This Student Assessment Tool was designed to evaluate the impact of the VR Simulation and to assess students’ perceptions of changes in their knowledge and skills, personal attributes, or impact on their future behaviour. After completing the simulation, students rate themselves twice on each intended outcome, first as they were before beginning the simulation, and second, after completing it. 

According to Dr. Lannie Kanevsky at Simon Fraser University (2016) using self-report surveys to measure changes in students’ perceptions of what they know in traditional separate pre- and post- designs can be problematic because at the end of the instruction, students’ “measuring stick has changed as they developed greater knowledge…Thus the post-test scores end up being lower than the pre-test scores, even though positive change has occurred” (as cited in Kanevsky, 2016). In essence, at the beginning of the instruction, students didn’t know what they didn’t know, so they gave themselves higher ratings than they did by the end of the learning experience.

Using a Post-Pre Assessment addresses this problem by creating a consistent measuring stick for both pre- and post-assessments. This process is used ONLY at the end of a workshop, course, or program. It asks people to use their current level of knowledge to create a common measuring stick for pre-course and post-course assessments. (as cited in Kanevsky, 2016)

The post-pre method also saves time by collecting pre- and post-intervention data in only one session rather than two, avoiding problems with attrition. Unfortunately, the post-pre design is still vulnerable to the limitations of all self-reporting measures such as self-assessment biases like “social desirability,” or providing a socially appropriate response rather than an accurate one.