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Presuming Competence By Design • A Tutorial for Systems, Environment, Curricular, and Materials Design in Learning Systems

Requirements

Universally-Designed Assessments

 

How often do we assume assessment results mean one thing when in fact they mean something else?

 

Consider the following key ideas from Rose & Meyer:

• Giving the same written test to all students is neither fair nor accurate. When a single, inflexible medium is used for testing, students' skills with that medium become hopelessly confused with the skills we intend to measure.

This challenges us as teachers and educational system designers to think harder and better about assessments used in the class and throughout the educational system. Here are some guiding questions to use when developing an assessment:

1. What knowledge or skills do I want the learners to demonstrate?
2. What is the best way for them to demonstrate that knowledge or skill?
3. How can I communicate to the students what they will be evaluated on in advance?
4. Does the test environment align with the learning environment? If not, what can I do to better align the two or prepare learners for the changed environment? What might be triggered or fail to be triggered in learners' memories if we change environments?
5. Is it obvious that the test/assessment is aligned with the content I taught and the learning objectives I stated in advance?
6. Can students clearly articulate what they should be learning and how they'll demonstrate that learning to me?

Now ... let's take a look at how to design flexible assessments - there's a simple key to unlocking this challenge.