Using design thinking to address challenges faced by students with special educational needs and/or disabilities in assessment within higher education assessment

This paper describes the development of a prototype framework to support students with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in assessment within an undergraduate physiotherapy course. Students with SEND are at high risk of not reaching their academic potential due to the lack of individualised and inclusive approaches taken to assessment design and delivery. Using a design thinking methodology, the approaches and learning from four stages of design thinking are described, including empathise, define, ideate and prototyping. A range of methods was used to understand the end user needs, including surveys, discussion, and anonymous data from the central university resources. Several ideas were generated before deciding on a final idea to move forward to the prototype phase. The identified prototype, an individualised educational plan developed using a student-centred approach, has the potential to provide an inclusive and individualised approach to assessment in education. Whilst designed for the specific programme, the framework has the potential to be embedded across a range of programmes within higher education.