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Todd Rose, from CAST, at the Cyberlearning Research Summit on January 18, 2012. He discusses how they at CAST came up with Universal Design for Learning. The main focus is flexibility and variability when implementing UDL in education. This is relevant for educators to understand in order to make UDL work efficiently in your classroom.

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Understanding Universal Design for Learning

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Understanding Universal Design for Learning

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This website is no longer updated but I found that the information was relevant to our learning about UDL. This is printable in a pdf and provides a quick overview of the UDL process, some of the research and impact the UDL framework has had since it began. The new updated site is at circls.org. This article is available there as well.

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Understanding Universal Design for Learning – CIRCL

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This was an inspiring video. Eric is a teacher now because of the negative experience he had as a student learner. He wasn't able to learn well with the standard teacher-fronted classroom and realizes how he would have benefited from UDL in his classroom. That is why he uses UDL in his classroom today. This is relevant for those of us who are unsure about implementing UDL in our classrooms.

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5 Examples of Universal Design in the classroom

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5 Examples of Universal Design in the classroom

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This article did a great job providing relevant examples of how to use UDL in our classrooms today. I especially enjoyed the part where they explained how to make all the materials accessible to all types of learners. This is especially important with the use of technology, which is rising each year. Having added accessibility options like text-to-speech and audiobooks are great upgrades for students who have verbal, sight, or hearing disabilities.

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By CAST, Understood Founding Partner

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching aimed at meeting the needs of every student in a classroom. It can be helpful for all kids, including kids with learning and thinking differences. But UDL takes careful planning by teachers. Here are just a few examples of how UDL can work in a classroom.

Having goals helps students know what they're working to achieve. That's why goals are always made apparent in a UDL classroom. One example of this is posting goals for specific lessons in the classroom. Students might also write down or insert lesson goals in their notebooks. The teacher refers to lesson goals during the lesson itself.

In a traditional classroom, there may be only one way for a student to complete an assignment. This might be an essay or a worksheet. With UDL, there are multiple options. For instance, students may be able to create a podcast or a video to show what they know. They may even be allowed to draw a comic strip. There are tons of possibilities for completing assignments, as long as students meet the lesson goals.

UDL promotes flexibility in the learning environment. That's why in a UDL classroom, there are flexible work spaces for students. This includes spaces for quiet individual work, small and large group work, and group instruction. If students need to tune out noise, they can choose to wear earbuds or headphones during independent work.

With UDL, students get feedback - often every day - on how they're doing. At the end of a lesson, teachers may talk with individual students about lesson goals. Students are encouraged to reflect on the choices they made in class and whether they met the goals. If they didn't meet the goals, they're encouraged to think about what might have helped them do so.

5. Digital and audio text

UDL recognizes that if students can't access information, they can't learn it. So in a UDL classroom, materials are accessible for all types of learners. Students have many options for reading, including print, digital, text-to-speech and audiobooks. For digital text, there are also options for text enlargement, along with choices for screen color and contrast. Videos have captions, and there are transcripts for audio.

Tell us what interests you

About the author

About the author

CAST, Understood Founding Partner develops innovative approaches to education based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

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UDL Examples: Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching aimed at meeting the needs of every student in a classroom. It can be helpful for all kids, including kids with learning and thinking differences. But UDL takes careful planning by teachers. Here are just a few examples of how UDL can work in a classroom.

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How to break down barriers to learning with UDL

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How to break down barriers to learning with UDL

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This was another great article. While we implement UDL into our classrooms we need to be cognizant of the barriers that are present in our classroom that may keep the UDL process from functioning properly. Barriers to learning happens when a student "gets stuck" during a lesson or activity (Posey, 2022). Barriers can include things such as a lack of background knowledge or a social-emotional challenge. This is very relevant in my classroom. All of my students have social-emotional issues along with learning deficits. Learning how to identify these barriers will allow me to use UDL more smoothly in my classroom and perhaps yours as well.

