Assessment does not only drive students’ learning but shapes their identities. Assessment is often designed for “the normal student”, causing barriers for the learning and inclusion for a number of equity groups. For example, inaccessible assessment design has led into systemic use of assessment adjustments (e.g. extra time in tests) in higher education systems around the world. While assessment is notoriously tricky to reform, the pandemic has opened a reflexive space for rethinking how and why we assess students. In the post-pandemic world, who is “the normal student” anymore? In this presentation, I explore how assessment could address the diversity of students more inclusively: not only by supporting learning, but by enabling students diverse ways of growing as future professionals.

Presenter:

Juuso Henrik Nieminen is Assistant Professor at the Academic Unit of Social Contexts and Policies of Education, University of Hong Kong, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University, Australia. His current research focuses on student experiences of assessment and feedback, student formation in higher education and inclusive assessment.