Universal Design for Learning Third Principle
Multiple means of expression of learning
- Bottom Line: What learning objectives are you assessing?
- Identify target constructs.
- Provide frequent opportunities to demonstrate learning and receive feedback.
- Offer flexibility in format, timing, and conditions.
- Consider non-test assessments.
- Design assessments that permit computer use.
- Allow revisions and recognize final achievement.
- Incorporate low-stakes/no-stakes assessments.
- Essentials of universally designed assessments
- Resources
Bottom Line: What learning objectives are you assessing?
Assessment is one of the three major dimensions of course design, and the focus of the third principle of UDL: Provide multiple means for students to demonstrate what they have learned. Because the learning you are concerned with is articulated in the course objectives, all assessments should measure the degree to which students have achieved one or more of those objectives. If you do not measure achievement of the objectives, your assessments – and the grades you give – will be meaningless.
Tightly linking assessment with objectives is critical for universal design purposes as well. If you are clear about what you want students to learn, and therefore what you are measuring, you will know what aspects of a given assessment are essential to its purpose and which are incidental – and therefore subject to change or alternative forms. It is this clarity that allows faculty to be as inclusive of student diversity as possible without compromising academic requirements or standards.
Identify target constructs.
The particular concepts, skills, etc., that an assessment tool seeks to measure are called “target constructs.” A test, project, problem set, debate, or any other context for demonstrating learning must yield accurate information about how well the student has mastered the target construct(s), and it should not measure anything else that would confound its accuracy with respect to those target constructs.
One category of potentially confounding factors is known as “access constructs”: skills and knowledge that are not target constructs, but which students must bring to the table in order to successfully complete the assessment. For example, comprehension of the written word is a common access construct, as is an understanding of what constitutes plagiarism. More specific access constructs could include knowledge of dates for particular events or the meaning of a reference to a popular TV show in a test question.
Some access constructs accumulate naturally as students build on their knowledge over the course of a semester or program. Others result from assumptions faculty make about what students at a given point in their academic careers should know or be able to do. Still others crop up as unintentional by-products of specific assessment structures or tasks. In all cases, it is important to consciously analyze your assessments and distinguish target constructs from access constructs. You will then be in a position to see whether any access construct sets up a potential barrier to students’ demonstration of their mastery of target constructs. In other words, you will know whether some students who have learned what you want them to learn will not be able to show you that because of the way you have set up the assessment.
Universally designed assessments minimize barriers to demonstrating learning, and give students as much flexibility as possible regarding how they show what they have achieved. Thus, having provided full access to the content of the course, and having given students many opportunities to do interesting, challenging things that build their knowledge and skills, the universally designed course gives them a variety of chances to express the full extent of their learning.
Provide frequent opportunities to demonstrate learning and receive feedback.
Because students vary so widely in ways that affect their academic success, any assessment plan that allows only a few occasions for evaluating student work will yield an inaccurate picture of some students’ progress. Offering multiple and flexible assessment opportunities ensures that most or all students will be able to fully express what they know/can do. The more frequently students receive information about what they have done well and what they need to improve, the more often they can adjust, reinforce what they know, and use their remaining time to implement your suggestions. Frequent assessment also gives the instructor regular feedback about how students are doing, what is working for whom, and what might improve learning.
Assessments do not have to be time-consuming or complicated to serve the purpose of providing all parties with feedback for improvement. For instance, faculty could require students to bring index cards to class each day, so that they may break up a lecture with short individual or group applications of the material. Students could write an answer to a question or problem and then turn it in. The instructor could look them over before the next class, write remarks on them, or address the most common or egregious errors during the next class. Other options include asking students to write down the main point of the preceding lecture segment, or to propose a test question based on the material.
Offer flexibility in format, timing, and conditions
UDL encourages faculty to offer options to students regarding how they demonstrate what they have learned. Formats and conditions that seem neutral may in practice create a serious disadvantage for certain students. For example, a term paper can be useful for measuring effective written communication skills, information literacy, in-depth knowledge of a course topic, and familiarity with methodological and substantive issues. However, it can also pose substantial challenges to students for a variety of reasons, including prior experience and preparedness, disability, health status, language skills, and personal issues. These challenges may interfere with those students’ ability to write as well as they might, express their knowledge, or explore relevant issues.
Considering the amount of reading and writing involved, English language learners and students with a related learning disability will have to commit a tremendous amount of time and energy to the assignment, or settle for a substandard paper. The amount of time required can pose a barrier for the many Temple students who have jobs or family responsibilities, as well as those with a chronic illness. And the organizational and time management skills required to execute a major, long-term, multi-phase assignment will present intimidating challenges to students who lack those skills, including some with traumatic brain injuries, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or psychiatric disabilities.
