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This QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project (CEP) is led by the University of Manchester in partnership with Imperial College London, the University of York and University College London. CEPs offer funding for small groups of member institutions to work together on projects to enhance the quality of the participating institutions’ student learning experience.

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2023 report from the Quality Assurance Agency Collaborative Enhancement Project

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How can you offer student choice in assessment? | Advance HE

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After leading a QAA project with The University of Manchester, University of York, UCL and Imperial College London, Miri Firth reflects on using the project outputs.

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Giving students options when it comes to assessment

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By identifying the types of feasible options in assessment and discussing them with your students, you will naturally build their confidence in their assessment, writes Miriam Firth

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Freedom to Flourish: How Flexible Assessment supports diverse learners

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Hello, I’m Dr. Miri Firth, and for years I’ve studied how education can be truly relevant to graduates’ careers and futures.

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Assessment Optionality case study - Teaching College

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Emily Cooksey is an Associate Dean for Student Experience and Graduate Outcomes and a lecturer in Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science. Emily talked to Teaching Academy about her experience of running optionality within her assessments. What did you do and why? Optionality is the practise of giving students choice within their assessed work. It is […]

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Beyond the Technology: creative approaches to assessment - optionality

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Beyond the Technology: creative approaches to assessment - optionality

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In this episode of the Beyond the Technology podcast, Jisc's Chris Thomson is joined by Dr Miriam Firth from the University of Manchester. They discuss the work Miriam has been doing with the QAA, and colleagues across a number of other HE institutions, to examine practices of optionality in assessment.

During the episode, Miri dives into the rationale for the research project, what they discovered and what lessons can be learned for assessment designers.

Show notes

Episode guest

Episode host

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Beyond the Technology: creative approaches to assessment - optionality - Jisc

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In this episode of the Beyond the Technology podcast, Jisc's Chris Thomson is joined by Dr Miriam Firth from the University of Manchester. They discuss the work Miriam has been doing with the QAA, and colleagues across a number of other HE institutions, to examine practices of optionality in assessment.

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Podcast: Creative approaches to assessment - Episode 2 - Inspiring learning

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Podcast. Miriam Firth discusses optionality in assessment design and how it can improve the student experience

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Assessment optionality - Staff home, University of York

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The University is working with Manchester, Imperial and UCL on a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) funded project to explore the potential for assessment optionality – and we want to hear your thoughts.

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The current discourse within Higher Education is strongly anchored in and based upon the students as partners in learning. And yet, this rarely includes assessments, which are used to determine students' specific achievements and to identify whether and in how far learning outcomes and objectives have been achieved. If, however, students are to take responsibility for their learning, then why are they not also in charge of their assessments?

Quote from chapter on Assessments: letting students decide in Student Empowerment in Higher Education: Reflecting on Teaching Practice and Learner Engagement.

In the following case study Dr Nicole Brown, Associate Professor and Head of Research Ethics and Integrity at IOE, talks about how assessment optionality works on her module BASC0039: Disability, Chronic Illness and Neurodivergence in Contemporary Society.

It expands on some of the ideas explored in her recent MicroCPD video Assessments: letting students choose.

Overview

The module BASC0039: Disability, Chronic Illness and Neurodivergence in Contemporary Society is an interdisciplinary module which looks at disability chronic illness from a wide range of disciplinary contexts including a medical and legal point of view. Students are taught about auto-ethnicity as part of the course as it is important that we recognize our own positions within our society when approaching the matter of disability. Many of the students on the course have some experience of chronic illness, either personally or through family members. With this in mind it felt inappropriate and unfair to demand a particular form of assessment. For the assessment students can choose between a written submission or a recorded presentation as a critical commentary, this is combined with an artefact that can take any form. The submission is marked using a rubric ( Level 5 Artefact and critical commentary assessment criteria and Level 6 Artefact and critical commentary assessment criteria). Student response to the optionality has been positive. The approach also has many benefits in regard to academic integrity, in particular considering current challenges to essay writing from Artificial Intelligence (AI). As Nicole explains: " making an assessment meaningful actually prevents you from having some of the plagiarism and academic misconduct issues that other modules encounter."

Nicole's tips for considering optionality:

Employing optionality and making assessments meaningful leads to students wanting to complete the assessment task

It works particularly well when there are many different perspectives on the assessment topic

Remember that optionality supports accessibility and academic integrity.

Think about taking it further - what about rolling dates and ungrading?

