Find the steps you can take to improve inclusion, accessibility and enable impactful learning.
The University of Sussex Curriculum Design Principles enshrine the expectation that our curricula and assessments are inclusive end student centred by design, and that students are given accessible opportunities to explore their ideas, interests and preferences within their course.
This webpage outlines some of the steps you can take to meet these aims and signposts where you can find further guidance and resources.
Read the inclusive and student-centred curriculum design principles
Grouped into three themes, the curriculum design principles articulate our core values for teaching, learning and assessment at Sussex, which are that they should be:
- inclusive and student centred
- cohesive and connected
- applied and relevant
- Our inclusive and student-centred curricula will:
• Aim to address inequalities in access and attainment.
• Facilitate a smooth and supportive journey for students as they transition into, progress through, and graduate from university.
• Align curricula to the University’s Access and Participation Plan (APP).
• Provide a learning experience that reflects a diversity of knowledges, ideas and backgrounds, helping students to connect with, and see themselves reflected in, their field of study.
• Ensure material that supports learning and assessment is offered in accessible formats.
• Provide clear and accessible feedback mechanisms on curricula, fostering a culture of critical reflection for staff and students with regard to the ways in which we teach and learn.
• Ensure students are supported to engage with curriculum development and evaluation.
Take a universal design for learning approach
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an evidence-based curriculum design framework. Approaching curriculum design and review form a UDL perspective is for the benefit of all students and should be a starting point in your curriculum design process.
The UDL framework offers a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to enable all learners to access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities. It encourages us to reflect diverse perspectives and lived experiences and ensure materials and assessments are accessible by asking us to provide multiple means of:
• engagement – the why of learning
• representation – the what of learning
• action and expression – the how of learning.
Use the UDL-aligned self-assessment tools below to review your practice and identify how to further embed inclusive design across your modules.
Provide accessible digital resources
Use the Digital Accessibility Toolkit to check that your resources meet accessibility legislation requirements and provide an improved learning environment for all. The toolkit contains step-by-step guides for making digital content accessible, including PowerPoint presentations, Word and Canvas.
Educational Enhancement run regular workshops on how to create accessible digital resources. A workshop recording and additional resources are also available on the Educational Enhancement Canvas Resources site.
Provide clear and consistent communication
Whether in your Canvas sites, teaching and assessment materials, or correspondence with students, clear and consistent communication is valued by all and will help to reduce inequalities in access and attainment.
- In your Canvas sites
- use the templates provided to ensure your Canvas module and assessment information are easy to find and are communicated clearly and consistently across the course
- provide teaching materials at least 24 hours before a session.
- When communicating with students
- use plain English and avoid dense or overly academic language
- explain acronyms and technical terms and don’t assume prior knowledge
- be concise and keep information focused and relevant
- use direct and specific language such as “evaluate” rather than “look at”
- structure content clearly by using subheadings and bullet points
- make clear what material (e.g. preparation or reading) is essential and what is optional
- use accessible formatting
- use built-in accessibility checkers.
- For assessments
- provide the assessment task requirements in one place (see your Canvas Templates for guidance)
- clarify assessment workload expectations and marking criteria
- share annotated examples which show how marking criteria apply in practice
- explain assessment terms such as “critical engagement”
- provide practice activities.
Identify and mitigate barriers to successful student transitions
Steps you can take include:
- On arrival
- planning your first-year curriculum to ensure students are provided with clear guidance on the expectations of the course and discipline
- provide low stakes opportunities to practice and receive feedback
- provide specific activities to support international students’ transitions into university.
- Between academic years
- running reinduction events for returning students
- providing options fairs where students can talk with module convenors to help them to make informed choices about their course options
- reviewing the curriculum to ensure student knowledge and skills are adequately scaffolded so they are prepared for the next stage of the course.
- Through the curriculum and final year
- ensure a whole curriculum approach to course design so that learning and assessment is scaffolded and appropriately paced, allowing students to develop, build on and apply knowledge and skills (‘Cohesive and Connected’ Curriculum Design Principle)
- ensure all students have equitable access to opportunities to enhance their employability and make successful transitions and manage their career by embedding employability insights and experiences into your curriculum.
- In your teaching
- take steps to build student engagement within each module and gather feedback from them along the way
- use inclusive teaching techniques both in-person and via Canvas
- facilitate respectful conversations at all times and particularly when teaching sensitive subjects,
- employ diversified and decolonised pedagogic practices to consciously embed diversity in your curriculum
- be careful to avoid using and perpetuating stereotypes and assumptions
- utilise established peer observation of teaching processes to inform critical reflection on teaching practices.
- In your assessments
- build flexibility or optionality into your assessments to help design-out the need for reasonable adjustments and to design-in opportunities for students to relate and apply learning to their own interests or personal contexts
- explore guidance on principles and approaches to designing assessment, feedback and marking designed to support inclusive and student-centred curricula.
For further guidance or examples of what colleagues are doing across the institution, see our inclusive and student-centred tag on Learning Matters or reach out to your Academic Developer.