Assessing for Inclusivity: A Global Education at UNSW
14 Sep 2012
Global education refers to a “broadened conceptualization of inclusive education as a way for addressing and responding to the needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion within education and from education” (UNESCO 48th Conference).
UNSW aspires to develop socially, and culturally diverse learners who are capable of applying their discipline in local, national, and international contexts.
The focus of the Forum was on global citizenship as a graduate capability, the place of global education in an inclusive learning environment, how global citizenship can aid in transforming the UNSW student, curriculum and the learning community, and showcasing inclusive learning and teaching practice and research at UNSW.
Keynote
The Forum's keynote speaker was Emeritus Professor James C Taylor AM, University of Southern Queensland.
The keynote topic was ‘Open Education Resources: Enabling Global Digital Citizenship’.
Professor Taylor has been an international leader in open, online and distance education for over two decades. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Open Education Resource Foundation, which manages WikiEducator and he was President of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) from 2002 to 2005.
His current interests include open education resources, the technology–pedagogy interface, and the need for organizational development in higher education.
In 2009, Professor Taylor was appointed as a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for “services to tertiary education, particularly in the areas of open learning, on-line and distance education, as an academic, researcher and administrator”.
He has also received an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning as well as the Australian Higher Education Quality Award from the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) for his “national and international impact on improving the reputation and quality of open, distance and flexible education”.
Program
The forum agenda is located here.
Resources
The UNSW Assessment as Learning Toolkit includes resources that can inform teaching and assessment. In particular, the Responding to Cross-Cultural Diversity and Assessing Inclusively resources offer contextual information and strategies to enable academics to implement best practice. These include sections on internationalising the curriculum and making learning and assessment accessible as well as inclusivity checklists for specific assessment types.
Further resources including a Diversity Toolkit are available via this page on Teaching Diverse Groups.