Assessments are the cornerstone of any course. They’re not just tasks for students to complete—they’re the tools we use to measure whether students have truly grasped the concepts and skills they’ll need to thrive in their future careers. Given their importance, it’s crucial to design assessments that make a significant impact. Traditionally, assessments have followed a one-size-fits-all approach, with every student completing the same activity. Fortunately, with the advent of new instructional models and technologies, we now have the opportunity to incorporate elements of student choice into assessments and empower students to demonstrate their learning in ways that align with their preferences, career aspirations, and personal strengths. In this post, we’ll explore strategies to introduce student choice into your online course assessments.
Universal Design for Learning
Student choice also requires us to consider Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is an instructional framework that recognizes the diverse ways in which students learn. Factors like disabilities, cultural backgrounds, and prior experiences all shape how students prefer to learn and show what they’ve learned. UDL encourages us to design courses with these differences in mind, focusing on the needs of students who might fall outside the “average” range.
The concept of “designing for the margins” is a key point in designing student choice. Rather than designing for an imaginary average student, UDL suggests that we plan for the wide variety of learning preferences and needs that exist in any classroom. By doing so, we create a learning environment that supports everyone. Offering choices in how students demonstrate their learning is a way to design for the margins. By allowing students to choose how they showcase their knowledge, you’re giving them the opportunity to play to their strengths, address their weaknesses, and take ownership of their educational journey. When students are given this freedom, there’s no need to design with an average student in mind—every student’s needs are considered.
For more information on UDL, including the neuroscience research and the different brain networks it acknowledges, we recommend exploring CAST’s resources on the subject.
Strategies for Addressing Student Choice
While there’s tremendous value in allowing your students to have a say in how they demonstrate their learning, as with any course design endeavor, it’s important to do so in a way that’s purposeful and appropriate for your subject matter and audience. To do this, consider the following tips.
Build in Goal Setting
One effective method to introduce student choice is by incorporating goal setting into your course. This can be a powerful way to encourage higher levels of performance. Goal setting not only helps students visualize what they want to achieve but also guides their choices in assignments. For example, in an education course, you might ask students to consider their future career goals—where they want to teach, the subject matter they’re passionate about, and the teaching methods they hope to use. These goals can then influence their assignment submissions, making the assessments more relevant to their personal and professional aspirations.
It’s equally important to offer flexibility in how students set their goals. Some may prefer traditional paper planners, while others might benefit from digital tools like checklists or time management sheets. By providing different options, you’re more likely to help all students find a goal-setting method that works for them. For example, a course could include estimates on how much time students need to set aside for schoolwork and studying, or an hour-by-hour planning sheet that they can use to identify work schedules, personal commitments, and planned study time. By focusing on different methods of time management and goal setting, it becomes more likely that all students will find a way that works best for them.
Incorporating goal setting into your course not only helps students focus on their interests but also allows them to tailor their assignments to align with those interests.
Broaden Learning Objectives
When designing a course, it’s crucial to consider your learning objectives. If you’re incorporating student choice, you might want to see if there’s room to broaden these objectives to allow for more flexibility. Consider whether the specific skill or task outlined in your learning objective is the only way to demonstrate competence. When doing so, ask yourself if the skill or verb in your learning objective is absolutely essential for demonstrating competence. For instance, instead of requiring students to “write a persuasive essay,” could they “construct a persuasive argument”? This broader objective allows students to choose how they demonstrate their learning—whether through a speech, a debate, or a written essay—based on what best aligns with their goals and strengths.
By broadening your learning objectives, you open the door for students to personalize their assessments while still meeting the course’s goals.
Allow Students To Choose the Medium
Another method to enhance student motivation and satisfaction is to offer them the choice of how they demonstrate their skills. This approach not only aligns with broader learning objectives but also taps into students’ individual strengths and interests. Imagine giving students the option to submit a video, an infographic, or even a play instead of a traditional paper. By doing so, you open the door to creativity and personalized learning experiences. For example, if we go back to that “construct a persuasive argument” example, some options could include allowing students to write a script showing an interaction in which someone persuades someone else, drawing the aforementioned interaction out in a comic-book style, or even creating a video in which they deliver a persuasive speech or engage in a debate. Each meets the learning objective—it just does so in a way that might be unique to each student’s goals.
Other Tips
If you build student choice into your assessments, there are a couple of items you may want consider when developing the activity or assessment.
- Flexibility in Instructions and Rubrics: When incorporating student choice, consider how you will address instructions or rubrics. Avoid specifying the medium of the submission—terms like “write” or “paper” can unintentionally limit students’ creative options. Instead, clearly communicate that various formats are welcome and design rubrics that focus on the core skills being assessed, such as the clarity of the argument or the use of evidence rather than the format.
- Simplify Rubric Design: The different formats do not require different rubrics. When building your rubrics, focus on the essential competencies you’re evaluating. For instance, whether a student submits an essay, a video, or a comic, the rubric should assess their ability to demonstrate the core skills, such as construct a persuasive argument, supporting it with evidence, and communicating it effectively.
- Provide Examples: Offering examples of different submissions can help students think creatively about the assignment. These could be examples you’ve created, resources found online, or anonymized student work from previous courses. These examples can inspire students and give them a clearer idea of what’s possible.
Conclusion
Providing your students with choices in how they demonstrate their learning can have a profound impact on your online course. By employing the ideas suggested in this article, you open students to the possibility of creating artifacts that not only meet your course’s learning objectives but help them meet their personal, academic, and career goals as well. With that in mind, here are a few takeaways from this article:
- Student choice isn’t limited to assessments. UDL suggests that it can be incorporated into the fundamental elements of instructional design.
- Design for the margins: There’s no such thing as an “average” student.
- Students have a variety of learning preferences. To meet these with your assessments, consider broadening your learning objective or allowing students to choose the medium for their submission.
