Assessing Computer Literacy: A Comparison of Self- Assessment and Actual Skills - Current Issues in IT Education - page 255

their skill levels at two or more levels higher than they actually demonstrated. The largest
discrepancies between the self-assessments and actual tests occurred with PowerPoint and
Excel, with 34.9% and 32.9%, respectively, rating themselves two or more levels higher than
the skills they demonstrated.
By discovering the differences between our students' self-perceptions and actual
skills, we can focus efforts on strategies for educating and motivating students whose self-
perceptions are higher than their actual skills. Overall, our goal is to use the results of the
actual computing skills, coupled with the self-perception data, to develop a curriculum model
that provides flexibility in tailoring course content to accommodate the evolving computer
literacy of students and ultimately providing a richer educational experience for our students.
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