Dr. Eliana El-Khoury: A key underpinning principle is that inclusive assessment does not mean easier assessment, nor does it give students the opportunity to avoid specific tasks which are fundamental to development in their discipline. Inclusivity is about enhancing practice to offer students greater opportunity to develop both skills and disciplinary knowledge in a supported and challenging environment. We do not want assessment to be a tool to label students, but instead create space for quality feedback to experience equity or opportunity to demonstrate their achievement and succeed. Equally important is that an inclusive assessment system applies to all students unexceptionally including students with disabilities and that they apply to all types of assessments in assessment systems. As the world is becoming more inclusive, all our work and efforts are directed to adapt and employ relevant tools to fulfill the inclusion promises to leave no one behind by ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities.

Dr. Eliana El-Khoury: According to (Nieminen, 2022), there are basically 5 core principles that defines an inclusive assessment in higher education namely;

• Repenser l’évaluation individuelle : il est important de développer des modèles d’évaluation non traditionnels pour favoriser l’accessibilité pour tous les apprenants. Cela pourrait être réalisé en supprimant la stigmatisation culturelle, en traitant tous les étudiants de manière égale, y compris ceux qui ont des handicaps visibles/invisibles.
• Anti-ableist work: Eliminate the stigma and discriminatory behavior against people with disabilities.
• Celebration of human diversity: (including religious, emotional, cultural backgrounds, traditions) which helps students feel confident, accepted, and understanding of the world around them.
• Student Partnership: in which students should be seen as partners while designing both assessment accommodations and inclusive assessment design.
• Interdependence: provides insight into the culture of inclusive classrooms and communicates that disabled and able-bodied persons can learn from one another to create a better community.

Dr. Eliana El-Khoury: A good start is to guide the design of learning experiences to proactively meet the needs of all learners, however in practice there are more to be done to effectively achieve UDL in educational institutions.

L’approche de l’évaluation alternative présente un exemple de bonnes et de mauvaises évaluations, crée des opportunités de pratique, donne plusieurs moyens de représentation du cours et d’engagement des étudiants avec le contenu, améliore les techniques de planification de classe, offre aux étudiants des moyens flexibles de démontrer leurs connaissances et leur compréhension sans les pousser à soumettre de nombreux devoirs, utilise un alignement constructif pour relier toutes les activités d’apprentissage aux résultats attendus du cours.

De plus, l’évaluation alternative permet aux étudiants de démontrer leur compréhension par l’expression et l’apprentissage. Elle  définit les préférences d’apprentissage, les forces et les intérêts généraux et les domaines de besoin sont pris en compte pour tous les étudiants. La CUA offre aussi des opportunités authentiques d’évaluation et favorise la confiance, la transparence, la compassion, l’appartenance et crée des relations positives entre enseignants et apprenants. L’objectif principal est de former des étudiants responsables pour qu’ils apprécient le cours et se sentent inclus. Ceci est fait, en partie, pour maximiser l’engagement et l’apprentissage de tous.

Technology plays a significant role in imagining and redefining assessment in a variety of ways. These tools can provide unobtrusive measurements for learners and facilitate the development of an inclusive assessment that shares many of the principles of good assessment design. Teachers should take into consideration the following;

