Applying Universal Design to Assessment: Establishing Guidelines for Innovative Item Development

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Applying Universal Design to Assessment
Establishing Guidelines for Innovative Item
Development
CCSSO, San Francisco, CA 2006
Michael Harms Pearson Educational
Measurement Kelly Burling, Bob Dolan CAST
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What were going to talk about today

• understanding the range of functional
  capabilities of all students
• how to define guidelines and best-practices for
  test item design

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What is Universal Design?

• Universal Design is an approach to design that
  attempts to incorporate features that make things
  usable by more than just the average user
• to provide for diversity through design rather
  than accommodation
• Accessibility
• Usability
• Assistive Technologies
• Universal Design Universal Usability

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the Big Question

• Whats the best way to apply what we already know
  to new technologies?
• Since Accessibility and Inclusion are a
  requirement
• How do you know when youve been successful?
  For who?
• How do we document and articulate the design
  tradeoffs?

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Universal Design Challenges

• Large variability in functional capabilities
• Students sometimes have limitations from multiple
  categories
• Design requirements for one group of students
  often conflict with those for another
• Sensory disability, Cellphone, search engine
  emphasis on text-based
• Cognitive or Learning disability, low
  literacy emphasis on image-based
• Design solutions tend to be context specific

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Cast / Pearson Research

• Establish design guidelines and best practices
• Leverage existing research
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Interface
  Design Research
• Focus on Sources of Variance
• Better definition of student needs and abilities
• Flexible to accommodate different definitions
• Ability to align to existing design research
• Guide long-term design research
• Support establishment of reusable technical
  solutions and standards
• Multiple technologies, multiple contexts

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Thinking about item design
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• Computer-based
• Test Items

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The Guidelines Structure
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Results so far

• Established the guidelines structure
• Guided our thinking in a systematic way
• Currently refining the categories
• Expanding the scope of the guidelines
• Including new item types
• Including new research
• Completed our first round of data gathering
• Onsite research with a wide range of students

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Thank you!
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Using Technology to Enhance Accessible
Assessments for All Students
CCSSO, San Francisco, CA 2006

• Presenters
• Leanne Ketterlin Geller, University of Oregon
• Aran Felix,  Alaska Department of Education
• Michael Harms, Pearson Educational Measurement
• Kelly Burling, CAST
• Ronda Townsend,  Oklahoma State Department of
  Education
• Discussant
• Jerry Tindal University of Oregon