Design and Development of a Self-Assessment Tool and Investigating its Effectiveness for E-Learning

Abstract

One of the most effective tools in e-learning is the Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) and research has shown that students need to accurately assess their own performance thus improving their learning. The study involved the design and development of a self-assessment tool based on the Revised Blooms taxonomy Framework. As a second step in investigating the effectiveness of the SAT, 1st year student of the BSC Educational Technology program from the VCILT, University of Mauritius were used as testing sample. At this stage the SAT was provided to only half of the sample who were randomly chosen and placed into a treatment group. The remaining half (Control Group) had the normal conditions on the E-learning platform. A semester exam was devised and administered to the whole sample to find out if there was a difference between the scores of both groups. Lastly a feedback form was given to only the treatment group to find out their views on the SAT. The results indicated a significant difference in scores between the treatment and the control groups when the Student’s Independent T-test was used. Group A percentage of passes were higher compared to Group B. Failures were recorded for both groups with an increased rate of failure for Group B compared to Group A. Moreover, most of the respondents’ feedbacks suggested that SAT was a useful guide with helpful feedbacks. The findings concluded that SAT was viewed more as a revision tool that allowed them to assess their own learning.