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By Allison Posey, MEd, CAST, Inc.

When you plan a road trip, you know you might run into detours or roadblocks that get in the way of reaching your destination. Some of those barriers are predictable, like traffic, road work, or bad weather. Knowing and anticipating those barriers can help you plan your trip so you can still get to your destination.

Classroom lessons are no different. There will be barriers that prevent students from reaching the intended learning goals. Just like with a road trip, some of those barriers are predictable and can be reduced by careful planning and design. Identifying barriers in curricular goals, assessments, methods, and materials will help students gain the skills they need to become expert learners.

What are barriers to learning?

Barriers to learning are where students "get stuck" in a lesson or activity. For each student, barriers can differ from subject to subject and from activity to activity. A core tenet of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is to anticipate and address those barriers up front. You can do that by designing flexible lessons and learning environments rather than trying to "fix" or change a student.

Here are some examples of barriers:

Not having enough background knowledge or the required skills for a lesson

Not knowing the next steps or not receiving feedback about their progress, which can be difficult for many students, especially those who struggle with executive function

Not knowing key vocabulary terms, which can be challenging for many students, including English language learner

Facing social-emotional challenges or feeling that a lesson isn't culturally relevant or academically interesting

How can I identify and reduce barriers?

The first step is to clarify the goal (or the "destination") of your lesson. If lessons are overpacked with goals, it can be overwhelming to identify all of the barriers.

So for each part of a lesson, identify the primary goal: What do you really want students to know, do, or care about for that part of the lesson? Then, reflect on the different pathways or options students have to achieve that goal. That flexibility helps reduce barriers and increases meaningful learning opportunities. Ask yourself the following questions:

In addition to these questions, there are three more ways you can identify and reduce barriers in your lessons: reflect on where you need to re-teach; ask students to give you feedback; and proactively identify barriers.

1. Reflect on reteaching.

After a lesson, ask yourself, "When did I need to repeat directions?" "When did I have to show students how to do something I already taught?" or "When was a student not able to be fully included in the lesson?" The answers will help you identify the barrier in your lesson. With the barrier in mind, you can then make plans to reduce that barrier by adding an additional support or scaffold into the learning environment.

For example, imagine that after you model how to solve a word problem, some students struggle to remember the process for solving this kind of problem. The barrier is that the lesson requires students to process and work with a lot of information at once. To reduce the barrier, you could create a short video highlighting the key steps of the process. Or you could provide a graphic organizer outlining the steps.

Adding those resources to your lesson and making them available for all students to reference as needed reduces the barrier. Those resources will also help all students develop expert learning skills and make progress. That, in turn, empowers students to better understand what they need to be more independent in their learning.

2. Ask for feedback.

Whether they know it or not, students are very good at giving feedback about barriers. Think about when students ask, " Do I have to...?" That question often signals that the student is facing a barrier to learning. For example, a student who asks, " Do I have to work with a partner?" is expressing concern that working with a partner is going to get in the way of learning.

Before responding to the question, you can think through whether partner collaboration is an important part of the lesson goal. If it is an important part of the lesson, you might reduce the barrier by suggesting a few sentence starters to foster collaboration between partners. If partner work is not critical to the lesson goal, you could make working with a partner optional.

You can also use exit tickets to gather student feedback. Ask students where they were frustrated or disengaged during a lesson. Read more from Reading Rockets about how to use and create exit tickets.

Using tools like exit tickets can help you build routines to better understand the experiences your students are having in the classroom. At the same time, these routines can also build students' self-awareness and self-advocacy skills so they can recognize and address their own barriers.

You can also proactively identify barriers using CAST's UDL Guidelines. It's a powerful tool to help you think about potential barriers to learning before delivering a lesson. With UDL, barriers can be identified in terms of:

Will reducing barriers make learning too "easy"?

