Inclusive assessment

Inclusive assessment helps to avoid the assumption that certain groups of students have a particular way of learning, when in reality students with disabilities “fall along a continuum of learner differences and share similar challenges and difficulties that all students face in higher education” (Healey et al., 2006, p.41, excerpt from 7 steps with Plymouth University).

Plymouth’s 7 Steps to: Inclusive Assessment offers staff with guidance and advice about how to incorporate inclusive assessments into modules. Plymouth offers seven practical steps:

1. Underpin your assessment with good assessment design principles
2. Use a variety of assessment methods within your module
3. Incorporate choice to your assessment
4. Design inclusive exams
5. Consider how technology can assist
6. Prepare, engage, and support students in the assessment process
7. Monitor, review and share practice