Developing the Inclusive Course Design Tool: a tool to support staff reflection on their inclusive practice

Abstract

Inclusivity is fundamental to higher education, its course design, its assessment and its delivery. The principles of inclusivity offer all students the opportunities to achieve to the best of their ability. The purpose of this case-study is to outline the context, process, development and initial evaluation of a newly generated tool designed for academic colleagues. The Inclusive Course Design Tool (ICDT) offers a series of questions for reflection with supporting guidance rooted in theory and research on inclusion, pedagogy, multiculturalism, universal design for learning and implicit and unconscious bias. This first version of the tool encourages course teams to reflect on and interrogate the nature of inclusive academic practice in their courses, in their course curricula, their classrooms (virtual or physical) and their approaches to student learning and support. The contextualised rationale for the tool, its design, the consultation process, its early evaluation and future considerations as an institutional tool are explored. This paper specifically explores its use to try to reduce the black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) student award gap and enhance success and graduate outcomes, as well as academic practice and staff reflection.