UDL – Universal Design for Learning

In any teaching setting, learners will vary, not only in relation to their backgrounds and abilities, but also in the ways they organize and process information, in the approaches they take to completing tasks and in the manners in which they interact and communicate. This fact poses a complex set of aspects for instructors to consider when wanting to design and teach a course. 

An approach that can help you focus your instructional intentions while also thinking about pedagogy is the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a science-based framework that guide intentional design to include multiple means of accessing, processing, and internalizing information.

“By considering the UDL guidelines, teachers can build flexible pathways from the outset, integrating elements that address the range of backgrounds, preferences, abilities, and needs of their students and ensure that their lessons are comprehensible and engaging for all.” (1)

Rooted in Universal Design (UD), UDL expands efforts that guarantee access rights to people with physical challenges to also include ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, and ability-based diversity in the design of educational environments, resources and interactions. (3)

If you want to apply UDL, plan to provide:

1. multiple means of engagement by helping to motivate students to learn. Develop student autonomy, provide relevant materials and assessments to their learning, and vary demands on students.
2. multiple means of representation. Offer alternatives for the representation of information (visual, text, audio, video). Ensure that representation is accessible to all learners (accessible language, accessible format).
3. multiple means of action and expression. Give students options for expressing what they know and provide scaffolded learning through multiple practice opportunities.

The strategies (2) listed below provide a good starting pointing when planning an inclusive approach to teaching your courses.

• Examine your content for diverse perspectives.
• Be transparent about expectations.
• Design inclusive assessments.
• Provide multiple means of representation.
• Illustrate concepts with multiple and diverse examples.
• Give students choice, where appropriate.
• Create accessible content.
  
• Promote a growth mindset.