles.
Our Purpose
Here at Academ, we promote custom software development in Sydney that helps students reach their full potential. Our academic assessment software and similar online educational systems help develop academic solutions that add value to learning and educational administration. We have partnered with and developed educational and management systems and academic software for institutions all over Australia.
We have a select variety of products that can act as a solution to all of your technology needs. One of our products includes REVIEW, a customisable application that assesses and improves student learning. REVIEW incorporates:
- Learning and achievement. Educational software provides specific feedback through in-depth analysis. “REVIEW provides meaningful, personal and contextual visualisations of assessment data to teachers and students.” Students can do self-assessment easily on REVIEW and think critically to discover more about how they learn.
- Identify student achievements. Visual charts of data provide a sketch of where students have improved. Students can understand their abilities and then present them with their accomplished goals.
- User-friendly. The best part about these systems is that they can efficiently access first hand student goals, values, and improvements.
How to Apply Self-Assessment
Overall, self-assessment provides a pivotal role for all types of individuals. It has been implemented in the workplace and therapeutic settings and continues to transform beyond its original implementation. Here are 10 questions that self-assessment will challenge you with:
- What are your goals and how do you plan to reach them?
- What are your values?
- What are your interests?
- What added skills would you benefit from having? And which ones do you have now that you excel at?
- How do you approach projects?
- What work environment works well for you? Quiet and small, or active and hands-on
- What organisations or clubs are you a part of that tie into your values and interests?
- Do you enjoy working in groups or individually?
- Do you tend to ask questions often?
- How do you react to getting a question wrong?
Our online feedback assessment system breaks down goals into graduate assessment or identifying skills and values you possess that will help you complete your degree. Most attributes vary depending on the institution or instructor, but the common idea is that they are developed over time during an undergraduate career.
REVIEW allows its users to customise these attributes to cater to the goals of their students. Each diagram and section can be colour-coded, accented with symbols, or organised alphabetically to specify the different courses. Examples of these attributes can be:
- Communication and interpersonal skills
- Critical thinking, analysis, and research
- Collaboration techniques and peer-review
- Leadership skills
- Professionalism
- Project management
- Problem-solving
These categories are usually broken into 6-12 attributes and can vary from the primary. Students can learn about which areas they are strong in. Identifying these skill points improves confidence and ability and encourages students to improve upon areas lacking.
Self-assessment is not just for educational purposes and is proven to work in many aspects for self-improvement. Self-assessment provides us with autonomy, whether we are a student, an employee, or at the top of the food chain. We can always sharpen our skills over time and reflect on our weaknesses.
At Academ, we pride ourselves on our experience in the educational software sector. We have worked and developed specialised software for our impressive clients, which includes a variety of universities all over the world. We ensure that our work is to the highest standard, maximising the potential of your academic needs.
Along with our online assessment resource REVIEW, we also have:
What is the purpose of self-assessment? By now, you should know the answer and can even give yourself a self-assessment to determine what you do and don’t understand. Still have questions? Browse our website to read our Blogs on the importance of self-assessment and learn more about how our assessment software for higher education can track student competency development and be applied to your institution and benefit you. Looking for something more suited to the workplace than university? Our assessment management software may be just what you’re looking for.
We are dedicated to assisting our clients with excellent, unmatched customer service using innovative digital solutions. Ask us about custom software development in Australia today.