Self-Assessment and Reflection in a 1st Semester Course for Software Engineering Students

How can student self-assessment be used as a tool and become beneficial for both lecturers and students? We used a simple self-assessment tool for pre- and post-testing on a first-semester engineering course. The students graded their knowledge on human-computer interaction based on their ability to understand and explain specific concepts. The assessment tool was inspired by the SOLO-model. The assessment tool promoted practice reflections on the academic concepts. In the pre-test the students became aware of specific academic expectations in the course and they got to grade the gap between their own current knowledge and what would be expected at the end of the course. The lecturer could right from the beginning sharpen the academic semester plan based on the assessment results. The post-test could be used by the students as a tool for grading their knowledge in preparation for the final exam. From the lecturer's perspective the post assessment was useful in optimising the course for the next throughput.