Reference

Brown, N., Morea-Ghergu, D. & Onwuka, N. (2020). Assessments: letting students decide. In: Mawani, S., & Mukadam, A. (eds). Student Empowerment in Higher Education: Reflecting on Teaching Practice and Learner Engagement. Vol. 2. Berlin: Logos Verlag. 487-498.

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Letting students decide on their assessments

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The current discourse within Higher Education is strongly anchored in and based upon the students as partners in learning. And yet, this rarely includes assessments, which are used to determine students' specific achievements and to identify whether and in how far learning outcomes and objectives have been achieved.

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One way to increase the inclusivity of assessment is to offer choice, but this can be challenging to manage so needs careful thought in order to ensure fairness for all students and teaching staff.

The Quick guide to implementing assessment choice [pdf] developed from the Engineering Subject Centre Mini-Project: 'Assessment Choice Case Study' offers the following advice:

1. "Choose a mixture of assessment methods to suit the module/student cohort. Carefully think through each assessment to limit excessive marking.

2. Consider parity of each method.

3. Carefully explain the methodologies to the group at the start of the module and, where possible, provide students with examples of each of the proposed methods.

4. Provide students with an evaluation form (see Appendix 2) that encourages reflection on their chosen method of assessment.

5. Provide a cut-off date at which selected choice is frozen, for example midway through the module.

Collaborate with other departments that can contribute in some way towards supporting the module (i.e: redistribute the resources saved by the disability department by not having to make any assessment provisions)"

(Easterbrook, Parker & Waterfield, 2006: p11).

Examples of assessment choice at Imperial include:

Students choosing journal articles they are interested in to present to peers at journal club or to critically appraise for an written assignment. Students are then given access to all student-selected articles using Leganto reading lists.

Students choose the focus of their Year 3 or MSc projects.

Students choose from a range of essay titles.

Students choose from optional modules that have different assessment methods (e.g. exams or coursework).

Students are asked to choose what aspects of their work they would like to receive feedback on.

Could your programme offer more assessment choice? See Activity: Designing choice into your assessment

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Making assessment and feedback inclusive

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One way to increase the inclusivity of assessment is to offer choice, but this can be challenging to manage so needs careful thought in order to ensure fairness for all students and teaching staff.

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University of Glasgow - Flexible Submission

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University of Glasgow - Flexible Submission

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Introduction of Flexible Submission Guidance

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UofG has developed guidance for colleagues who are considering implementing a flexible approach to assessment submission, which has been shown to be successful in those Schools that have tried it.

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Introducing optionality in assessment modes | Learning Matters

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In this case study, Dr Jo Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law, talks about how she introduced optionality in assessment modes in her final year module, Advanced Contract Law in Practice, to create more inclusive and accessible assessment practices.

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University of Liverpool Flexible Assessment Guidance

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University of Liverpool Flexible Assessment Guidance

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Case Study: Flexible assessments: student choice of format

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David John Hunter, SSEHS This project aims to remove barriers and make assessments more inclusive by providing students with choices in the assessment format. This was incorporated into a Part D Advanced Laboratory and Research Methods (PSD632) module where students were allowed to select the format to present an experiment they designed.

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This guidance page outlines different ways to support students by explicitly designing in different ways of achieving the learning outcomes

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Assessment Choice | Sheffield Hallam University

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Flexible Assessment for a Hybrid Model - LTE Online

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Why Flexible Assessment? Assessment has a major impact on students and their learning whatever the delivery model (face-to-face, online, blended). Developing and deploying flexible and innovative assessment supports the need to be responsive to the requirements of a hybrid model

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Abstract

Current research shows optionality and co-design has the potential to enable increased engagement or interest, more inclusive assessments, improved student wellbeing, increased motivation, improved student satisfaction, deepened understanding, reduced stress and shared responsibility ​(Bovill et al., 2009; Firth et al., 2023; Lu et al., 2015)​. Optionality and co-design are already embedded within Final Year/Capstone/Dissertation projects (FYPs) at a number of institutions and this workshop seeks to gain insight into the perceived challenges and benefits involved.

The authors are involved in research to explore student co-design of FYPs. The aim of their work is to provide important insight into the potential impact of embedding student co-design within the development of individual FYPs. Final Year/Capstone/Dissertation projects have a huge weighting on student outcomes and are vital to students developing both technical and non-technical skills, such as organisation, planning, collaboration, communication, interprofessional competence and problem solving ​(Picard et al., 2022)​.

