VIU Campus

Self Assessments

Self Assessments in VIULearn do not track user completion or store attempts and cannot be connected to a grade item. These assessments are designed to let students test their knowledge and to provide immediate formative feedback. You will need to pre-load feedback in your questions in order to provide students with a rich self assessment experience using the Self Assessment tool. 

Many instructors choose to use an ungraded quiz rather than a Self Assessment when they want to give students a practice activity that allows them to test their knowledge. The benefits of using a Quiz rather than a Self Assessment are that students can revisit past attempts (provided you have set up a submission view for review) and you can see who is and is not completing the activity and provide support for anyone who appears to be struggling.

You can use all of the same question types in a Self Assessment that you can use in a quiz. If you want to learn more about how to set up specific question types please see the Question Library page. When you are creating questions you will use in a Self Assessment, you will want to make sure you build in feedback. You can provide Feedback at the end of a question. In some question types (like Multiple Choice), you can also provide feedback for each answer choice within the question. You can use Feedback to indicate correct and incorrect answers, where a correct answer can be found in the course content, and what details instructors are looking for in an ideal answer.

If you have added hints when creating your question and want users to see hints during their Self Assessment, you must select the Allow hints check box when you create a self assessment.

Creating Self Assessment Sections & Questions

It is recommended that you create the questions for your Self Assessment in the Question Library first and then import the questions into your Self Assessment. If you would like to keep your Self Assessment questions separate from the rest of the questions in the course, you can do so by creating Sections and organizing your Self Assessment questions into those folders. 

  1. From the course navigation bar, select Faculty Tools. From the drop-down menu, select Course Admin

  2. Underneath the Assessment heading, select Self Assessments. 

  3. Click the blue New Self Assessment button.

  4. Give your Self Assessment a name and edit the following settings if you wish:

    • Category: You can organize your Self Assessment within the Self Assessments tool by assigning your Self Assessments to categories you have created. Click the add category text to create and attach a new Category. 

    • Hints: Choose whether hints you have inserted in your questions will be displayed to students when they go to attempt the Self Assessment.

    • Shuffle questions at the self assessment level: Choose to randomize the order that questions and sections will appear in at the self assessment level.

    • Page Header/Footer: Create a customized message that your students will see while they take the Self Assessment. 

      The Page Header will be displayed at the top of the page while students are completing the Self Assessment.

      The Page Footer will be displayed at the bottom of the page while students are completing the Self Assessment. 

  5. Once you have finished editing, click the gray Save button.

  6. At this point, you will be able to add questions to your Self Assessment by clicking the Add/Edit Questions button. 

  7. Once you have finished editing and adding questions to your Self Assessment, click the blue Save and Close button.

Editing, Previewing, & Deleting Self Assessments

Editing, Previewing, and Deleting your Self Assessments can be something that you may need to do. Once you have created a Self Assessment you will need to know how to manage and update it.

  1. From the course navigation bar, select Faculty Tools. From the drop-down menu, select Course Admin.

  2. Click Self Assessments

  3. Click on the name of the Self Assessment.

  4. Make your changes. Click the Add/Edit Questions button to add or make any changes to the questions in your Self Assessment. 

  5. Select Save.
  1. From the course navigation bar, select Faculty Tools. From the drop-down menu, select Course Admin.

  2. Click Self Assessments

  3. Click the arrow to the right of the Self Assessment.

  4. Select Preview.

  5. Once you have finished previewing your Self Assessment, click the Exit Preview button to be taken back to the previous screen.
  1. From the course navigation bar, select Faculty Tools. From the drop-down menu, select Course Admin.

  2. Click Self Assessments

  3. Click the More Actions button. Select Delete from the drop-down menu.

  4. Select the check box beside the Self Assessment you want to delete.

  5. Click the Delete Selected button. 

  6. Click the blue Yes button to confirm.

Add a Self Assessment to Content

Learners cannot access Self Assessments from the course navigation bar. In order to give your learners access to a Self Assessment, you must link the activity to Content.  

  1. Select Content from the course navigation bar. 

  2. Find and click on the Module or Sub-Module you want to add the Self Assessment to. 

  3. Click the grey Existing Activities button. Select Self Assessments from the drop-down menu.

  4. Click on the Self Assessment you wish to add.