Authors

Dr Cameron Graham

Edinburgh Napier University

TAPPS Project Lead

Alison Bell

City of Glasgow College

TAPPS Project Co-Lead

The beginning of 2026 saw the TAPPS Project - Transforming Assessment Policy and Practice in Scotland – move into the tertiary sector to highlight the aims of the project and begin to share practice. TAPPS aims to:

• develop an evidence base to enable policy change;
• share effective assessment practice across the Scottish tertiary sector;
• influence widespread, sustained change in assessment practice that recognises and increases learner diversity and skill development.

The project was launched with the first of a series of TAPPS Sharing Events at City of Glasgow College's Learning and Teaching Conference on 20 January. These Sharing Events provide forums for colleagues to discuss and explore how inclusive and innovative assessment can support our increasingly diverse learners. Sharing Events invite colleagues from across the tertiary sector to share case studies of innovative, inclusive and effective assessment practice which foster engagement, reduce barriers, and support meaningful student learning and development.

Workshop discussion

The City of Glasgow College Sharing Event took the form of a conference workshop titled Innovation in Assessment: Meeting students where they are through greater diversity in assessment methods. After an introduction to the project, workshop participants engaged in collaborative groups discussing three questions:

1. Why change assessment?
2. Where do you see barriers for your learners in assessment?
3. What is your biggest challenge in making your assessments more inclusive, innovative or diverse?

The groups were made up of a variety of colleagues from colleges and universities covering a range of disciplines and roles. From the discussions, colleagues shared their responses to each question informed by their own experiences and views (see below):

1. Why change assessment?
   • Meets diverse learners' needs; widen access; inclusion
   • Make it fun and relevant
   • Over-assessment and burden
   • Assessments overload (similar formats for different subjects)
   • Assessment duplication; assessment too-similar
   • AI disruption
   • Capture evidence in a different way to writing; celebrate skills learners bring
   • ER's encourage students to regurgitate knowledge, as opposed to applying it.
2. Where do you see barriers for your learners in assessment?
   • Too many assessments; written formats dictated by SQA
   • Connect the skills-required for work plus the role to learning; traditional structure; memory vs application
   • Willingness to change
   • Time constraints; commitment to study
   • Home and social environments
   • Confidence of learners; working with others (neurodivergence).
3. What is your biggest challenge in making your assessments more inclusive, innovative or diverse?
   • Policy; rules around assessment; awarding bodies; evidence REQ. SQA; bureaucracy; perceptions about agency; overly prescriptive
   • Trust; overly prescriptive; SQA constraints
   • Staff development (culture); staff development; resources; time / budget; time to redevelop
   • Tech confidence; practicalities of curriculum design
   • Diversity of learner needs; lack of resources.

Following the discussions, there were four case study presentations from colleagues from City of Glasgow College, University of Glasgow, and Edinburgh Napier University, sharing examples of innovative and inclusive assessment practices.

Case Studies 1 and 2: Creative Industries Faculty at City of Glasgow College 

The Creative Industries Faculty is committed to meeting students where they are by embedding Universal Design for Learning (UDL) across curriculum design, learning, teaching, and assessment. The approach focuses on: 

• Understanding who we are assessing, what we are assessing, and why 

• Providing meaningful assessment choice 

• Removing unnecessary barriers to learning 

• Aligning assessment formats with industry‑relevant skills.

The following case studies highlight how UDL‑informed practice is improving learner engagement, inclusion, and assessment outcomes across the faculty. 

Case Study 1: Doug Liddle – Curriculum Head, Games Development and Esports 

Doug Liddle redesigned a unit with 38% of students declaring a disability by shifting from a research report and presentation to an assessment offering full learner choice. Students could work individually or collaboratively and submit in video, audio, or animated formats. This UDL‑driven redesign increased engagement, motivation, and pass rates, and enabled students to demonstrate skills in ways aligned with Creative Industries practice. 