Again, it is critical to be very clear about why you are requiring a term paper. Is this term paper the only assignment that will facilitate and assess your students’ achievement of the specific learning objectives you have defined? If it is, your next task is to provide adequate structure and support to students. However, you may decide that several more limited tasks will measure the same objectives you are using the term paper to assess. You may also come up with alternative formats for the end product. It may then be possible to offer students a choice as to the format and/or task they prefer.
One alternative task may call for a book review, which would provide in-depth information on a course-related topic and call on the student to engage with methodological and substantive questions, but would limit the amount of research, reading, and writing. If effective written communication is not a course objective, students could have the option of producing a podcast of their book review rather than a typed document. To assess information literacy, students could investigate a research question of their choice and compile a literature review or annotated bibliography. Or they could propose a series of questions requiring research, and each student would draw one or more at random. They would then investigate and record in some form the answers, their sources, and an explanation of the process they used. Everyone could post their work in a wiki, so that others could learn from them. The posts could be audio or text files.
Choice of topic can also be a significant way to promote student success. Students are more motivated when working on issues that are personally meaningful or otherwise have value for them. For some, choosing their own topic can actually turn an intimidating assignment into an enjoyable and doable one. For example, a student with ADHD or Asperger Syndrome may have difficulty maintaining focus throughout the extended process of researching and writing a term paper. A wide choice among topics, however, which allowed her/him to work on a question of great personal interest, would mitigate the attention problem to some degree.
Consider non-test assessments.
Tests are just one of the methods you can use to measure student achievement of learning goals. As with any assessment, you should consider your objectives and decide whether a test of the type you intend to give is the best way to find out how well your students have learned. This is especially important given the high anxiety that many students feel when preparing for or taking tests, and the constraints caused by the conditions under which tests usually take place. For a detailed discussion of how to make tests and quizzes more inclusive of diverse student needs, go to “Universal Design of Tests and Quizzes."
The following is a non-exhaustive list of alternatives to tests:
- Reports: including lab reports, results of problem-solving activities, or research. These may be presented in a variety of forms, including written, oral, recorded (audio or video), poster, flow-chart, concept map, timeline.
- Case Studies
- Oral presentations of cases, research, solutions, etc.
- Portfolios: hard copy, electronic, video
- Journals: hard copy or electronic
- Websites
- Simulations
- Visual representations, concept maps, flow charts
- Book reviews
- Microthemes: very brief discussions in answer to a realistic problem scenario; these require students to correctly deploy concepts or theories and to communicate clearly and efficiently. [1]
- Memos: may be directed to any real-life character, such as a judge, client, legislator, or colleague.
- Letters to the Editor
- Blogs: Blackboard has a blog feature that is easy to learn.
- Wikis: A wiki is a collaborative space where contributors can create and edit content, including text, images, audio files, and multimedia. Blackboard has a wiki feature that allows the instructor to define who can view or contribute to the wiki.
- Group projects
- Bids for a contract
- Demonstrations
- Creation of objects, 3D perspectives, models
- Debates or role-playing
Design assessments that permit computer use.
The computer is a standard tool for many of today’s students. It would be incorrect, however, to assume that all Temple students have extensive use of a computer with high-speed internet access and later versions of popular software, and assignments should take that into account. Nevertheless, faculty should also design assessments so that students who can and wish to use a computer will be able to do so.
Permitting students to use a computer in or outside of class removes multiple barriers to participation, engagement, and successful demonstration of learning (especially for a test requiring more than minimal writing). The most obvious source of benefit is that so many assistive technologies operate through a computer. This makes computers crucial for blind and low vision students (using a screen reader, magnifier, voice recognition, or refreshable Braille display); deaf students (using grammar-check or word prediction); English language learners and students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities (using text-to-speech software, read-and-write tools, or spell- and grammar check); students with mobility and dexterity challenges (using voice recognition or word processing with adaptive tools). Besides students who use assistive technologies, there are a number who prefer to use computers for composition because they simply type better (more quickly, neatly, and accurately) than they write by hand.
Allow revisions and recognize final achievement.
Assessment is integral to learning because it informs the learner and the instructor about the extent of the learner’s progress toward the defined goals. The student can use this information to reinforce positive developments and to become aware of misconceptions, gaps, and needed changes in practice. The most direct connection between feedback and improvement occurs when a student revises her/his work in response to the professor’s indication of what is correct and incorrect, and suggestions for improving performance. Knowing that s/he will have a chance to revise and resubmit work relieves some of the stress many students feel about high-stakes assessments. Timely revisions that correct mistakes, clarify arguments, strengthen evidence, and the like also advance learning more effectively than simply receiving a grade and filing the work away without acting on the feedback. Students vary in the speed with which they grasp ideas, especially in unfamiliar domains of knowledge. Building in opportunities for revision allows students another iteration of the material, and another chance to grapple with it. This could be enough to get them to the level of proficiency you are seeking.
