Abstract:

Accommodation for neurodiversity is increasingly at the forefront of educational practices with institutions such as schools and universities being required to make reasonable adjustments and being held to account over these. Adjustments have commonly been put into place with respect to assessment and, in particular, the provision of extra time and rest breaks. A less common practice is to allow students to choose the style of assessment for a subject or piece of work. However, it is acknowledged that different learners have different needs in terms of being able to demonstrate their learning. It is important that the educator ensures that learning outcomes are met and assessed, but typically this tends to be through an assessment format that is fixed for the whole cohort.

In this study second year undergraduate and postgraduate taught students were surveyed for their views on being given a choice of assessment style on their modules. Students were asked about their preferences for assessment style and about how their choice might be influenced by the module content and the assessments they had for other modules at the same time. Based on the findings the study moved on to give a choice of assessment style on two modules that were 100% coursework-based. The modules were taken by second and third year undergraduates and postgraduate taught students. Students were given a choice of a written report or a video presentation for three different courseworks, one group-based and two individual. For each coursework both styles of assessment were intended to assess the same learning outcomes. The students were later surveyed to get feedback on being given this choice.

Findings from the initial survey indicated that students were overwhelmingly in support of being given a choice of assessment style. Having been offered a choice in these two modules, some students chose to submit a video presentation but the majority chose to submit a written report. Potential reasons for this are examined along with a discussion of how to most effectively select assessment style according to learning outcomes.

Overall the study indicates that a choice of assessment style is potentially beneficial for students and for those with additional accessibility needs and it was generally well received by the student groups as a whole. However, changes need to be made in the future to make the two assessment styles more equal in terms of level of content that can be contained within each type of coursework submission. Further reflections are provided regarding the logistics of this approach.

Keywords:

Assessment, learning outcomes, neurodiversity, student view.