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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: [email protected]: @sloandrblog: www.58sound.comwork: www.dmag.org.uk --- www.computing.dundee.ac.uk
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