Adapting Student Assessment in the Cost-of-Living Crisis
How is the cost-of-living crisis affecting students?
With the rising cost of living in the UK, half of all students in the England are facing financial difficulty. Student services across the higher education sector are considering new and appropriate ways that they can support students through this time.
In addition to worries about students falling into financial hardship, there are serious concerns over a range of adjacent issues, including low participation and engagement, poor mental health and declining attainment. One report warns that 9 in 10 students’ mental health is being negatively impacted.
Students under increasing financial pressure are more likely to dedicate their time to paid work. There are also a number of concerning reports that many students are being forced to choose between paying for basic necessities and academic resources, such as books or IT equipment.
What does this mean for attainment and wellbeing?
In this context, it’s increasingly likely that academic performance will take a back seat to more pressing financial and wellbeing concerns. In addition to the serious concerns rising costs have raised regarding mental health, a 2022 survey by the NUS found that 3 in 10 students are skipping lectures and tutorials in order to cut costs.
All of this points to negative impacts on wellbeing and engagement, which can be detrimental to student outcomes. For those working to improve and enhance the student experience, it means finding alternative ways of engaging students and supporting them through this time.
Learning from the pandemic
When lockdowns were announced with the breakout of COVID-19, universities had to quickly provide alternative arrangements for assessing their students. Some of the changes delivered to assessment in the pandemic included:
Open book exams with a prescribed timeframe
Online timed assessments
Digital scenario-based assessments
The use of digital proctoring services
The implementation of these alternative assessment models revealed some important lessons. The OfS found that over half of undergraduate students would like their assessments to be delivered online or via a hybrid model in future and that digital assessment was more accessible. They also identified challenges around practice-based subjects, plagiarism and the role of statutory and regulatory bodies when it comes to digital assessment.
In response to these challenges, Jisc suggests that universities must use technology to adapt assessment in a way that is governed by five principles: so it’s more authentic, accessible, appropriately automated, continuous and secure.
Assessment and the Cost of Living
So, how can the lessons learnt from the pandemic be applied to a new crisis facing students: the cost of living?
Students’ time will be increasingly taken up during the coming months, be that by part-time work commitments or an inability to travel due to concerns about money. A more flexible approach to examination will be encouraging and enable them to complete and prepare for their exams in tandem with their other commitments.
Research has also consistently found that traditional exam formats are detrimental to mental health as they induce increased anxiety and stress. A move to a flexible and accessible range of assessment options may help to ease existing anxiety students may have at a time when financial worries are significantly impacting mental wellbeing in addition to engagement, belonging and outcomes.
Key considerations
We’ve put together a list of some of the key questions you might ask yourself when devising an approach to providing alternate assessment arrangements throughout the cost-of-living crisis.
Are you listening to students and teachers?
We can look to the University of Exeter’s approach to assessment during the pandemic as an example. The institution provided their students with a choice of three assessment formats.
When Exeter devised their approach to assessment during the pandemic, they worked with their Student Union to decide on examination options that were feasible, fair and accessible to the student body.
You should also collaborate closely with academic staff to discern what is feasible and most beneficial for assessment programmes.
Providing accessible, flexible assessment in this way will be beneficial to students who are engaging less or have fewer resources to undertake their academic work. Providing students with options will also increase their sense of autonomy, which has been proven to have a positive impact on wellbeing among young people.
Open or closed book exams, or a combination of both?
While closed book exam formats are more traditional, open book has become an increasingly common way of assessing students.
Open book exams can present greater opportunity for students to showcase their analytical and creative skills by eliminating the memory skills demanded by closed book formats. Students also associate open book exams with less anxiety, which may be a palliative to the financial anxiety students may currently be experiencing.
However, the open book format does present some concerns that such exams might fail to assess students’ ability to understand and recall information, while there are also concerns that students may spend too long finding information rather than answering questions.
A good rule of thumb is to use closed book exams when you want to test student knowledge, and open book ones when you want to test their ability to analyse information.
When transitioning between these different formats, it’s vital that students are aware of what is expected of them. Communicating the format of the exams and making sure students can set aside time to adequately prepare themselves and manage their wellbeing. It’s helpful to signpost them to resources on exam preparation as the University of Bath has done, or run focused study skills sessions, like the University of Bristol.
