ADCET UDL Symposium: Empowering Students as Co-Designers - Innovative Assessment Design for Equity and Engagement
Online presentation
This presentation explored how innovative assessment design can engage students as co-designers of their learning experiences, with explicit links to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) 3.0 guidelines. The presentation highlighted how offering diverse assessment options supports equity and allows for varied expressions of student competence.
To foster inclusivity and cater to diverse learning preferences, students were given the choice to submit a traditional essay, a photo essay, or a non-conventional multi-media project (such as a podcast, film or video, website, or creative work). This approach aligns with UDL principles by providing multiple means of representation, action, expression, and engagement. A detailed rubric was designed to guide students, enabling them to address the marking criteria in multiple and interpretative ways. This empowered students to make informed choices about their projects, ensuring that the form matched the function in researching their chosen topics of interest.
The presentation showcased a variety of student submissions, demonstrating the effectiveness of this assessment design in promoting creativity and critical thinking. Several extracts from video interviews with students, conducted after the course, were also included to provide firsthand accounts of their experiences and the impact of the assessment design on their learning.
Additionally, the implementation of peer review systems and in-class workshopping was discussed, which helps students build critical reflective skills and provided valuable feedback on their projects. These elements of the assessment design further supported student autonomy and control over their learning journey.
The sharing of these insights and practical examples, is designed to inspire educators to adopt similar approaches in their own teaching practices, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and equitable learning environment.
Presenter
Dr Karen-Anne Wong is an inter-disciplinary researcher and sessional academic in both the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies and the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. Her research interests include educational design, pedagogy, diversity, inclusion, disability and qualitative methodologies. She has published on innovation in assessment, intersectional identity, disability in the classroom and conducting sensory ethnographies. She is interested in young people of all ages, and to this end, her current research is practice-led; a middle-grade novel investigating representations of neurodivergent girls. Karen is also a mum of two young children and two old dogs.
(June 2025)