ADCET UDL Symposium: Through Multiple Perspectives Interprofessional Collaboration for Enabling Inclusive Assessment Practices
In-person presentation
This interactive presentation used provocations and open-ended questions to guide a facilitated exploration of inclusive assessment practices. It was designed to foster meaningful engagement and provide an inclusive experience while prompting participants to connect with their own contexts and practices and inviting a diversity of perspectives.
The facilitated discussion drew from the presenters’ interprofessional collaboration in co-designing and delivering institutional-wide workshops on inclusive assessment strategies at a dual sector institution. Presenters’ interprofessional expertise spans across educational practice, equitable learning and careers education. These different professional perspectives provided a unique co-design opportunity that has supported the practical translation of universal design for learning (UDL) approaches into assessment design strategies for workshops across the institution.
The workshop content was aligned to UDL and strategically modelled multiple means of engagement, representation, action and expression for participants. It included worked examples of removing assessment barriers, and guidance on adopting an experimental Inclusive Thinking Cycle for assessment redesign. Further, the content provided practical approaches to strengthening regulatory, legal and industry assurances for creating equivalent opportunities for all students, as well as the exploration and development of skills in self-advocacy, a significant skill for navigation of the learning journey and throughout a career.
Through multiple perspectives and interprofessional collaboration, ways to advance inclusive assessment practices were explored. Given the significant role assessment plays in both student and educator experiences, this facilitated discussion was designed to support the sharing of practical strategies for removing curriculum barriers in assessment design.
Presenters
Alyce Greenwood is a Senior Education Practice Specialist in RMIT’s Centre for Education, Innovation and Quality. With more than a decade of experience in higher education, she is deeply passionate about enhancing learning and teaching practices in higher education. She has used universal design for learning across a range of contexts to guide inclusive teaching practices. She is recognised as a Fellow by Advance HE and holds a Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary), a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Information Management, a Graduate Certificate of Higher Education (Learning and Teaching) and a Master of Education (Leadership and Learning).
Dr Anna Branford is a Careers Educator at the Centre for Education, Innovation & Quality at RMIT University with a doctorate in Sociology. She is an internationally published children's author whose books include the Violet Mackerel series, and whose research has been published in journals including The Australian Journal of Anthropology; the Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability; the International Journal of Work Integrated Learning; and The Yonsei Journal of International Studies. She has also published opinion pieces in fora including the Times Higher Education and The New Philosopher, and with colleagues has received a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, Australian Awards for University Teaching.
Teresa Dowding is the Manager of the Equitable Learning and Accessibility team RMIT Australia. She is a strong advocate for UDL approaches, not least because they reduce the “othering” that can occur with specialised services for people with disabilities. Teresa has worked in the disability sector for over 30 years, managing a variety of teams in case management or social inclusion services in the not-for-profit sector, and is keen to apply a universal design lens to the tertiary sector. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Disability Studies and is passionate about the transformative power education can have for equity cohorts.
(June 2026)