One strategy for recognizing students’ progress without doing extra work grading revisions is to give a series of assessments that measure the same objectives. Assuming that a student improves his/her performance on each successive occasion, the last in the series will reflect the extent of his/her achievement of the objectives. In that case, the last grade is the only one that will count.[2] This method recognizes the obvious fact that most students will enter a course with less knowledge and weaker skills than they will have by the end. Averaging scores on the series of assessments would have the perverse effect of penalizing students for having to learn what the course is designed to teach. Treating the series as cumulative by using only the final grade recognizes what the student has achieved by the end of the semester.
Incorporate low-stakes/no-stakes assessments.
One additional aspect of diverse means of expression relates to the stakes attached to given learning activities. It is good practice to offer tasks that have low or no stakes, along with others that have higher stakes. For instance, you may choose not to grade an in-class writing or problem-solving task, but to use it instead simply for information about student learning and an opportunity to provide constructive comments.
On the other hand, you may choose to make a major assignment or an activity in which students invest a good deal of time a high-stakes assessment. The rationale for this would be that a student who successfully completes the task will have demonstrated the requisite level of achievement of one or more course goals. Such high-stakes assessments should only come into play after students have had prior (low- or no-stakes) chances to practice the skills and use the knowledge required. One way to bring a low-stakes facet to a major assignment is to allow/require students to submit a version, revise their work based on your feedback, and resubmit it for a new grade.
Essentials of universally designed assessments:
- Each assessment tool measures what you intend to measure, and avoids measuring factors other than the defined target skills and knowledge;
- The assessment includes appropriate scaffolding to remove potential barriers formed by access constructs and incidental factors (e.g., It includes explanations of cultural references that are not actually a subject of the test; it allows students to bring into a test specially prepared notes with information that they need, but do not necessarily have to commit to memory);
- The design of the assessment provides flexible means, where possible, for a student to demonstrate the target skills and/or knowledge:
- The required tasks are set within a context that is familiar as a result of previous learning activities related to the skills/knowledge being measured;
- The assessment is consistent with student expectations based on clear articulation of the instructor’s goals and standards:
- What are the parameters of knowledge and skills to be assessed?
- What is the precise procedure?
- How much value is placed upon correct spelling and grammar? Length? Creativity? etc.
- The instructor distributes a rubric for complex assessments in time for students to use it in preparing for and completing the assessment. Even for less complex tasks, a rubric is an excellent tool for communicating goals, standards, and parameters.
- The assessment measures and grades students’ achievements based on whether their work meets the defined standards and criteria, rather than by comparing them to one another.
- The instructor gives students support in adjusting to a particular assessment procedure. For example:
- Distributing anonymous examples of previous work of varying quality is one way to give students an idea of what to expect and how the standards for grading will be implemented. To help them become conversant with the criteria and how you apply them, assign groups of students to grade the samples using the rubric or other guidelines you provide. You can then supply your own evaluation of each sample, and students can compare it to theirs and clarify any discrepancies.
- Offer no-stakes practice of new types of skills or new test formats.
- Arrange peer mentoring or a buddy system for students who are unfamiliar with the norms of the class (first-year or transfer students, international students, etc.).[3]
Resources
Angelo, T.A. and K.P. Cross. Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993.
Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), Assessment Resources. This page contains links to a variety of quality resources on topics such as assessing portfolios, critical thinking assessment, using rubrics, quantitative reasoning and literacy assessment, and value-added assessment.
Biggs, John and Kevin Collis, “SOLO Taxonomy of Learning Outcomes.” An alternative to Bloom’s more familiar taxonomy, this system represents progressively more complex learning outcomes and the types of activities that demonstrate those outcomes.
Grace, Sue and Phil Gravestock. Inclusion and Diversity: Meeting the Needs of All Students. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Merlot ELIXR Project offers two video case studies on assessment: one demonstrating how professors from a variety of disciplines use rubrics to facilitate learning; and the other explaining how faculty at several colleges use knowledge surveys to assess learning of content knowledge and broader intellectual development.
National Center on Educational Outcomes, “Universally Designed Assessments.” This page contains a list of resources and publications, along with a tab for FAQs.
Wiggens, G. “A true test: Toward more authentic and equitable assessment.” Phi Delta Kappan (May 1989): 703-13.
Return to Contents
Endnotes
- ^ See J.C. Bean, “Formal Writing Assignments,” in Bean, Engaging Ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2001: 79-83.
- ^ In the event the student’s performance does not improve to a high point at the end, it makes more sense to take the average of the scores.
- ^ Suggested by Sue Grace and Phil Gravestock in Inclusion and Diversity: Meeting the Needs of All Students. New York: Routledge, 2009: 190.
