WVC Online News – November/December 2022

Self-assessment is a “process by which students monitor and evaluate the quality of their thinking and behavior when learning, and identify strategies that improve their understanding and skills.” Studies on learning and motivation, metacognition (the ability to identify, assess and know what to do to improve performance) and self-efficacy beliefs (perceptions of one’s ability to do well on a specific task) all point to self-assessment playing a pivotal role in successful student learning.

Source: “Student Self-assessment: The Key to Stronger Student Motivation and Higher Achievement”, James H. McMillan and Jessica Hearn, Educational Horizons, Fall 2008.

CVC Rubric: C8 – Self-Assessment

The importance of student self-assessment is, in fact, one criterion in the CVC Online Course Design Rubric and alignment involves that “several opportunities for student self-assessment with feedback are present” in the online course. As faculty we should be aware that some students might not know how to do this—or even that they should; this is why it is important to intentionally include self-assessment and reflection opportunities in our courses.

Examples of Self-Assessment

Here are just a few examples that can be used:

• Exam or assignment “wrapper” where the student reflects on their performance, how they studied or prepared, and what they can do differently in the future to improve
• Using a survey to gather the clearest/muddiest point of a particular module or concept
• Practice quizzes that can be ungraded or provide bonus points
• Reflective journal about the student’s learning and journey in completing a project

Access to class and instructor information, as well as important dates for exams and projects, is an important factor in reducing student stress, and ultimately improving student retention in a course, regardless of the modality of instruction. Much of this information is included in our course syllabi, so providing students with access to syllabi throughout the semester is essential.

This is the rationale behind the WVC Academic Senate’s endorsement (Nov. 8, 2022) of the Guidelines for Student Access to Syllabi: WVC Policy on Access to Course Syllabi.

Accessible syllabi for all courses at WVC, regardless of the modality of instruction, will be published within the course shell of the College’s learning management system (LMS). The syllabus can be posted within the course in a variety of formats including, but not limited to:

• As a page within the LMS (for ex., a Canvas course page)
• Use of a syllabus tool within the LMS (for ex., Canvas syllabus)
• A file uploaded into the course shell (for ex., a Word doc or pdf file)
• A link to a webpage or website posted within the course shell (for ex., link to a Google page

The WVC Library now has its own module on the WVC Online Faculty Resources Canvas course. There you can find detailed instructions on how to embed streaming media from the different database vendors. Go to Modules > Faculty Library Resources to see how to utilize the library's many streaming resources.