Student Engagement in Optional Self-Assessment in a Blended Introductory Physics Course

Optional self-assessment tasks were introduced into interactive online lessons in a large-enrollment introductory undergraduate physics course. The online lessons served as instruction and formative assessment within a blended, flipped classroom teaching model. The self-assessment tasks consisted of Likert scale responses for each of the lesson's learning objectives. Student engagement was analyzed over all lessons. More than half (56%) of all students tried the self-assessment at least once, and about a quarter completed half or more of the tasks. The course-wide average self-assessment score was 5.05 on the 1 to 7 Likert scale. Simple linear regression analysis was performed to characterize correlations between self-assessment data and course achievement (grades) and attitude toward physics (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey). The number of self-assessment tasks completed was found to correlate positively with some participatory grades as well as exam scores, suggesting it might reflect general motivation or preparation. The self-assessment scores were found to correlate with exam score attitudinal expert-alignment (pre, post, and change), suggesting consistency as a measure of self-efficacy and more expert-like attitudes at the start and end of the course.