A core component of students’ experience in higher education – one that can be overlooked – is that of developing their metacognition: their ability to think about their own thinking and to reflect on and improve their own learning strategies. Students often place much of their focus on their grades, rather than the learning that is taking place. But, for decades, metacognition has been linked to both learning and student success.  

Sometimes this is built into the curriculum through class activities or reflection assignments, and sometimes it is expected that students will develop these skills on their own accord or through learning support services.  

One approach for instructors to foster students’ metacognition is the use of assessment wrappers. Typically referred to as “exam wrappers”, we expand the frame of reference to include all assessment types that may not otherwise include a reflective component about the assessment experience itself. It must be noted though, that these are generally more helpful when employed for formative assessments early in the course, so students can benefit ahead of future tests and assignments. The Eberly Center at Carnegie Melon University offers sample wrappers for exams, homework, papers, and mid-term progress assessments. 

There are many potential benefits of implementing assessment wrappers within your courses:

• Students may be more likely to seek, read, and reflect on feedback when prompted to think about more than their grade. This helps them understand and shape their own thinking and learning strategies, taking greater responsibility for their own learning, and improving their preparedness and performance.  
• Instructors can also benefit from exam wrappers. When used as a reflective tool, and submitted as part of an assessment, instructors can gain insight into student perspectives – beyond their performance – about certain questions or content. This may help identify opportunities for targeted support or clarification of concepts.  
• Exam wrappers may also be used to allow students to write about content they are well-versed in but may not have appeared on the test. In this case, students may have a chance to improve their test grade or earn bonus marks, and instructors may notice trends in what areas students focus their study efforts.  

Each wrapper should be tailored to your own subject, course, assessment type, and student population. They can be completed before or after submitting an assessment, or both. Completing it before and after also allows students to consider the accuracy of their own self-assessment, of their readiness and predicted performance.  

Questions or prompts generally target the following: 

• How the student prepared the assessment (learning and study strategies) 
• How they performed on the assessment (strengths, struggles or mistakes, and general self-assessment of performance) 
• Future planning (goals for improvement) 

Another strategy for wrappers is to have students identify and explain concepts they wish they were tested on. Especially relevant for tests and exams, this allows students to demonstrate learning that may not have been addressed in the assessment itself, but still  matters for the learning outcomes.