Something for everyone

April 27, 2021

I’ve come to this project on inclusive exams with a background in assessment design and educational research rather than expertise in inclusion. So I’ve learnt a lot from working with my colleagues who have more intimate expertise and experience around making higher education more inclusive of a diverse population. As with other forms of assessment design, designing a task never sits in isolation. A singular assessment task is intimately interwoven with all the other assessments in the unit/course, with teaching, with the discipline, with the administrative systems that surround it. So it seems to me that more inclusive practices in exams will also generate change across teaching, other assessment tasks, other units and administration systems.

One of the things that has really struck me on this project is around the labour of ‘being included’. There’s a lot of administration, forms to be filled, conversations to be had, and while much of this is in association with the wonderful Disability Liaison Officers (DLOs) who are so pivotal to making our institutions inclusive, there is still a burden for students. Our interviews suggest that this can be significant; students “fight” to be heard. This is in part the appeal of universal design. It reduces the demands on those who are often in difficult circumstances rather than increasing their workload. However, listening to our participants’ stories reinforces how everyone’s situation is different: what works for one person is prohibitive for another. Therefore, it seems to me, assessments will inevitably need additional adjustments in order to accommodate this diversity.

Reconciling competing tensions in dynamic environments is a feature of any assessment design – there is no tick box to be filled. We’ve been privileged to work with unit chairs and students and it feels like participating in classic design practices – creative, iterative and full of “ah-ha” moments. I’m looking forward to finding out where we end up next.