Self-assessments are assessments or reflections that one has about themselves and their own learning. The biggest value to this is that students are given the time to really think about their learning and how it is going. They will see if they have any weaknesses, if they are open to fully exploring their thoughts. A weakness with self-assessments is that depending on the age of the student, or personality, a student may not be honest with themselves. If this is the case then self-assessments lose their value.
One way that a self-assessment can be used in an online class is that a teacher should ask the students at the beginning of the class for a detailed summary of points that the student wants to learn in the class. The student should evaluate their current ability as well. Then, every month the teacher should have the student read that and reflect their new ability. Even if the student is just ‘after an A’, they will still be able to see their gains and shortcomings even if they want to hide them from the teacher.
