This paper argues that self-assessment is a necessary tool in the online classroom because even with synchronous teaching students do not have the same degree and depth of contact with an instructor and hence have fewer opportunities to actualize their learning in the progressive fashion that marks portfolio-driven face to face composition courses. It also argues that only with self self-assessment can the online composition classroom be considered an ethical teaching environment, because otherwise the power balance between student and teacher is so disrupted by the expansive nature of cyberspace that the possibilities of plagiarism, imitation and/or autocratic grading that does not reflect learning are overwhelming and nearly uncontrollable without deliberately and frequently involving the student in a guided, metacognitive approach to viewing his or her own writing progress.

This paper also explains and documents why self-assessment works and why it is a necessary and ethical complement to other Internet-delivered pedagogies, it details and documents the benefits to students and teachers alike, it presents an adaptable and self-correcting plan with specific examples on how to engage students wholeheartedly in assessing the value of their own writing throughout a full semester of online elementary college composition, and it provides a graphic visualization of the complete self-assessment process.