It's natural to worry that offering strategies or scaffolds could lead students to take the "easy" route. And sometimes, you may want students to grapple with a concept or encounter a productive struggle. Productive struggle is about students experiencing desirable difficulty, like struggling with how to apply a particular problem-solving strategy. (It's not about being stuck while trying to read the text that explains the strategy.)

So how do you balance these concerns with reducing barriers? Here are some considerations:

Without scaffolds, students may not gain the foundational skills and tools necessary to develop expert learning. Keep in mind that most scaffolds aren't meant to be permanent, but are phased out as students build expertise. If students continue to use a scaffold longer than needed, it's a good chance to encourage them to take a risk and not use the scaffold anymore.

Why does it matter?

No lesson will ever be completely barrier-free. Each year and in each lesson, there will be different barriers for different students.

But identifying and reducing those barriers is important. Without flexible tools and resources for all students, gaps in learning outcomes will persist. This is especially true of students who come to lessons without the expected requisite background or skills.

When you reduce barriers and set challenging, meaningful learning goals, you will develop more equitable teaching practices for all students. You will have designed learning to anticipate and value student variability in your class.

To get started with finding and breaking down barriers, print or download a one-page chart that includes the three UDL principles adapted from CAST. The chart includes some questions to consider and examples of the principles in action. Keep the chart on hand when you set out to reduce barriers to learning in your next lesson or activity.

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Using UDL to Break Down Barriers to Learning

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When you plan a road trip, you know you might run into detours or roadblocks that get in the way of reaching your destination. Some of those barriers are predictable, like traffic, road work, or bad weather. Knowing and anticipating those barriers can help you plan your trip so you can still get to your destination.

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL): What You Need to Know

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL): What You Need to Know

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I have used the Reading Rockets website for multiple things. I think they provide their content in an easy to understand format. They also provide various links to videos, further reading etc. on the topics they are discussing.
This page discusses the basics of UDL and provides a one page fact sheet about UDL. It also talks about dealing with attention issues of students while using UDL. This is relevant for anyone who has a classroom of students!

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL): What You Need to Know

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a way of thinking about teaching and learning that helps give all students an equal opportunity to succeed. This approach offers flexibility in the ways students access material, engage with it and show what they know.

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Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression

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This picture is one I would put up in my classroom and give to others who I was teaching about UDL. This is relevant because it is a great visual representation and reminder of the basic structure behind UDL. Students want to be engaged and excited about their learning. Having various ways to learn the same idea helps all types of learners (kinesthetic, visual, auditory etc.) Also, allowing students options to demonstrate their learning in ways that rely on their individual talents is also an important aspect of UDL.

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Differentiated Instruction and Implications for UDL Implementation

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Differentiated Instruction and Implications for UDL Implementation

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This article discusses both Differentiated Instruction (DI) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It discusses the connections between UDL and DI through various lesson examples and the theories surround both. I felt that it was relevant because most of us already incorporate some form of DI in our classroom instruction. I feel that UDL just takes DI further by focusing on the three guidelines (engagement, representation, and action & expression).

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Differentiated Instruction and Implications for UDL Implementation - CAST

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Information on the theory and research behind differentiated instruction and its intersection with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is examined. The article begins with an introduction to differentiated instruction by defining …

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Placing UDL at the Hear of Instructional Design

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Placing UDL at the Hear of Instructional Design

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I felt that this was a relevant article for those who are working towards their degree in Educational Technology. Technology use is a mainstay in today's classrooms and if we are to incorporate UDL then we need to understand how technology fits into the process. Dr. Kavita Roa does a good job explaining how UDL intersects with online learning.

