Normalising Alternative Assessment Approaches for Inclusion

Abstract

This chapter explores the way alternative and innovative assessment practices in higher education support learning beyond course requirements and allow for more inclusive and equitable experiences for students. Unintended consequences of traditional assessments for students include the impact on student wellbeing, increased anxiety, decreased levels of motivation, and an over-reliance on rubrics and marking criteria to “make the grade”; all of which orientates students away from their learning. In this chapter, the relationship between learning and assessment are presented through the experiences of 110 undergraduate and postgraduate students who engaged with a new way to demonstrate their learning. Through creating their own YouTube clips in an area associated with their courses, and then trialling these with peers outside of the course, these students were able to demonstrate their own learning in novel ways, including observing how their peers learn through the YouTube clips. Along with written critiques, these assignments enabled students to self-assess, adjust their self-knowledge, and create meaningful and authentic forms of communicating their knowledge, competencies, and learning. Although predictable traditional assessments remained the preferred forms of assessment for students, they reported longer term benefits from these alternative and innovative approaches. This chapter argues alternative assessment practices that become normalised will do more for the inclusion of all students and their learning in the long term.