We already know that for LSBU students passing an assessment often requires overcoming significant psychological barriers – but the other side of the coin is the psychological challenge, faced by academic colleagues, of designing and setting the right assessments for our students to produce the right student outcomes.

The most common reason our students don’t pass is because they feel overwhelmed, usually by circumstances outside of their control or LSBU’s, such as health issues, relationship issues, caring responsibilities or financial pressures. Designing a curriculum and student experience that is as inclusive as possible, taking these student challenges into account, yet still academically rigorous and pedagogically appropriate as well as delivering the right student outcomes, must be very tricky.

In this interactive session, we will explore this tricky problem through the lens of what can be controlled, what can be influenced, and what is of concern and should therefore be considered. We will be using what we know about our students from the ongoing SU retention phone bank initiative to discuss the challenge and share our best ideas to tackle them through assessment approaches.

Expect flip chart, post-it notes and group discussion facilitated by the SU, with a brief presentation at the start. We hope you will leave the session with a deeper understanding of what matters to students and with some brilliant ideas from colleagues, and notes from the session will be shared later to help your planning for the coming academic year.