Self-assessments are non-graded learning activities that allow learners to test their knowledge, express their thoughts, or reflect on what they've learned without the pressure of scoring or grades. These assessments combine the flexibility of form questions with the structure of exam-style questions and can be used for both instant feedback or instructor-reviewed input, depending on your configuration.
In this article, you’ll find a step-by-step guide on how to create, configure, and manage a Self-Assessment activity.
How to create a non-graded assessments
1. Navigate to the Course Outline tab of your course.
2. Click on Add Activity under a course section.
3. Choose Self-Assessment and select one of the following options:
Start from Scratch – Create a blank self-assessment.
Test Your Knowledge – Add closed-ended questions with instant feedback and no scoring.
Express Yourself & Get Feedback – Include open-ended assignment types (Text, File, Video, Audio) for students to express themselves.
Reflection/Diaries Templates – Let learners write journals and reflect. If you want to know more about Reflection journals, visit this article.
4. Click Save or Save & Edit to begin configuring the Self-Assessment.
Self Assessment Structure
Your self-assessment has the following structure:
1. Starting Screen: This optional introductory screen lets instructors welcome learners and provide an overview.
2. Organized Sections with Questions: For short quizzes, one section may be enough. For longer ones, organizing questions into multiple sections improves clarity and flow.
To add a new section:
- Hover over the three dots in the default section.
- Click "Add Section"
Ιf you have added questions under a created section, you can enable the respective settings under Settings → Randomize to randomize and shuffle these questions.
Additionally, you can alter the name of each section if needed. Just click on the current section name and make the changes under section properties.
You can build questions:
1. Manually, by clicking on the + icon or by clicking on Add/Import → New question. You can find out more about it in this article.
2. Use the AI Assistant to help with writing, research, and editing. You can find out more about it in this article.
A window will open, displaying all the available types of questions:
- Exam Questions (with scoring disabled): Ideal for instant knowledge checks with correct/incorrect answers and feedback. Responses are shown instantly unless assignment-type questions are used.
- Form Questions: Used for data collection or open-ended input. No instant feedback by default. Can be sent to the Review Center if Manual Feedback is enabled.
For more information on adding and customizing your assessment questions, check this article.
If you want to include open-ended questions that do not require manual review, use form-type questions instead of exam-type assignment questions.
3. Ending Screen: Displayed after submission. Unlike exams, this screen focuses on reflection and feedback instead of grades. You can customize the message based on the outcome:
Completed
Pending (awaiting manual feedback).
Like the starting screen, the ending screen is built with widgets for full customization. If you want to know more about the starting and ending screens, visit this article.
Providing Feedback on users' answers
For exam-type questions, you can provide feedback to users. Let's see how to Add Feedback:
1. Select the question you want to edit and click on Feedback.
2. There you can find the following options:
- Enable/Disable Feedback: Turn the feedback feature on or off.
- AI Feedback Assistant: This is a chat included in your feedback report and functions as an interactive chat that helps learners understand why their answers were right or wrong, offering explanations and learning guidance based on their responses.
- Feedback Type: Here you can enable advanced feedback to offer feedback tailored to each possible answer, correct or incorrect. If deactivated, only basic feedback is displayed: one response for correct answers and another for incorrect ones.
While editing your feedback type, you can use the AI Assistant to help you generate the feedback text. Simply click the Use AI Assistant button, fill in the necessary details, and let it create the feedback for you.
- The Feedback tab is not available to File/Video/Audio Assignments since manual review and grading are required.
- For Text assignment questions, only the AI Feedback Assistant option is available.
- If you choose to add an image to your Feedback, make sure to change the image's dimensions as follows:
- In order to use the AI Feedback Assistant, make sure to visit Settings → Feedback and enable the respective option.
Adding tags
You can also add tags to users who give particular responses. Tags enhance personalization and improve question relevance. They also help in tracking performance and providing targeted feedback.
To set up the tags option:
- Go to the Tags tab.
- Type the tag to the users who give specific responses and press Enter to save.
The Tag tab is not available for Text/File/Video/Audio Assignments.
Configuring Self Assessment Settings and Design
After your questions are added and set up, you will need to configure the assessment settings like:
- Grade & Attempts: Grading & scores are not relevant in self-assessments. However, exam questions are still available, and correctness and feedback are relevant.
- Timer: Apply a time limit on your assessment.
- Randomize: Choose whether to shuffle the questions’ order.
- Feedback: Choose whether to offer a feedback report to the student.
- Manual Feedback: If manual feedback is enabled, assessments with closed-ended questions will be reviewed via the Review Center. Students will see a Pending Feedback message and receive a notification once feedback is posted.
- Ending Screen: Customize your ending screen.
- Auto recovery: Allow students to navigate away and return to the assessment within a time window without losing their answers. For Self-assessments, the user does not fail when they don’t come back within the auto recovery period; the answers are deleted, and they must re-attempt it.
- Learner tools: Show a sidebar presenting all available questions concisely.
- After submission: Enable a submission confirmation pop-up and tag users after submission.
- Navigation: Configure how users will navigate through the assessment questions.
- Language: Change the language of the UI text.
You can find out more here: How to Configure the Assessment Settings.
You will also need to customize your assessment design. With the Assessment Builder, you can fully customize the design and appearance of your assessments to align with your academy’s & course’s theme and enhance the user experience, with options like changing colors, typography, navigation, and assessment viewer. You can find out more on how to design your assessments here.
Manual Feedback Setting
Self-assessments do not require grading by default, but you can choose to enable Manual Feedback to allow instructors/admins to review responses.
To enable Manual Feedback:
Open the Self-Assessment.
Go to Settings.
Toggle Manual Feedback ON.
Once enabled, all responses (including form questions) are stored in the Review Center, where instructors can provide feedback. Learners will see a Pending Review screen and receive a notification when feedback is available.
No matter what settings you choose, assignment questions (like text, file, videos, or audio recordings) will always go to the Review Center. This happens even if you don’t ask to give manual feedback.After Submission - Ending Screen
Once a learner submits a self-assessment, they are presented with an ending screen. The ending screen offers three views for when the:
- Learner completes the assessment (Completed screen)
- Results are pending (Pending screen). If manual feedback is enabled or if Text Assignments, File Assignments, or Record Video/Audio types of questions are added, the Assessments will be moved to the Review Center for reviewing. The users will see the Pending status ending screen until the Assessment has been reviewed.
You can click on the assessment container in the ending screen to customize each screen.
To alter the ending screen's text, you will need to click on the Assessment container. The Design form will be opened, and then you can select the Assessment Viewer tab and change the text. Alternatively, you can go to the Language option from Settings.
LearnWorlds allows admins to customize the widgets displayed on this screen, ensuring learners receive relevant feedback and insights. To configure the ending screen, go to Settings → Ending Screen and choose what to include. You can add:
- Message: A thank-you or confirmation note.
- Feedback Summary: If enabled, shows predefined feedback.
- Review Center Status: Shows "Pending Review" if feedback is awaited.
- Download Option: Users can download their responses.
- Retake Option: Allows learners to retry the assessment (if enabled).
Reviewing & Providing Feedback
To review submissions:
Go to Review Center from the Admin Dashboard.
Select the Self-Assessment.
Open the Unreviewed tab.
Click on a learner's submission.
Add written, file, or video feedback and click Submit Feedback.
You can find more in the respective article.
- The Undo/Redo option can be used within the editing mode of the type of questions and not for the assessment settings, design, responses, etc.
- The Undo/Redo option can also be utilized after saving a Page or Assessment/Form if you do not leave the page you are editing.