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CIDDL - Center for Innovation, Design, and Digital Learning

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Placing Universal Design For Learning At The Heart Of Instructional Design - CIDDL

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Placing Universal Design For Learning At The Heart Of Instructional Design About Dr. Rao The guest expert of this CIDDL Research and Practice Brief is Dr. Kavita Rao. Dr. Kavita Rao is a professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Hawaii’s College of Education. Her work foc…

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Inclusive Instructional Design: Applying UDL to Online Learning

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Inclusive Instructional Design: Applying UDL to Online Learning

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This is another great article by Dr. Rao. The article describes how UDL can be used as a framework for inclusive instructional design in the online environment.
This is relevant for us educators because we are starting to see remote learning more an more. During the covid pandemic many of us went to remote teaching for the first time. I know that if implementing UDL I would also want to understand how I can use it with technology in a remote or flipped classroom setting.

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Introduction

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that can guide the development of inclusive learning environments. UDL has three principles, which are to provide multiple means of 1. representation, 2. action and expression, and 3. engagement. Each of these principles has three guidelines that define how educators and instructional designers can provide options and supports when designing instruction (see udlguidelines.cast.org for more information on UDL's three principles, nine guidelines, and 31 checkpoints). The UDL framework, used as part of an instructional design process, provides a structure to proactively design lessons that integrate inclusive strategies and options that can support all learners in the classroom (Meyer et al., 2014). Researchers have examined and described the application of UDL to enhance inclusive practices at various levels (K12 and postsecondary) and for varied instructional purposes (Ok et al., 2017; Rao et al., 2014).

Technology-based learning environments and digital tools provide powerful means to put UDL principles into action (Meyer & Rose, 2005; Ok & Rao, 2019). Digital tools for teaching and learning include hardware (e.g., laptops, mobile devices), software (e.g., applications, apps, extensions), and technology-based environments (e.g., websites, content management systems). Many features of digital learning environments align with UDL principles, providing options for multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement. The multimodal nature of digital tools facilitates the integration of varied formats and flexible options into the learning experience. Using digital tools, educators can easily represent information in varied formats (e.g., combining text, visuals, audio) and integrate features that allow the user to choose how to consume information (e.g., enabling text to speech to listen while reading). Students can create media and express themselves in varied and multimodal ways. Technology-based environments can also be engaging, allowing educators to provide authentic and relevant learning opportunities and opportunities for interaction and collaboration. In these ways, online learning environments that inherently require the use of digital tools as a means for delivery and instruction present many opportunities for incorporating and applying UDL. Taking UDL guidelines into account during the instructional design process, educators can determine how to meaningfully integrate digital delivery formats, digital tools, and instructional strategies when designing inclusive online learning experiences.

Foundational Concepts of UDL

UDL was developed in the 1990s and early 2000s by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) as a framework for developing curriculum that is more accessible for all, including students with and without disabilities. Considering the needs of students at the margins of our educational systems, a central premise of UDL is that the curriculum, rather than the learner, needs to change (Meyer & Rose, 2005). Meyer and Rose emphasized the power of digital media as a means for developing flexible curriculum that can support the varied needs, abilities, and interests of students in the classroom. Grounded in values of social justice and inclusion, a central premise of UDL is that curriculum should proactively be developed with flexible and engaging options that are available to all learners. Two fundamental tenets of UDL are that we can address learner variability and reduce barriers in curriculum and instruction through intentional and proactive design. The ultimate goal of UDL is to develop expert learners. These three core concepts that underlie UDL-based instructional design are briefly described below in the following sections.

Addressing Learner Variability

UDL is based on the premise that learner variability is the norm. UDL researchers emphasize that there no "average" or "typical" learner and that all learners have varied abilities, strengths, experiences, and preferences (see Figure 1), aspects that can be dynamic and changing depending on one's context and development (Meyer et al., 2014). As an instructional design framework, UDL provides a structure to proactively build in supports that address the learner variability that exists within any group. Taking learner variability into account, the process of planning instruction in alignment with UDL guidelines allows educators to consider and integrate flexible and supportive options that are helpful for all learners from the outset. UDL-based instruction can make existing educational practices more inclusive, by providing supports to a wider range of learners. However, for students with disabilities who require specially designed instruction in alignment with their individualized educational plans, educators must also provide individualized supports as needed (e.g., specific accommodations, modifications, targeted interventions).