1. Aligner les critères d’évaluation sur les objectifs d’apprentissage : des évaluations bien conçues doivent apporter une indication des normes de performance attendues des étudiants associées à chaque objectif d’apprentissage.
2. Planifier les activités d’apprentissage : les enseignants doivent planifier les activités d’apprentissage de manière constructive pour permettre aux étudiants de développer les compétences, les connaissances et la compréhension décrites dans les résultats d’apprentissage prévus et mesurés par l’évaluation.
3. S’assurer que la rubrique d’évaluation est claire : les enseignants doivent avoir une idée claire de ce que leurs étudiants doivent accomplir et des caractéristiques et compétences essentielles pour mesurer cette réalisation. Les attentes doivent être énoncées explicitement dans les objectifs d’apprentissage et dans les grilles de notation. Les rubriques sont un moyen facile pour les enseignants de communiquer les attentes de chaque évaluation.
4. Ensure the assessment instructions and feedback are clear and student-oriented [1]: Instructions should be understandable to and directed at the students. Feedback needs to be aligned to the assessed learning objective, informing the students of the extent to which they achieved it and how to improve. In giving feedback, teachers should consider showing practical examples of how a ‘good’ answer could be presented, or pointing students to resources that help them better understand the assessment requirements. Technology allows instructors to provide accessible instructions, for examples in the forms of videos of screen casting. Technology also allows instructors to provide more meaningful feedback such as video or voice feedback.
5. Clarifier le but de l’évaluation : l’évaluation peut avoir un double objectif, dans le sens où elle peut promouvoir l’apprentissage des étudiants ou fournir des preuves pour les exigences de responsabilité grâce à une évaluation des forces et des faiblesses. L’objectif primordial est que les étudiants tirent un avantage direct et positif de leur participation aux activités d’évaluation[2].
6. Give students scaffolding opportunities: In a scaffolded learning environment, students are free to ask questions, provide feedback and support their peers in learning new material. When teachers incorporate scaffolding in the classroom, they become more of a mentor and facilitator of knowledge rather than the dominant content expert.
7. Transformer un examen à enjeux élevés en petits tests : les étudiants subissent un stress énorme pour bien réussir un examen qui représente un tiers ou la moitié de leur note. Au lieu de cela, les enseignants devraient réduire cette pression en préparant une série de tests toutes les deux semaines qui équivaut au poids de l’examen à enjeux élevés.
8. Évaluer les pratiques d’évaluation : les enseignants doivent évaluer les résultats de l’activité d’évaluation pour revoir la fiabilité et le profit tiré par les étudiants. Les mauvais résultats obtenus par les étudiants peuvent refléter un apprentissage limité ou un processus d’évaluation mal conçu.
9. Flexibility: Flexibility can further motivate students and engage them in the learning process by giving them some control over their learning. For example, allowing students to choose their own deadlines from a set of options or within a set of criteria; some students need support on specific subject, some others need specific resources to improve their learning[3].
10. Build students’ agency[4]: Teachers should provide services for students with disability such as rubrics to facilitate their work. Build a teachers-students partnership, recognize learners as active participants in their own learning and engages them in the in the design of their experiences and the realization of their learning outcomes in ways appropriate for their developmental level.

Dr. Eliana El-Khoury: The development of inclusive education policies affirming explicit commitment to educating students with disabilities alongside their colleagues is the bedrock for high quality and equitable society, however, the concept of inclusive education in schools and higher education institutions is still being weakly and inconsistently implemented due to several barriers in the areas of empowerment, instruction, technology, information, attitudes, leadership, awareness about cultural inclusion, accessibility, organization, operation and implementation problems, inappropriate curriculum, financial impediments and regulatory barriers.

Dr. Eliana El-Khoury: A key underpinning principle is that inclusive assessment does not mean easier assessment, nor does it give students the opportunity to avoid specific tasks which are fundamental to development in their discipline. Inclusivity is about enhancing practice to offer students greater opportunity to develop both skills and disciplinary knowledge in a supported and challenging environment. We do not want assessment to be a tool to label students, but instead create space for quality feedback to experience equity or opportunity to demonstrate their achievement and succeed. Equally important is that an inclusive assessment system applies to all students unexceptionally including students with disabilities and that they apply to all types of assessments in assessment systems. As the world is becoming more inclusive, all our work and efforts are directed to adapt and employ relevant tools to fulfill the inclusion promises to leave no one behind by ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities.

Dr. Eliana El-Khoury: According to (Nieminen, 2022), there are basically 5 core principles that defines an inclusive assessment in higher education namely;

• Rethinking individual assessment accommodations: it is important to develop nontraditional assessment models to foster accessibility for all students. This could be achieved by removing the cultural stigma, treating all students equally including those with visible/invisible disabilities.
• Anti-ableist work: Eliminate the stigma and discriminatory behavior against people with disabilities.
• Celebration of human diversity: (including religious, emotional, cultural backgrounds, traditions) which helps students feel confident, accepted, and understanding of the world around them.
• Student Partnership: in which students should be seen as partners while designing both assessment accommodations and inclusive assessment design.
• Interdependence: provides insight into the culture of inclusive classrooms and communicates that disabled and able-bodied persons can learn from one another to create a better community.

