University of Kent Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 17 June 2019

DADA: A toolkit to design and develop alternative assessment

The DADA (Design and Develop Alternative Assessment) project results from the collaboration between the University of Kent, the Open University and Advance HE. DADA aims to develop and disseminate a framework and a toolkit that can support staff involved in assessment design to map assessment types, identify and develop alternative inclusive assessment formats in line with the principles of constructive alignment (Biggs and Tang, 2011). Throughout the proposed session, participants will familiarise themselves with the toolkit and will develop a better understanding of inclusive assessment (Hanesworth et al., 2018; Keating et al., 2012; Waterfield and West, 2006) through discussion and hands-on experience. DADA is based on a pilot run in collaboration with academics, academic and student support staff and students across a variety of subject areas in different HE intuitions in the UK. DADA brings together case studies and lived experiences of colleagues working with various student populations and within different policy contexts and regulations (including assessment accredited by professional bodies). An essential aspect of the project is its ‘distributed leadership’ (Jones and Harvey, 2017), as it was only made possible by the cooperation of different teams and participants, each contributing with their specific area of expertise.

References

Biggs, J. and Tang, K. (2011), Teaching for quality learning at University, 4th ed. Maidenhead: Oxford University Press

Hanesworth, P., Bracken, S. and Elkington, S. (2018), A typology for a social justice approach to assessment: learning from universal design and culturally sustaining pedagogy, in Teaching in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2018.1465405

Healey, M., Mason O’Connor, K. and Broadfoot, P. (2010) Reflecting on engaging students in the process and product of strategy development for learning, teaching and assessment: an institutional example, in International Journal for Academic Development, 15 (1), 19–32

Jones, S. and Harvey, M. (2017), A distributed leadership change process model for higher education, in Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 39:2, 126-139

Keating, N., Zybutz, T. and Rouse, K. (2012), Inclusive Assessment at Point-of-Design, in Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 49 (3): 249–256

Waterfield, J. and West. B. (2006), Inclusive Assessment in Higher Education: A Resource for Change, Plymouth: University of Plymouth