As courses move from a traditional classroom setting to remote instruction, instructors must consider alternatives to the traditional seated exam. There are many options available, but please remember that changes to assignments, testing formats, and grading policies should be noted in an updated syllabus and shared with students.
Move a traditional seated exam to a remote exam or an electronic exam in a variety of ways:
Download the below tip sheet, compiled by University at Buffalo assessment experts, to learn about alternative strategies, activities, and resources to high-stakes objective testing.
While students are not required to disclose their disability to the institution, students should be provided contact information for your campus Accessibility Services Office and offered the opportunity to update their accommodation plan as needed. To that end, students may have difficulty obtaining documentation from secondary institutions and/or medical providers at this time. As such, instructors are encouraged create mechanisms to permit students to receive accommodations when documentation of the disability is not readily available.
As you explore different types of distance/remote technologies, please consider the following:
Not all teleconferencing software is accessible to individuals with disabilities. To make sure students can fully engage in the remote instruction methods:
Additional third party or open-source digital learning technologies used to facilitate instruction, such as polling software, must also be evaluated for accessibility. If the required technology is inaccessible to users with disabilities, work closely with the Accessibility Services Office to create equally effective access for the known barriers.
As various types of content are uploaded to Blackboard, establish a plan to prioritize making course materials and related technologies accessible to all learners. It is recommended to use the following hierarchy:
There are numerous free or campus-sponsored tools to enhance the inclusiveness of the course. Here are some basic universal design tips:
Get the information and resources you need for making decisions to support your academic success this semester.
These videos, presented by the Center for Educational Innovation, the Office of Educational Effectiveness, Academic Integrity, and the Experiential Learning Network, include a deep dive into a focused area of online teaching and a recorded Q&A with instructors. Watch here.
Formerly known as Assessment Day, the Student Success Summit is a professional development day designed to inspire the UB community around key issues related to student success and the use of assessment to inform efforts to address these issues. To suggest student success issues and/or speakers for next year's Student Success Summit, contact uboee@buffalo.edu.