Approaches to Inclusive eAssessment

David Sloan 5th September 2012

eAssessment Scotland 2012

http://www.flickr.com/photos/purecaffeine/5399530443/

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Today’s presentation• The role of e-assessment in an inclusive

learning and teaching environment– Primary focus is disability, but also relevant to

distance learners, mobile device use• The learner perspective: creating an inclusive

assessment environment• The teacher perspective: creating an inclusive

electronic assessment• Focus on general principles and best practice– No platform- or tool-specific information

David Sloan: Inclusive eAssessment

1 MOTIVATION FOR INCLUSIVE E-ASSESSMENT

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The inclusivity potential of e-assessment

• Overcoming accessibility limitations of the physical world– Simulation– Remote access via video or audio

• Flexibility of presentation of assessment– Customisation of appearance and behaviour– Reuse potential/maintenance over time

• Meeting organisational legal and social responsibilities

David Sloan: Inclusive eAssessment

2 ASSESSMENT ACCESSIBILITY FROM THE LEARNER’S PERSPECTIVE

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Learner -- Accessibility

What does a learner with accessibility needs require from an e-assessment?

1. An accessible assessment environment2. Fairness in the nature of the assessment

instrument

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Making the assessment environment accessible

• Physical accessibility of venue• Accessibility of the assessment’s host

platform: appropriate accommodations for a learner’s accessibility requirements– Is the required assistive technology (AT) that a

learner needs available?– Or can the learner use their own AT?– Does the environment enable a learner to

make necessary adjustments to display or input device behaviour?

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Fairness in nature of assessment

• A balance between pedagogic aims of the assessment and sensory, physical and cognitive demands placed on a learner

• For example, think carefully about questions where the format demands:– High visual acuity– Colour perception– Fine mouse control– Reading text in a particular format– Filling in a complex form

David Sloan: Inclusive eAssessment

3 ACCESSIBILITY FROM THE TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE

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Teacher -- Accessibility

• Key principles:– Anticipate and accommodate diversity in learner

needs– Design each e-assessment to be as accessible as

possible• Enabling an individual learner’s own assistive

technology to do its job

– Consider aggregating multiple assessment methods to accommodate diverse needs

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Accessible Assessments

• For accessibility solutions to work as they should, digital content must be designed in a way that allows them to do so

• Basic principles (from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative):

1. Allow people to perceive assessment content2. Allow people to operate assessment content 3. Allow people to understand assessment content4. Provide assessment content that is robust across

different environments

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Principle 1. Perceivable• Provide alternatives to graphical content for people

who can’t see it:– A text alternative for an image (the HTML alt attribute)– A longer text description for a complex image such as a graph– Audio description for a video

• Make content easier to see– Avoid low contrast text/background colour schemes– Use animated content with care

• Provide alternatives for audio content for people who can’t hear it:– Captions (better) or transcript– Signed translation (if possible)

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Principle 1. Perceivable

• Provide alternatives to textual content for people who have difficulty reading or processing it:– Static images: photos, graphs, diagrams– Video, animations– Signed content

• Provide alternatives to audio content for people who can hear it but have difficulty understanding it– Subtitles

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Principle 2. Operable

• Support keyboard operation– All functionality accessible via the keyboard– No keyboard ‘traps’– Alternatives to drag-and-drop

• Give learners enough time to respond– Be very careful about time-limits on requiring actions

• Support efficient navigation through the assessment– Clear links, headings, ‘skip links’– Logically labelled and positioned form controls– Be careful with “multiple multiple choice” questions

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Principle 3. Understandable

• Make sure content is comprehensible:– Language appropriate to the target audience– Changes in natural language identified

• Apply predictable design and behaviour– Consistency in page layout, terminology, actions

• Give input assistance– Help in providing correct input to forms (where

appropriate)– Appropriate error handling

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Principle 4. Robust

• Provide content that is available and usable across different browsing platforms - legacy and future– Valid HTML and CSS markup– Using ‘accessibility-supported’ technology

• Watch out when copying content into an assessment authoring tool from another source

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Evaluating Assessment Accessibility• Check principles of accessibility have been met

before piloting an e-assessment• Act on results by amending the assessment

before use - and if you can’t…• …try to deal with accessibility shortcomings– Understand location, nature and impact – Understand if you/a colleague can fix them or

whether it’s a vendor issue with the delivery platform– Developing and implementing a strategy for dealing

with shortcomings (short term workaround, long term fix)

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Resources• W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

(WCAG): http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php

• WebAIM - general advice on web accessibility: http://www.webaim.org

• Techdis: Accessibility in e-Assessment: http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/pages/detail/floating_pages/Inclusive_E-Assessment

• Sheffield Hallam University: Accessible Assessments: http://www.shu.ac.uk/services/lti/accessibleassessments/

THANKYOU!

email: dsloan@computing.dundee.ac.uktwitter: @sloandrblog: www.58sound.comwork: www.dmag.org.uk --- www.computing.dundee.ac.uk

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