If you are running non-invigilated online exams, will they have a fixed duration for completion?
Exeter’s pandemic approach provided students with the option to undertake exams both with and without fixed duration.
If you're offering exams without a fixed duration, you may ask students to provide extra information to explain why this format is most appropriate for them. For example, if they have caring responsibilities that prevent them from undertaking a fixed duration exam or if they require reasonable adjustments for a disability, they may need to state this. If this is the case, make sure students know what supporting evidence they must provide.
Giving students adequate time to prepare and communicating clearly what is expected of them will reduce existing anxieties around examinations at a time of intense financial hardship for most.
How will you support students who don’t have sufficient access to IT equipment or software?
Not all students will have equal access to a computer or internet, especially as the digital divide in higher education becomes an increasing concern with the cost-of-living crisis.
You may need to provide additional support or resources to these students. During the pandemic, Exeter provided contact details for students who had concerns about IT issues and committed to working collaboratively with students to find solutions that worked best for them. Presently, Staffordshire University have an app to allow students to locate available computers on campus and they also run a short- and long-term laptop loan schemes.
You might consider reserving spaces such as computer rooms on campus for students with limited access to IT equipment.
For further information on how to support students’ IT needs during the cost-of-living pandemic, see our blog piece on how practitioners can work to mitigate digital poverty.
How can you best communicate your assessment options to your students?
Some institutions, like Leeds Metropolitan University, have created a handbook outlining different assessments. Make sure to include information relevant to students undertaking alternative study arrangements, such as distance learners or part-time students, as The Open University have done on their website.
Be sure to communicate clearly what is being examined in your different assessment formats, and the different skills or knowledge that your students will have to demonstrate.
Are there other skills that need to be incorporated into the curriculum to cater for your alternative assessment arrangements?
If you are providing online exams, some students may require digital literacy training.
Consider offering study support and skills webinars. These could include pre-recorded sessions that provide guidance on how to navigate the new exam formats or the kind of preparation necessary to undertake exams.
Having access to this information will prepare students who have less time due to paid work commitments and help build confidence in the exam format at a time when mental wellbeing is being threatened by increased financial hardship.
The University of Bristol have an online resource of study support webinars, as well as a page of resources dedicated to digital education.
The University of Manchester’s Student News site includes a number of helpful blogs for supporting students undertaking exams, including how to navigate exam season and manage grade expectations.
How can you streamline the application process for extensions or mitigating circumstances?
Despite expanding your assessment approach, it’s likely that students may still have to apply for extensions to deadlines or mitigating circumstances. You should aim to make this process as easy and clear as possible.
Institutions should make the conditions for mitigating circumstances clear to students from the outset, including any relevant timelines. You may also wish to communicate how mitigating circumstances at your institution have been adapted or expanded to accommodate cost-of-living concerns.
In light of increased financial hardship, you should avoid asking students to provide proof that might incur an unexpected cost, such as a medical certificate.
The main guidance here is to be empathetic. This also means listening to student feedback and treating complaints seriously.
For further guidance on how to learn from complaints during the cost-of-living crisis, see this guide from the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, which includes a Good Practice Framework for handling requests for additional consideration.
Embedding assessment into module design
There is a wealth of research and evaluation of models of embedding assessment into modules during the pandemic which could be adapted to build a repertoire of more inclusive assessment approaches.
One case study developed by QAA saw a BA programme in Education adapted to meet the needs of students in a pandemic. Written assignments were reduced and replaced with other forms of in-module assessment, including:
Online activities and discussions
Online presentations of narrated slideshows
Virtual placements
These new assessment modes were accompanied by adaptations to the online learning platform in addition to the creation of resources such as guidance for students undertaking virtual placements.
While these measures were put in place during the pandemic, it’s clear that they could also be beneficial to students during the cost-of-living crisis. Significantly, this model of assessment is more inclusive, recognising the different abilities, skills and commitments of a diverse student body.
Knowing their work will be assessed consistently throughout year, rather than in one final exam, may reduce student anxiety surrounding assessment and encourage engagement, therefore improving outcomes.
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