Following on from our last blog all about our new Digital Drawing Tool, we’ve complied some best practice about how to create accessible question and enable students to use this tool effectively.
Hints and Tips following Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles.
1. Accessible question design aims to remove irrelevant barriers, do consider the language and instructional text being used. Avoiding instructions which could be ambiguous will greatly help your student’s clarity within their exam. Even if student choice is applied as to whether they use the drawing tool; short, clear instructions would be best practice
Unclear example: ‘access the drawing tool to supplement your answer if you’d like to illustrate a diagram’
Clear example: ‘You may draw a diagram using the drawing tool’
- Don’t: use idioms or references which are culturally specific
- Do: use short sentence structure
2. Consider students using assistive technology and over-allocate time for drawing. Drawing using the Digital Drawing Tool can generally take longer than text entry, has the exam duration been designed to incorporate sufficient time for use of the tool?
3. Ensure colour use is not a marked requirement. Although within the Digital Drawing Tool interaction, students can draw using the different tools, colours, and shapes; using colour alone could impact students who are colour-blind. Consider contrast options or labelling to ensure colour information is accessible information to all.
Alternate options: have you considered arrangements should your student(s) not be able to use the new Digital Drawing Tool? You could:
4. Provide an alternative response option
Clear example: ‘If you are unable to use the drawing tool, you may provide a written entry of your answer in the text box below’
Further questions? If you have any questions about your Inspera exam, please contact the Digital Exams Team via Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk
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