Figure 1

Learner Variability Factors

Reducing Barriers in Curriculum and Instruction

In regard to creating inclusive environments, UDL advocates emphasize that it is useful to consider the curriculum, rather than the student, as "disabled" (Meyer & Rose, 2005). An essential aspect of UDL is to identify barriers in the curriculum and in the instructional process and to reduce or eliminate those barriers by designing appropriate supports. We routinely use curriculum resources, design lessons, and develop and implement various instructional activities. To create a truly inclusive learning environment, we must consider how to give students meaningful access to curriculum and instruction during the instructional design process. UDL focuses on the proactive reduction of barriers, taking into account the variability of learners from the outset and building flexible pathways and supports for the learning process. By proactively identifying and reducing barriers in curriculum and instruction, we can create educational environments that more inclusive by design.

Developing Expert Learners

An essential goal of UDL is to support the development of agency and self-awareness, allowing students to become "expert learners" on their learning journeys. These are the attributes of expert learners that correspond to the three UDL principles (Meyer et al., 2014):

1. Being purposeful and motivated (related to the UDL principle of engagement) refers to learners' abilities to be goal-directed, sustain effort, and self-regulate as they learn.

2. Being resourceful and knowledgeable (related to the UDL principle of representation) refers to learners' abilities to activate and connect to prior knowledge, recognize strategies to structure and retain knowledge, and transfer and generalize what they learn.

3. Being strategic and goal-directed (related to the UDL principle of action & expression) refers to learners' abilities to plan and organize how they learn, be strategic learners, and self-monitor as they learn.

These foundational UDL concepts - addressing learner variability, reducing barriers, and developing expert learners - are the basis of intentional and inclusive instructional design. Using UDL as they design instruction, educators can consider how to provide flexible and engaging learning environments, using strategies and tools that address the varied needs and profiles of learners in any given classroom. Instead of designing for a mythical "average learner", UDL-based design broadens access to a broader range of learners and provides a framework for inclusive instructional design.

Application of UDL to Online Teaching and Learning

Although UDL has gained prominence in the past two decades and is widely referenced in inclusive education efforts worldwide, questions remain on how to apply and implement UDL most effectively in traditional face-to-face and online learning environments (Rao et al., 2014). In the past two decades, a significant body of literature on UDL in both K-12 and higher education environments has emerged. Many researchers have addressed UDL applications in online learning environments in higher education (Evmenova, 2018; Gravel et al., 2017; Hollingshead, 2018; Rao & Tanners, 2011; Tobin, 2014).

As educators have made a rapid shift to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become even more relevant to examine how teachers can apply UDL to design instruction for online environments. Digital tools and multimodal formats that are used for online teaching provide many ways to address UDL. To ensure that these tools are used to support all learners in the online/hybrid classroom, it is helpful to consider their usage as part of an intentional design process (Basham et al., 2016; Greer et al., 2014). Using a proactive design process that explicitly integrates UDL, teachers can be better prepared to support all learners online, including students with disabilities and English language learners, and other students who experience challenges while learning.

Purpose Statement

This article presents how educators and instructional designers can take UDL into consideration during the process of designing curriculum and instruction. The UDL-based design process can be applied to all instructional delivery formats, including traditional face-to-face classroom environments, fully online learning environments, and blended or hybrid formats (Smith & Basham, 2014). This article presents the following processes and related tools that can help educators use UDL as part of an inclusive instructional design process:

1. Using the UDL Design Cycle (Rao & Meo, 2016), a step-by-step process for considering learner variability and reducing barriers in instruction, as part of the lesson planning.

2. Designing learning experiences for online delivery, taking into account when to use synchronous/asynchronous methods and how to integrate digital tools for instruction meaningfully.

3. Using the UDL Reporting Criteria to articulate how UDL is applied to the design and implementation of lessons and related student outcomes.