Dr. Eliana El-Khoury: A good start is to guide the design of learning experiences to proactively meet the needs of all learners, however in practice there are more to be done to effectively achieve UDL in educational institutions.

Inclusive assessment approach presents an example of good and bad assessments, creates practice opportunities, gives multiple means of course’s representation and students engagement with the content, improves classroom planning techniques, provides students with flexible ways to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding without scaffolding them to submit many assignments, uses constructive alignment to link all learning activities to course outcomes.

Additionally, inclusive assessment allows students to demonstrate their understanding through expression and apprenticeship, defines learning preferences general strengths and interests and areas of need are considered for all students including students with disabilities, offers authentic opportunities for assessment as well as fosters trust, transparency, compassion, belonging and positive relationships between teachers and learners. Instructors should aim to create responsible students to enjoy the course and to feel included. This is done, in part, to maximize student engagement and ultimately student learning.

Technology plays a significant role in imagining and redefining assessment in a variety of ways. These tools can provide unobtrusive measurements for learners and facilitate the development of an inclusive assessment that shares many of the principles of good assessment design. Teachers should take into consideration the following;

1. Align assessments’ criteria to learning objectives: Well-designed assessments should give an indication of the standards of students’ expected performance associated with each learning objective.
2. Plan learning activities: Teachers should plan learning activities in a constructive manner to enable students to develop the skills, knowledge and understandings described in the intended learning outcomes and measured by assessment. Many of these learning activities can be planned online or can be flexible to allow students a greater opportunity for engagement. In addition, technology allows instructors to have a record of students’ achievement, engagement, and areas of improvement.
3. Ensure the assessment rubric is clear: Teachers should have a clear idea of what their students should achieve and the essential features and skills to measure that achievement. Expectations should be stated explicitly in the learning objectives and grading rubrics. Rubrics are an easy way for teachers to communicate the expectations of each assessment.
4. Ensure the assessment instructions and feedback are clear and student-oriented [1]: Instructions should be understandable to and directed at the students. Feedback needs to be aligned to the assessed learning objective, informing the students of the extent to which they achieved it and how to improve. In giving feedback, teachers should consider showing practical examples of how a ‘good’ answer could be presented, or pointing students to resources that help them better understand the assessment requirements. Technology allows instructors to provide accessible instructions, for examples in the forms of videos of screen casting. Technology also allows instructors to provide more meaningful feedback such as video or voice feedback.
5. Clarify the purpose of assessment: Assessment can serve dual purposes: Assessment can promote student learning or provide evidence for accountability requirements through an evaluation of strengths and weaknesses. The overarching goal is for students to experience a direct, positive benefit from their participation in assessment activities.
6. Give students scaffolding opportunities: In a scaffolded learning environment, students are free to ask questions, provide feedback and support their peers in learning new material. When teachers incorporate scaffolding in the classroom, they become more of a mentor and facilitator of knowledge rather than the dominant content expert.
7. Break up a big high-stakes exam into small tests: Students undergo tremendous stress to do well on an exam that accounts for a third or a half of their grade. Instead, teachers should reduce that pressure and thus the urge to cheat by giving them a series of tests every two weekly that equal the weight of the high-stakes exam.
8. Evaluate assessment practices: Teachers should evaluate results from assessment activity to address students’ reliability, validity, and utility. Poor student performance can reflect limited learning or an ill-designed assessment process.
9. Flexibility: Flexibility can further motivate students and engage them in the learning process by giving them some control over their learning. For example, allowing students to choose their own deadlines from a set of options or within a set of criteria; some students need support on specific subject, some others need specific resources to improve their learning[3].
10. Build students’ agency[4]: Teachers should provide services for students with disability such as rubrics to facilitate their work. Build a teachers-students partnership, recognize learners as active participants in their own learning and engages them in the in the design of their experiences and the realization of their learning outcomes in ways appropriate for their developmental level.

Dr. Eliana El-Khoury: The development of inclusive education policies affirming explicit commitment to educating students with disabilities alongside their colleagues is the bedrock for high quality and equitable society, however, the concept of inclusive education in schools and higher education institutions is still being weakly and inconsistently implemented due to several barriers in the areas of empowerment, instruction, technology, information, attitudes, leadership, awareness about cultural inclusion, accessibility, organization, operation and implementation problems, inappropriate curriculum, financial impediments and regulatory barriers.