Pursue today and assess tomorrow - how students’ subjective perceptions influence their preference for self- and peer assessments

BACKGROUND: Alternative assessments engage students in the assessment process to improve both short- and long-term outcomes by developing their judgments and responsibility about their own learning, and that of their peers. In this study, we investigated students’ perception towards self- and peer-assessment, their objectivity and impact on students’ learning. METHODS: The study was conducted at the Medical University of Vienna. Attitudes of second year undergraduate medical students towards self- and peer-assessment, and their objectivity, appropriateness, and the impact of these assessments on students’ learning activities, was inquired using a self-developed questionnaire. RESULTS: Four hundred twenty-three students participated in this study. Self-assessment was found more appropriate method to assess students’ knowledge. Most of students agreed that peer-assessment is not objective (M = − 0.07). Majority of students evaluated that peer assessment has no or little impact on their active and passive learning (M = − 0.23, − 0.35), on the other hand self-assessment was reported as a helpful tool for gaining long-term knowledge (M = 0.13) and following the content of courses (M = 0.16). CONCLUSION: Based on our results, students’ perspective on peer assessment were negative, on the whole, students had positive attitudes towards self-assessment and negative attitudes towards peer-assessment. This study also determined that self-assessment leads to the promotion of students’ learning.