In-person assessments provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning through written tests and examinations, oral assessments, presentations, practical demonstrations, station-based examinations, performances, and other activities completed in a shared physical setting. They may take place in classrooms, examination rooms, laboratories, studios, clinical settings, or other learning environments.
An in-person assessment is not necessarily timed, supervised, or closed-book. These are separate design decisions that should be informed by the intended learning outcomes.
As instructors reconsider assessment practices, including in response to generative AI and other emerging technologies, it is important to consider how assessment design, communication, and environmental conditions influence students’ opportunities to demonstrate their learning.
The following strategies can help instructors design and facilitate in-person assessments that are accessible, inclusive, and usable.
Align Assessments with Learning Outcomes
Begin by considering what students are expected to demonstrate and whether the assessment provides appropriate opportunities to do so. Learning outcomes may involve knowledge, skills, and attitudes, depending on the course and discipline.
Assessment validity provides a useful framework for examining the relationship between learning outcomes, assessment activities, and the interpretation of student performance.
- Construct validity: Whether evidence from an assessment supports the intended interpretations of students’ knowledge, skills, or other attributes.
- Construct-irrelevant variance: When performance is influenced by factors unrelated to what the assessment intends to evaluate, such as unnecessary time pressure, unfamiliar technology, or environmental distractions.
- Construct underrepresentation: When an assessment does not adequately capture important aspects of the knowledge or skills it intends to evaluate.
For example, if an assessment is intended to evaluate conceptual understanding, a strict time limit may introduce demands unrelated to that outcome. However, if responding accurately under time constraints is an intended learning outcome, timing may be an important part of the assessment.
Consider the following strategies:
- Align assessment conditions with learning outcomes. Determine whether requirements such as memorization, handwriting, oral communication, or time limits are essential to what students are expected to demonstrate.
- Consider assessment stakes. Balance lower-stakes and higher-stakes assessments, recognizing that higher-stakes assessments may warrant additional opportunities for preparation and familiarization.
- Review duration and timing. Allow sufficient time for students to understand instructions, process questions, and demonstrate their learning. Consider whether the assessment takes place during regularly scheduled class time or outside it, and the potential implications for students.
- Choose assessment formats intentionally. Consider whether written, oral, practical, or other in-person formats are appropriate for the intended learning outcomes.
Communicate Expectations and Support Preparation
Clear, accessible, and timely communication helps students understand what is expected, prepare for an assessment, and identify potential barriers before the assessment takes place.
The Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework offers a useful approach to communicating assessment expectations through three elements:
- Purpose: Why students are completing the assessment and how it connects to their learning.
- Task: What students are expected to do, including the steps and requirements.
- Criteria: How student performance will be evaluated and what successful work involves.
Consider the following strategies:
- Provide assessment information in advance. Communicate the format, date, time, duration, location, procedures, and expectations in writing. Use straightforward, unambiguous language and explain unfamiliar terminology.
- Clarify permitted materials and technologies. Explain whether the assessment is open-book or closed-book, what resources students may use, and whether devices or applications are permitted. If memory aids are allowed, specify whether they are instructor-provided or student-created, along with any restrictions on their content or format.
- Communicate academic integrity expectations. Clarify what constitutes permitted assistance, collaboration, and resource use, including expectations concerning generative AI, wearable technologies, and other devices, consistent with University policies.
- Provide opportunities for familiarization and practice. Share sample questions, demonstrate unfamiliar assessment formats, or offer lower-stakes practice activities. Higher-stakes assessments may benefit from more structured preparation.
- Explain assessment procedures. Describe when and how students should arrive, where they should sit, how questions may be raised, and what procedures apply to washroom breaks, late arrivals, or unexpected interruptions. For longer assessments, clarify any rules concerning water, food, and personal belongings.
- Provide opportunities to ask questions. Invite students to clarify instructions, expectations, and procedures before the assessment, using more than one communication method where feasible.
- Communicate accessibility and accommodation information. Encourage students who may require academic accommodations to connect with their campus accessibility office early. Providing assessment details in advance helps students identify potential barriers and plan for their accommodation needs.
For assessments that require digital tools or online authentication, communicate technology requirements in advance. Students may need to prepare for U of T’s multi-factor authentication (UTORMFA) procedures or confirm access to required software and devices.
Consider the Assessment Environment
The physical and sensory conditions of an assessment can influence students’ concentration, comfort, participation, and ability to demonstrate their learning. Instructors may not control every aspect of an assessment space, but can identify potential barriers and work with relevant units to address them.
Consider the following strategies:
- Review physical accessibility. Consider accessible entrances and routes, seating arrangements, desk and work-surface accessibility, lighting, acoustics, and proximity to accessible washrooms. Where possible, provide opportunities for students to become familiar with an unfamiliar assessment space.
- Consider transitions and physical demands. For station-based or performance assessments, consider how students move between locations, interact with equipment or materials, and complete tasks within designated timeframes. Determine which physical and timing requirements are essential to the learning outcomes and which may introduce unnecessary barriers.
- Reduce unnecessary distractions. Minimize announcements, side conversations, avoidable movement, and other interruptions. Where appropriate and permitted, allow students to use noise-reducing items such as earplugs that do not interfere with assessment requirements.
- Promote scent awareness. Remind students and assessment personnel of U of T’s Guidelines on the Use of Perfumes and Scented Products, which encourage voluntary cooperation towards scent-reduced environments.
- Recognize variability in student behaviours. Students may look away while thinking, shift positions, make repetitive movements, or experience involuntary movements. These behaviours should not, on their own, be interpreted as evidence of academic misconduct.
- Clarify break procedures. Explain how students can request washroom breaks or other permitted breaks, and how these will be managed during supervised assessments. Account for approved accommodations through the appropriate campus processes.
- Prepare assessment personnel. For large classes or assessments taking place in multiple locations, provide teaching assistants and invigilators with consistent instructions, expectations, and procedures for responding to questions, disruptions, and accessibility-related concerns.
- Prepare materials and contingency plans. Have additional examination booklets, paper, and permitted materials available. For technology-supported assessments, plan how technical difficulties, connectivity problems, or other disruptions will be addressed.
Additional Considerations for Oral Assessments
Oral assessments, including viva voce examinations, may introduce additional demands related to processing information, organizing responses, and communicating under time pressure.
Where appropriate to the learning outcomes:
- Explain the format, duration, evaluation criteria, and roles of examiners in advance.
- Use clear, direct questions and avoid unnecessarily complex or multipart phrasing.
- Provide questions in written as well as spoken formats where feasible.
- Allow appropriate time for students to process questions and formulate responses.
- Explain how students may request clarification, repetition, or breaks.
The University of Cambridge’s In-person Accessible Viva Voce Guide provides further considerations for accessible oral examinations.
Academic Accommodations
Providing assessment information in advance can help students identify potential barriers and determine whether they need to arrange or use academic accommodations. Encourage students who may require accommodations to connect with their campus accessibility office as early as possible.