Starting inclusive assessment conversations
September 3, 2021
Are you keen to re-imagine your assessments, but don’t know where to begin? Maybe you’d like to start a conversation in your area, discipline or faculty? We’ve put together a series of workshop outlines and resources to help you get the discussion going and create meaningful change.
Exams can disadvantage students for many reasons. Health conditions, neurodiversity, and practical things like internet access, work, and caring responsibilities can all impact on how successfully students are able to complete exams. It’s best to use exams sparingly where possible and, when they are used, carefully design them to make sure they’re inclusive. And it’s not just exams – all assessments should be designed with inclusive principles in mind.
But inclusive assessment isn’t just about task design or question development, and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum – it involves interactions with teaching and support staff, input from students, and considering how the assessment connects with learning activities.
As part of our research project, we ran a series of participatory workshops with teachers, access and inclusion staff, and students to help spark conversations around exams and how to re-imagine them. Participants told us the workshops were a great way for them to share their experiences and challenges with exams, and to come together to consider opportunities to implement lasting and meaningful changes to their exams – or even get rid of them altogether!
If you’re interested in starting similar conversations with your colleagues, we’ve put together a series of workshop outlines and resources to help you facilitate the workshops online or in person.
Designed to help you organise and run five participatory workshop sessions, the resources include:
- Workshop materials: a brief overview of the expected use of the materials, pre-workshop prompts, aims, and further materials for participants.
- Workshop slides: a set of slides designed to be used together with the workshop materials.
For more information about the workshop resources, and to download them and get started, visit our Resources page.