Assessment Toolkit

Q2: How do I make assessments clear and fair for students?

Continuing with the six questions to guide your assessment design:

How do I make assessments clear and fair for students?

  1. How do I ensure I am assessing what students need to learn?
  2. How do I make assessments clear and fair for students?
  3. How do I give students opportunities to practice, get feedback, and improve?
  4. How do I support students take ownership of their learning?
  5. How do I help students apply their learning in meaningful ways?
  6. How do I design assessments that support student well-being?

Q2 - How do I make assessments clear and fair for students?

USask Assessment Principles #2 - IS INCLUSIVE AND TRANSPARENT, SO STUDENTS HAVE EQUITABLE OPPORTUNITIES TO DEMONSTRATE THEIR LEARNING.

Summary: For assignments to be equitable and valid representations of what all students know and can do, it should be clear in advance what is expected and what the criteria are for doing well. When all the assessments in a course are designed to advantage a specific small set of learning traits over others, they can be unintentionally unfair. An example might be creating all assessments with tight timelines, which advantage all learners who process quickly over those who think deeply over time.

Resources to Support

Implementing into your course: When assessment is inclusive and transparent, students understand what they are trying to demonstrate through an assessment and what specific characteristics a good assessment product has. When we make assessments more inclusive, they are designed to work well for a variety of access needs and cultures, often through choice or universal design.

Quick win: Review your next assignment's description and ask a colleague or student to identify anything that might be unclear or confusing.

USask Resources

Course Alignment Ideas

Educators can make assessments more inclusive and transparent by:

  • Clearly explaining assessment expectations, criteria, and grading practices early in the course.
  • Providing rubrics, exemplars, or sample responses before students complete an assignment.
  • Using accessible document formats and assessment materials.
  • Offering multiple ways for students to demonstrate learning when appropriate, such as written, oral, visual, or applied formats.
  • Reviewing assessments for unnecessary barriers unrelated to the learning outcomes.
  • Using clear, straightforward language in assignment instructions.
  • Providing opportunities for students to ask questions about assessment requirements.
  • Including information about academic accommodations and support services in the syllabus.

Common Concerns & Related Literature:

Decisions made to make assessments more secure can often also make them less fair and ensure they will require more accommodations. Common examples of this include time limits, not allowing students to go back to previous questions on digital assessment, and requiring students to write previously take-home assessments in class.

It is important that educators think carefully about how these assessment conditions might impact students with different learning needs.

Clear criteria for what is “good” may seem like giving information, and that students do not have to put in effort or might not develop self-directed learning and critical thinking skills.

Instead, it tells students what you want them to focus on. It ensures all students have the same information and are able deduce what is most important to learn regardless of if they are first in family at university, or new to Canada, or have more experience and connections.

Big ideas

Literature

Inclusive and Transparent

How to: Dawson (2015)

Equitable opportunity / Assessment for Inclusion

Conceptual: Tai (2022)

Get Support

  • Attend GMCTL workshops to learn about the Assessment Principles and how to use within your course.
  • Book a one-to-one consultation with GMCTL experts who can help you design a full assessment consistent with the principles for your course.

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