Culturally-inclusive assessment Toolkit (CIAT) Nick Botfield, University of Bedfordshire Dr Marvelle Brown, University of Hertfordshire

Culturally-inclusive assessment Toolkit (CIAT) The aim of this project was to design a toolkit which supports culturally informed assessments, aiming to enhance the students learning experience, providing an added value to their learning and potential employability. The emphasis on intercultural teaching and learning is well recognised. What is not so evident is the integration of intercultural teaching and learning practices informing and being embedded within assessment and feedback strategies. Incorporating such a process could have the potential of not only making the assessment more meaningful to the students, but also enabling the enhancement of a pedagogical approach, which triangulates teaching and learning with assessments.

What we did… Data was collected from international students and academic staff at the University of Bedfordshire through responses to questionnaires and focus groups. Questionnaires were used with international students to gauge the necessities, expectations and realities of current assessment practices. The use of focus groups allowed for the researchers to gain a richer level of insight into staff assessment practices and student expectations to try and discover the needs and requirements of the toolkit. Three focus groups: One of the focus groups had 15 academic staff. The other two focus groups had 15 international students. The aim was to seek a cross section of student undertaking different degree programmes which will assist in the toolkit having a wide potential.   Following data collection and analysis, the design and the development of the toolkit began.

Closing question To what extent do you think there could be mileage in introducing the international student voice into the development of learning resources?