The UDL Design Cycle

To many, the term UDL evokes the framework made up of three principles, nine guidelines, and 31 checkpoints. While this is indeed the essence of UDL, there is more to using the framework; educators must consider how to apply these principles, guidelines, and checkpoints to design inclusive learning environments proactively. Although there has been much written on UDL implementation, there is no consensus on how to apply the framework in practice (Smith et al., 2019). At the surface, UDL is a set of best practices for ensuring that learning supports are provided, providing a menu of options that support learners. The UDL checkpoints are indeed a collection of best practices for providing options for representation, expression and action, and engagement. The 31 checkpoints were derived from an extensive review of the research studies conducted by CAST during the development of the framework (CAST, 2018). Many of the UDL checkpoints are identical to strategies that teachers use to differentiate instruction, so they can seem familiar to teachers, especially those trained in inclusive practices or special education. Although UDL can be used in this manner, as a menu of recommended options to integrate into instructor, educators can more meaningfully design inclusive practices by considering the UDL guidelines as part of a systematic instructional design process called the UDL Design Cycle (Rao & Meo, 2016).

The UDL Design Cycle (Rao & Meo, 2016) integrates the core components of commonly used instructional design models and processes, such as ADDIE and Backwards Design (Bond & Dirkin, 2019). Similar to the ADDIE process, the UDL Design Cycle begins with a learner analysis and bases instructional design decisions on what we know about our learners. As with Backwards Design, the UDL Design Cycle begins with identifying the end goals and defining the evidence of learning before developing instructional methods.

The unique contribution of the UDL Design Cycle (see Figure 2) to these existing instructional design processes is the consideration of learner variability and the proactive integration of supports and scaffolds to reduce barriers in curriculum and instruction. Using the UDL guidelines within this design process, educators can create learning environments that integrate varied supports to reduce barriers and increase meaningful access to learning for all. The UDL Design Cycle begins with a consideration of learner variability factors. These factors are then taken into account in each of the steps of the design process. The first step is to develop a few clear goal statements and then to reflect on what knowledge and skills students will need to master those goals. The next three steps - developing assessments and making decisions about methods and materials - follow from this initial step of developing clear goals. Throughout the design process, learner variability should be taken into account. Design decisions should be made with a consideration of students' abilities/strengths, support needs, preferences/interests, and backgrounds/experiences. Within this instructional design process, the UDL guidelines and checkpoints can be used to integrate supports that address learner variability and reduce barriers in the curriculum.

Using this structured approach, teachers can consider where the potential barriers lie in curriculum and instruction and build in options for representation, expression and action, and engagement, as appropriate. This process also keeps the focus on learner variability during the development of methods and materials, encouraging the instructional designer to build in options related to the varied preferences, abilities, and backgrounds of their learners in addition to providing supports and scaffolds (Rao & Meo, 2016). It is important to note that learner variability is systematic and predictable to some degree, with common instructional barriers and related support needs that can arise for many groups of students. With consideration of the typical barriers that can arise, we can build in supports for variability without knowing the exact population of students. Detailed examples of how to apply the UDL Design Cycle to lesson planning and design can be found in books such as Design and Deliver: Planning and Teaching Using UDL (Lord-Nelson, 2020) and UDL for Language Learners (Torres & Rao, 2019).

Figure 2

UDL Design Cycle

Note. Adapted from Rao & Meo (2016)

Designing Online Learning Experiences

This UDL Design Cycle can be applied when designing instruction for any format, face-to-face, blended, or fully online. However, when designing for online environments, some additional considerations should be taken into account in the design phases (Steps 1-4). The term "online learning" is used to refer to various formats of online delivery, including fully online instruction and blended and hybrid modes that include some face-to-face instruction (Singh & Thurman, 2019). In addition, online learning can include asynchronous and synchronous modalities, and it is important to consider how to use both formats to most effectively deliver lessons. Figure 3 presents the steps of the UDL Design Cycle along with the additional considerations when designing for online environments.

