Assessing Self Assessment
- Nov 16, 2025
- 2 min read
As we live in a virtual world technology is a key element that shapes both what we do and the results we receive. As a virtual teacher when I am providing feedback and collecting data I am pushed to challenge students to move beyond AI and add a personal touch to their work. “While AI can generate content, it can’t build trust, provide emotional support, or create the kind of collaborative learning that happens when humans work together toward shared goals.” (Ybarra, 25). Although students often will try to use AI and submit it as their own work this does not allow for effective feedback that they can learn from.
One way this can be aided by the use of clear rubrics. “Rubrics can be an excellent way to give feedback for improving teaching and learning” (Wiggins, 2022). While it is true a rubric can be imputed into AI software to produce a product, having students take the step to evaluate their own work can move beyond the realm of AI and into human nature and critical thinking skills. Rubrics “enable them to self-assess their work and performance based on the success criteria” (Wiggins, 2022). The biggest obstacle to self assessing is that it is a skill that needs to be taught. For that reason in sandbox assessment 12 I combined a written rubric with a feedback conference where the teacher and students can discuss the rubric and artifact to come to a consensus on the data that is being collected.
This collaboration helps students to learn from the process and be better able to understand the why behind the feedback they are receiving “which students can leverage to guide their next steps to improvement.” (Wiggins, 2022). Ultimately we are helping students to become critical thinkers and rubrics help with “applying critical thinking to complex problems” (Ybarra, 2025). While this critical thinking may be a goal of education it can also open the door for teachers to dig deeper into the results they are seeing.
In sandbox assessment 12, I not only intend to use feedback to help the students grow but through the evaluation and formative assessment process can use a variety of sources to triangulate the data. While you can learn from a single assessment by cross referencing the scores with other assessments such as the NWEA can help identify patterns and next steps. For this assessment I plan to look at how the students identified as struggling learners are able to apply literacy skills such as writing mechanics and vocabulary skills across contexts.
By taking the time to examine the patterns it is easier to identify the students that need
more direct support in content skills as well as literacy. While this was set up as a timed writing piece it can provide valuable insight into both their mathematical and literacy skills while giving them a voice in how they feel that their learning is going and partner with the teacher to make steps in the direction they wish to go.
Wiggins, G., & Frontier, T. (2022, April 1). How to provide better feedback with rubrics. ASCD. https://ascd.org/el/articles/how-to-provide-better-feedback-through-rubrics
Ybarra, S. (2025, July 22). Beyond the take-home essay: How AI is reshaping assessment in digital learning. Online Learning Consortium. https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/olc-insights/2025/07/beyond-the-take-home-essay/
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