Cite this

@inproceedings{666a97d4e15246d6bfe234f1bd4477ce,

title = "Exploring student co-design of final year major project modules",

abstract = "Current research shows optionality and co-design has the potential to enable increased engagement or interest, more inclusive assessments, improved student wellbeing, increased motivation, improved student satisfaction, deepened understanding, reduced stress and shared responsibility ​(Bovill et al., 2009; Firth et al., 2023; Lu et al., 2015)​. Optionality and co-design are already embedded within Final Year/Capstone/Dissertation projects (FYPs) at a number of institutions and this workshop seeks to gain insight into the perceived challenges and benefits involved. The authors are involved in research to explore student co-design of FYPs. The aim of their work is to provide important insight into the potential impact of embedding student co-design within the development of individual FYPs. Final Year/Capstone/Dissertation projects have a huge weighting on student outcomes and are vital to students developing both technical and non-technical skills, such as organisation, planning, collaboration, communication, interprofessional competence and problem solving ​(Picard et al., 2022)​. ",

author = "Matthew Cairns and Louise Pick and Charlie McCartan and Eoin Cunningham",

booktitle = "UK and Ireland Engineering Education Research Network Annual Symposium Proceedings 2025",

publisher = "University of Manchester",

address = "United Kingdom",

note = "EERN Symposium 2025 ; Conference date: 03-07-2025 Through 04-07-2025",

}

& Cunningham, E 2025, Exploring student co-design of final year major project modules . in UK and Ireland Engineering Education Research Network Annual Symposium Proceedings 2025. University of Manchester, pp. 536-538, EERN Symposium 2025, Manchester, United Kingdom, . < https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/1181417838/EERN_2025_Symposium_Proceedings.pdf >

TY - GEN

T1 - Exploring student co-design of final year major project modules

AU - Cairns, Matthew

AU - Pick, Louise

AU - McCartan, Charlie

AU - Cunningham, Eoin

PY - 2025/8/12

Y1 - 2025/8/12

N2 - Current research shows optionality and co-design has the potential to enable increased engagement or interest, more inclusive assessments, improved student wellbeing, increased motivation, improved student satisfaction, deepened understanding, reduced stress and shared responsibility ​(Bovill et al., 2009; Firth et al., 2023; Lu et al., 2015)​. Optionality and co-design are already embedded within Final Year/Capstone/Dissertation projects (FYPs) at a number of institutions and this workshop seeks to gain insight into the perceived challenges and benefits involved. The authors are involved in research to explore student co-design of FYPs. The aim of their work is to provide important insight into the potential impact of embedding student co-design within the development of individual FYPs. Final Year/Capstone/Dissertation projects have a huge weighting on student outcomes and are vital to students developing both technical and non-technical skills, such as organisation, planning, collaboration, communication, interprofessional competence and problem solving ​(Picard et al., 2022)​.

AB - Current research shows optionality and co-design has the potential to enable increased engagement or interest, more inclusive assessments, improved student wellbeing, increased motivation, improved student satisfaction, deepened understanding, reduced stress and shared responsibility ​(Bovill et al., 2009; Firth et al., 2023; Lu et al., 2015)​. Optionality and co-design are already embedded within Final Year/Capstone/Dissertation projects (FYPs) at a number of institutions and this workshop seeks to gain insight into the perceived challenges and benefits involved. The authors are involved in research to explore student co-design of FYPs. The aim of their work is to provide important insight into the potential impact of embedding student co-design within the development of individual FYPs. Final Year/Capstone/Dissertation projects have a huge weighting on student outcomes and are vital to students developing both technical and non-technical skills, such as organisation, planning, collaboration, communication, interprofessional competence and problem solving ​(Picard et al., 2022)​.

M3 - Conference contribution

SP - 536

EP - 538

BT - UK and Ireland Engineering Education Research Network Annual Symposium Proceedings 2025

PB - University of Manchester

T2 - EERN Symposium 2025

Y2 - 3 July 2025 through 4 July 2025

ER -

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Exploring student co-design of final year major project modules

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Current research shows optionality and co-design has the potential to enable increased engagement or interest, more inclusive assessments, improved student wellbeing, increased motivation, improved student satisfaction, deepened understanding, reduced stress and shared responsibility ​(Bovill et al., 2009; Firth et al., 2023; Lu et al., 2015)​.

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Please download, complete and email this to miriam.firth@manchester.ac.uk

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Flexible Assessment Case Study Submission Template