How UDL Helps Us Create Classes Where Everyone Can Learn and Succeed

A few weeks ago we talked about UDL in the conversation around accessible syllabi. This post provides more back ground on what UDL or (Universal Design of Learning) is, and how it can be useful to you when you for the purposes of teaching and learning. The information I am providing was adapted from the work of Flower Darby, author of Small Teaching Online. and the UDL Higher Education Special Interest Group.

Within the higher education landscape, there are unique challenges. Some of these include: differing school models and missions, degrees of faculty’s focus on research (sometimes over instruction), the size of classes and campuses, the connections between faculty and students, the lack of  background in the area of teaching for many individual faculty, the relationship among faculty and other service providers (e.g., disability services), and the impact of legislative accessibility standards (different for different countries).

Although UDL first took hold in K12 education, the neuroscience and the principles that undergird this framework certainly apply to higher education as well, to address the wide variety of students that an institution may serve. When we think about the college context and about today’s students, we realize that other considerations come into play in addition to students’ needs and preferences relating to both learning and technology.

For example, today’s college students [at both the graduate and undergraduate level] are more likely than ever to be juggling at least one of the following challenges, and often more than one:

  • Working to pay for college

  • Raising a child on their own

  • Dealing with mental health challenges such as anxiety

  • Facing food or housing insecurity, if not both

  • Or a myriad of other issues.

Given this reality, it’s important that we build in support and options within the very design of the class. While students  at IU can request accommodations based on need, Newt Miller, Associate Dean at Ashford University has said, we can “accommodate off the bat,” (2020) so that students don’t need to request special treatment, deadline extensions, or opportunities to revise and resubmit, as examples.

General Resources:

This video provides more information about the importance of UDL in our college classes.

Additional Resources

Evidenced Based Teaching in STEM and activating prior knowledge

Reading time: Approximately 5 minutes

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) offers a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) designed to provide STEM educators with evidence-based strategies they can employ to improve their teaching as well as effectively conduct teaching as research projects. The course, An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching, is offered every few weeks at: https://www.edx.org/course/an-introduction-to-evidence-based-undergraduate-stem-teaching-6

This course aims to "provide future STEM faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows with an introduction to effective teaching strategies and the research that supports them. The goal of the eight-week course is to equip the next generation of STEM faculty to be effective teachers, thus improving the learning experience for the thousands of students they will teach".

If you don't want to enroll in the course, you can review all course modules and resources for free at https://www.stemteachingcourse.org/home.

The modules contain several brief microlectures that focus on key pedagogical concepts and assessment strategies contextualized for various STEM disciplines. For example, this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecDmvafcDDY&t=7s (found in Module 2 - approximately 10 minutes), focuses on how to activate prior knowledge in students. The instructor uses a famous example from the field of psychology, to illustrate how students in a statistics class have a higher chance of understanding hypothesis testing when you use real world examples students may be familiar with, as opposed to discipline specific symbols and abstract language to solve problems.

This is not to say you should avoid using the language of the discipline. The point of activating prior knowledge is to help students make connections from what you are teaching, to what they already know, so that they have a better chance of understanding and retaining what you want them to know. This also helps increase the chance that students will be able to transfer what they learn to related contexts.

Flippity

Flippity https://www.flippity.net/ is a free resource that allows for the quick creation of quizzes, flash cards, presentations, memory games, word searches, and more. Flippity allows users to customize premade Google Sheet templates with their own content. Instructors can use Flippity as a presentation tool, or to create low- or no-stakes assignments through Google Sheets. Further, students can use Flippity to create their own projects. This resource can be used in face-to-face and online courses, at the individual, group, or whole class level.

This video: briefly describes how many of the templated activities available on the site work.

Flippity is not a plug-in to Google Sheets, so it does not require the creation of a username or password. As such, this tool is primarily recommended for creating activities aimed at engaging students in your course.  Some of the activities can be downloaded as PDFs and distributed to students, in which case they could submit the activity via Canvas or in class.

Research in Action Podcast

Last year, Oregon State University concluded the podcast series, Research In Action. The archives remain available for review. The podcast covers a wide variety of topics related to research, teaching, and/or higher education. Some specific titles include:

Each podcast comes with an instructor guide as well as resources connected to each segment of the podcast. The instructor guides include:

  • A brief abstract describing what is discussed in the podcast

  • The guest bio and segment topics

  • Learning outcomes for the episode

  • Time stamps for each segment

  • Link to the episode show notes and transcript

  • Guiding questions for listening to the episode

  • Potential classroom activities that could be paired with the episode

  • Links and/or citations related to content mentioned in each section

What podcast are you listening to that help inform your teaching and learning?

Creating an Accessible Syllabus

Research related to the Universal Design for Learning https://udlguidelines.cast.org/ reminds us that creating accessible material is a win for all students. One of the access points that students may have to you and your course is the syllabus. The course syllabus communicates more than just due dates and contact information. You can set a tone of respect and inclusivity in your course by providing a syllabus that includes IU’s disability accommodation statement with a personalized touch and in an accessible and usable format.

The Accessible Syllabus Website: https://www.accessiblesyllabus.com provides examples, as well as advice to consider about how to present text, images, rhetoric, and policy in an inclusive manner. These approaches can also be used in the development of lectures and other course materials.

Additionally, the site embeds multiple resources within each topic area. For example, the section on Policy compares traditional and inclusive policy statements, discusses approaches to expanding deadlines, and addresses various types of grading practices.

Again, all approaches mentioned on this site may not work for your course; as inclusive teaching emphasizes that there is no one size fits all approach. The advice, as presented, may require modification to best support your teaching goals.

You can also find additional resources related to syllabi creation in this IU Expand course: https://iu.instructure.com/courses/1716451/pages/the-syllabus-a-must-have, and in this IU Pressbooks chapter: https://iu.pressbooks.pub/semesterchecklist/chapter/add-your-syllabus/