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Help your students succeed by providing alternative assessments. Learn why a student might need an alternative and what you need to consider.
Why provide alternative assessments?
Alternative assessments offer students another assessment type, or a change of format for the assessment. The purpose of an alternative assessment is to enhance accessibility by removing or reducing barriers that prevent the student from demonstrating their knowledge and skills.
Alternative assessments are not intended to give students an advantage over others. Rather, they enable the student to demonstrate their knowledge without being impeded by the assessment type.
Different options and flexibility of assessment modes in your learning design can provide a way of assessing more inclusively. This can reduce the need for alternative assessments, which benefits both staff and students by:
- Reducing the time staff need to consider, approve, negotiate, and prepare alternatives.
- Enabling students with a disability to feel as though they belong and are included in the usual processes.
Read more about how to approach some common assessment types in this resource collection, including:
When are alternative assessments implemented?
- In response to a particular assessment type that is not accessible for a specific disability type/impact.
- After a period of attempts with provisions or arrangements in place, that have not succeeded in minimising the impact of the student’s disability when undertaking a particular the assessment type.
- As part of a transition for new students or recently diagnosed students who need time to build up strategies to manage the impacts of their disability to participate in particular assessment types.
When feasible, Accessibility Consultants will encourage students to develop strategies to reduce the need for alternative assessment in the future. The Accessibility Service works in collaboration with UTS Counselling to support students.
For assessment types like exams and presentations, students are also encouraged to attend HELPS workshops and UTS Counselling.
How alternative assessments work
The process
There is a vigorous process in place to ensure alternative assessments meet academic integrity standards:
- Student registers with Accessibility Service, providing medical documentation from their treating health professional, outlining the impacts of their disability/health condition.
- Accessibility Consultant discusses with the student about the impacts of their disability/health condition in the university learning environment. In complex cases a meeting may be arranged with the Faculty Academic Liaison Officer.
- Subject Coordinator receives the request for the alternative assessment via the Access database.
- Subject Coordinator considers the request and approves or offers alternative options.
Subject Coordinators are welcome to discuss or seek clarification about the request with the referring Accessibility consultant or the Faculty Academic Liaison Officer.
Timing
It is advised that requests for alternative assessments be made prior to the census date to enable:
- Subject Coordinators to have an appropriate amount of time to consider the request and discuss/negotiate alternatives if the initial request is not approved.
- Students to be informed of the outcome to enable informed decision-making and provide the option to withdraw from the subject without incurring financial or academic penalty if the requests are not approved.
Note: It may not be possible for students to request prior to the census date when their disability or exacerbation of symptoms occur after this date or the impacts were not foreseeable from the start of session.
What you need to consider
Alternative assessments need to be considered reasonable, so there are several key questions to ask when considering a request:
- Does the alternative meet the subject learning outcomes?
- Does it adhere to the inherent requirements of a course?
- Does it maintain academic integrity?
- Does it adequately reduce the impact of disability on the assessment?
Supporting alternative and inclusive assessment
Don’t forget – there are people who can support you to implement alternative and inclusive assessments at UTS.
- Academic Liaison Officers: Advice on reasonable alternative assessments for your faculty
- LX.lab via ServiceConnect: Advice on how to implement your assessment in Canvas