Diversifying assessment methods: Barriers, benefits and enablers

Abstract

Student populations have become increasingly diverse in the past decades, but Higher Education Institutions have not been evolving their assessment practices at the same rate. This study used a survey to investigate the barriers and enablers to diversifying assessment including using student choice of assessment. In examples where educators had diversified students’ assessment tasks, it also explored its benefits, outcomes and the association between familiarity, resources and success of the assessment implementation. The findings identified that student engagement and empowerment were key benefits to diversification. There was an overall perception that time and resources were the greatest barriers but this was not supported in the examples provided. The fear of grade inflation, when diversifying, appears to run counter intuitive to supporting student success in assessment. Further work needs to be done to interrogate what is meant by the concept of ‘diverse assessment’ and to support educators in its implementation.