UDL Conversations: Assessment Design
How can we design assessments that reflect learner variability and support meaningful learning? In these UDL Conversations, U of T members share strategies for building flexibility, creativity, and equity into assessment design:
- Inviting Creativity through Assessment with Danielle Bentley
- Designing for Confidence, Choice, and Scholarly Readiness with Adriana Grimaldi
- Designing Multimodal ePortfolios with Sophia Bello
- Designing Reflective and Embodied Assessment with Caylen Heckel
- Rethinking Experiential Learning and Research with Douglas Eacho
- Scaling Support and Flexibility with Shirley Yeung
Design for access, inclusion, and belonging
Use reflection and transparency to strengthen engagement
Design assessments for learner variability and meaningful learning
Explore how AI can reduce and introduce learning barriers
Inviting Creativity through Assessment
Redesigning an anatomy assignment to support creativity and learner choice.
Danielle Bentley
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Division of Anatomy, Department of Surgery, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, St. George
Watch UDL Conversations with Danielle Bentley highlight video (17:20). Conversation from March 20, 2025
What did we talk about?
- Redesigning an anatomy assignment to invite creativity, flexibility, and learner choice.
- Moving from a highly structured, text-based format toward open, multimodal submissions.
- Giving students freedom to select topics that align with their personal or professional interests.
- Welcoming diverse formats—essays, podcasts, infographics, short films, and “creative masterpieces.”
- Reflecting on how loosening initial restrictions encouraged deeper engagement and more authentic demonstrations of understanding.
Call to Action
- “Add one or take away one”: Add one new element of creative flexibility or remove one unnecessary restriction and see how students respond.
Resources
Designing for Confidence, Choice, and Scholarly Readiness
Supporting learner confidence and engagement through scaffolded pathways into complex material.
Adriana Grimaldi
Senior Educational Developer, Team Lead, RGASC; Sessional Lecturer, Italian Studies and Education Studies, Department of Language Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga
Watch UDL Conversations with Adriana Grimaldi highlight video (17:25, UTORid login required). Conversation from April 2, 2026.
What did we talk about?
- Reducing procedural barriers to focus on learning: Designing courses so students focus on engaging with content rather than deciphering expectations.
- Building confidence through early entry points: Using low-stakes discussion posts and familiar examples to activate prior knowledge.
- Bridging to complex material: Connecting student-generated ideas to dense scholarly texts to support deeper understanding.
- Designing for consistent engagement: Pairing readings with guided activities and low-stakes quizzes.
- Scaffolding topic development: Inviting students to “test drive” ideas through structured work with secondary sources.
- Reframing assessment as a learning process: Positioning the final essay as a culmination of sustained engagement across the course.
Strategies to Try
- Start with low-stakes entry points: Use accessible prompts to help students connect prior knowledge to new concepts.
- Sequence from familiar to complex: Introduce challenging material after students have built confidence.
- Pair readings with structure: Use short activities or quizzes to support preparation.
- Scaffold major assignments: Build in opportunities for students to explore and refine ideas before final submission.
- Build in flexibility: Allow choice in pacing, topics, or assessment components.
- Design for cumulative learning: Treat assessments as artifacts of growth over time.
Resources
Designing Multimodal ePortfolios
Supporting language learning through flexible, scaffolded portfolio assessment.
Sophia Bello
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of French, Faculty of Arts & Science, St. George
Watch UDL Conversations with Sophia Bello highlight video (14:59, UTORid login required). Conversation from February 6, 2026.
What did we talk about?
- Redesigning assessment in FSL226 through UDL: Centring multiple means of action and expression in a language learning context.
- From fixed to flexible ePortfolios: Gradually shifting portfolio requirements from highly structured components to open, multimodal formats.
- Documenting growth across the term: Requiring students to compare early and later artifacts to make language development visible.
- Scaffolded accountability: Introducing graded midterm drafts and one-on-one check-ins to support sustained progress.
- Peer presentation and revision: Incorporating in-class portfolio presentations followed by final refinement.
- Iterative course design: Using student feedback and course evaluations to refine assessment structure year over year.
Straegies to Try
- Use portfolios as process documentation: Design assignments that capture development over time rather than a single end product.
- Build in structured progress points: Add draft submissions or consultations that encourage early engagement.
- Separate creativity from competency: Assess core learning outcomes clearly while allowing flexibility in format.
- Invite authentic application: Encourage students to connect coursework to real-world contexts and personal interests.
- Explain design decisions: Share how previous student feedback shaped your current assessment model.
Resources
- Sophia Bello’s Website
- Sample ePortfolio Rubric (2024) PDF by Sophia Bello
Designing Reflective and Embodied Assessment
Using body mapping to support reflection, connection, and meaning-making in learning.
