Evaluation Issues

Evaluating the inclusivity of a curriculum and/or the benefits of changes to target groups of students (e.g. mature age students, international students) is a complex matter. Some of the decisions to be made when evaluating inclusivity are about:

• who the evaluator(s) should be - instructors, colleagues, educational experts?
• who the respondents should be - students, instructors, unit co-ordinators?
• what aspects to examine - content of syllabus, course materials, assessment practices, teaching practices?
• what methodology to use - comparison to a benchmark, pre- and post-testing, criterion-referencing, illuminative evaluation?

Each of the above questions requires careful consideration. Ideally as many of the stake-holders as possible should be involved in the evaluation process, but time and other factors may limit this. The worth of any attempt at inclusivity hinges on the benefit it confers on students, particularly the target groups. However, only obtaining the views of a target group may serve to make that group feel isolated, and the others may resent the 'special treatment'. Including all parties at every stage i.e. from planning the curriculum changes to their evaluation, may help to make the process become more inclusive.