Case Study 2: Ross Semple – Lecturer, Journalism and Media 

Ross Semple applied the same UDL principles for a cohort with 31% declared disabilities, replacing long-written reports with a choice of written, verbal, video, or audio submissions. This improved engagement, raised the quality of work, and helped students showcase the skills most relevant to multimedia industries, increasing confidence and reducing assessment barriers. 

Case Study 3: Dr Dickon Copsey, University of Glasgow

Our third presentation saw Dr Dickon Copsey from the University of Glasgow share an innovative assessment within the College of Social Sciences where students can undertake a challenge-based dissertation. An alternative to the traditional dissertation, the challenge-based dissertation is an optional, scalable alternative which allows students to focus on applied, organisationally focused, or issues-based projects.

Embedded within six MSc programmes and one MA undergraduate programme, the challenge-based dissertation can involve collaboration with external organisation where student/staff have existing contacts, or students can imagine an audience/recipient of their research. The challenge-based dissertation, while still a 60-credit module assessment, shifts focus from research only to the communication of recommendations of the research to an organisation or non-academic audience which can have more relevance and purpose for learners in the contexts they progress to beyond their studies. The structure can be seen below:

Student testimonials highlight the positive impact of the challenge-based dissertation as an alternative to the traditional dissertation. For example:

The challenge-based dissertation gives you space to visualise your thinking, to make your ideas heard, and to communicate your research in a way that is accessible to wider audiences. It makes research in the humanities more grounded and relevant — and it opens up new possibilities for impact beyond academia.

Ziyi Cao, MSc TESOL

The challenge-based dissertation…pushed [me] to think outside the academic realm throughout the process. It bridged the opportunities for developing collective interest with the host institutions and further enabled the possibility and capacity to prepare for future employability.

Lin Yen-Ting, MSc Museum Education

Dickon shared plans to roll out the challenge-based dissertation to taught postgraduate programmes beyond School of Education and a pilot with an undergraduate programme. You can read more about the challenge-based dissertation on the University of Glasgow’s L&T page.

Case Study 4: Dr Azwa Shamsuddin, Edinburgh Napier University

Our final presentation was a case study from Dr Azwa Shamsuddin, Programme Leader and Lecturer in Nursing at Edinburgh Napier University. Azwa’s case study shared her innovation of assessment in a Law and Ethics Module which is part of a Transnational Education (TNE) programme (BSc Nursing) for students in Singapore.

Consisting of a large cohort of registered nurses working in Singapore with a range of nationalities and backgrounds, Azwa wanted to move away from the 3500-word portfolio assessment that required students to identify an ethical dilemma in practice and discuss this to ethical principles, legal and professional aspects. Challenges with this assessment included students struggling to identify an ethical dilemma, some concerns around academic integrity for this written work, and a pass rate of 68-75%. Azwa sought to make the assessment more relevant and authentic for the students, build on the in-class, formative discussions on ethical dilemmas which they enjoyed, and help enable changes in their practice.

Azwa’s new assessment strategy includes an online class test to assess core knowledge and understanding and a group discussion where students discuss an ethical dilemma from a selection of ethical scenarios provided earlier in the module. The 60-minute group discussion will be facilitated by a tutor who will use a standardised prompt sheet which students marked individually based on their criticality in their discussion on the ethical dilemma, application of frameworks to resolve the dilemma and their reflection on implication for their future practice.

This new authentic assessment approach for the Law and Ethics Module was recently approved by the School of Health and Social Care’s Quality Committee with the module due to run in June this year. It is hoped the new assessment provides a more relevant and inclusive design and format to enable students to demonstrate their learning and apply this within their own contexts.

Future TAPPS Sharing Events

The TAPPS Project has further in-person TAPPS Sharing Events running between March and June where colleagues can propose to come along and share their practice to transform assessment. Colleagues are invited to complete this short form providing a summary of your case study and indicate which events you are available to attend.

• University of St Andrews, Friday 20 March 2026, 10.30am-3pm
• Ayrshire College, Kilmarnock, Thursday 7 May 2026, 10.30am-3pm
• Edinburgh Napier University, Tuesday 9 June 2026, 10.30am-3pm

Registration links and full details of the programme for the in-person sharing events will be sent closer to the event dates.