Caylen Heckel
Assistant Professor, Art History, Department of Visual Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga
Watch UDL Conversations with Caylen Heckel highlight video (15:47, UTORid login required). Conversation from April 20, 2026.
What did we talk about?
- Redesigning assessment through body mapping: Using a semester-long visual assignment to support reflection and meaning-making.
- Centring multiple means of action and expression: Inviting students to communicate ideas through visual, textual, and symbolic forms.
- Scaffolding reflection over time: Using weekly prompts and cumulative development to help students build connections across course concepts.
- Connecting personal experience to academic learning: Encouraging students to situate course material in relation to their own perspectives and identities.
- Making thinking visible: Using visual methods as a way for students to externalize and organize complex ideas.
- Shifting assessment toward process and exploration: Valuing iteration, reflection, and development rather than a single polished product.
- Encouraging learner agency: Challenging exclusionary practices to facilitate students’ willingness and capacities to access authentic expression.
Straegies to Try
- Use visual or multimodal mapping: Invite students to represent their thinking through diagrams, images, or spatial formats.
- Scaffold reflection across the term: Break larger assignments into smaller, cumulative components.
- Offer multiple entry points: Allow students to connect course material to personal, cultural, or experiential knowledge.
- Emphasize process over product: Create space for experimentation, revision, and ongoing development.
- Make expectations transparent: Provide prompts and structure that guide reflection without over-constraining it.
- Anticipate and plan for barriers: Make changes to assessment design in response to changing learning conditions.
Resources
- Accessagogy Podcast by Ann Gagné
- CAST UDL Guidelines 3.0
- Gastaldo, D., Magalhães, L., Carrasco, C., & Davy, C. (2012). Body-map storytelling as research: Methodological considerations for telling the stories of undocumented workers through body mapping. Migration as a Social Determinant of Health.
- Gauntlett, D., & Holzwarth, P. (2006). Creative and visual methods for exploring identities. Visual Studies, 21(1), 82–91.
- Mingus, M. (2012, May 8). Feeling the weight: Some beginning notes on disability, access and love. Leaving Evidence.
Rethinking Experiential Learning and Research
Connecting theatre experiences and research practice to deepen understanding and engagement.
Douglas Eacho
Assistant Professor, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies, Faculty of Arts & Science, St. George
Watch UDL Conversations with Douglas Eacho (12:42). Conversation from May 1, 2025.
What did we talk about?
- Introducing experiential learning in Drama 101: Students attend live performances across Toronto to connect course themes to real-world contexts.
- Building community and access: Shared attendance times and alternative options (e.g., curated video performances) support participation for all students.
- Encouraging reflective, low-stakes writing: Students translate their experiences into informal writing that develops critical voice and confidence.
- Redesigning the research component: Shifting focus from product to process through a library-based task where students explore physical books, take “shelf selfies,” and evaluate sources.
- Helping students recognize how knowledge is built: Showing that credible research develops through existing scholarship rather than emerging ex nihilo.
- Broadening perspectives on theatre and performance: Expanding examples beyond familiar references like Shakespeare or Broadway musicals.
Strategies to Try
- Use experiential learning intentionally: Connect course concepts to community or real-world experiences.
- Scaffold research as a process: Create checkpoints and reflection prompts that emphasize exploration over the final product.
- Help students examine how knowledge is built: Model how ideas evolve through research and collaboration.
- Offer flexible participation options: Provide alternative ways to engage when live or in-person experiences aren’t possible.
Scaling Support and Flexibility
Applying UDL principles to support flexibility and feedback in large courses.
Shirley Yeung
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts & Science, St. George
Watch UDL Conversations with Shirley Yeung highlight video (11:23, UTORid login required). Conversation from October 3, 2025.
What did we talk about?
- Scaling up UDL principles in large courses: Applying UDL practices in a 500-student anthropology course.
- Designing multimodal assignments: Inviting choice through essays, photo essays, and webcomics.
- Replacing traditional midterms with scaffolded supports: Using outlines, workshops, and feedback cycles to sustain progress.
- Co-developing rubrics with TAs: Enhancing transparency and reducing grading stress.
- Embedding Writing-Integrated Teaching (WIT) supports: Building a “nested” learning model for both students and TAs.
Strategies to Try
- Pair major deadlines with support: Schedule related workshops or feedback sessions.
- Expand expression options: Allow written, visual, or mixed-media formats.
- Co-create rubrics: Work with students and TAs to clarify expectations.
- Sustain feedback loops: Build a layered model where lead writing TAs mentor tutorial leaders.
Resources
U Design Learning | Teaching with Universal Design for Learning at U of T