Figure 3

UDL Design Considerations for Online Learning

When designing lessons for the online environment, teachers can use the UDL Design Cycle and take into account these additional considerations. The sections below provide detail on some of the additional considerations for UDL-based design noted in Figure 3, providing elaboration on ways to design more inclusive and supportive environments online.

Learner Variability in the Online Environment

In the online learning environment, it is necessary to consider factors related to learner variability that affect a students' ability to engage and succeed in relation to the demands of this learning format. In addition to abilities/strengths, support needs, preferences, and backgrounds/experiences, there are specific attributes that affect how students engage and learn online. One attribute is access to online learning, both in technical and cognitive senses. On the technical front, access includes having the necessary devices, internet connectivity, and physical space to engage in online learning. Access also refers to levels of knowledge and experience of using tools to learn online. Some students may be more adept at navigating the expectations of online learning environments because of their familiarity with learning management systems and digital tools than others.

Another important consideration is variability in students' ability to engage in online learning experiences. When doing asynchronous activities in online learning, students engage in learning activities independently without a teacher present to guide the learning experience in real-time. This requires several executive function and self-regulation skills. Executive function skills include the ability to plan and organize oneself and to be self-directed learners. For younger students, who have not yet developed the skills to learn independently, managing time and schedules for online learning require significant support from parents or other family members/adults.

In alignment with UDL, teachers can build in supports for executive function and self-regulation using instructional strategies to support persistence and organization in the online learning environment. These can include clear and consistent instructions (e.g., using "hyperdocs", a document with multiple hyperlinks that serves as a central point to access information and resources in a clear and consistent way), shared checklists for students to track progress, opportunities for check-ins and regular interaction with the teacher. Giving students opportunities to understand how they learn best and what strategies work for them in the online learning environment is important for supporting self-regulation.

Chunking Lessons for Online Delivery

When designing lessons for the online learning environment, teachers should begin by identifying the overall goals for a unit of instruction and then determine how to meet those instructional goals through a series of online learning experiences. Without the pre-determined structure of a class period, online learning requires teachers to think about instructional time in a different way. Instead of planning instruction to fit within a set amount of time, lessons can be structured as a series of instructional activities. The time that activities take will vary depending on the learner's needs and skills (and in the case of younger learners, students may also need guidance from parents at home.)

It can be useful to consider how to reach the goals through shorter learning experiences ("chunks") and then make decisions about the teaching and learning activities within each chunk. For each learning experience, the teacher should consider supports needed in relation to the learning activities students must do. For example, if students need to learn new content, the learning experience will require content delivery (e.g., by reading, watching a video, etc.), followed by some means to check in on students' comprehension and engagement with the content. This can be done using a synchronous meeting where students discuss the content or engage in activities with peers or the teacher or through a formative assessment for that learning experience. Similarly, when students need to practice skills or apply what they have learned, learning experiences can give them opportunities to incrementally express what they are learning, with opportunities for teacher feedback or interaction built in.

To make instructional decisions for learning experiences, teachers can use the systematic process of the UDL Design Cycle and take into consideration some of the additional factors relevant for online learning (see Figure 3). The Online Learning Experience Design Worksheet (See schoolvirtually.org/online-design-worksheet) is a tool that teachers can use to plan lessons for the online environment. This worksheet incorporates the steps of the UDL Design Cycle and provides a structure for considering each of the steps denoted in Figure 3.

Integrating Synchronous Meetings to Support Learners

When designing inclusive instruction for the online environment, it is important to consider how to use synchronous meetings to reinforce and extend upon instruction that students must do on their own time. If educators are able to use both asynchronous and synchronous formats for their online classrooms, it is important to make decisions about how to use the two formats most effectively in tandem. Asynchronous learning activities give students the opportunity to prepare and process information. These can include accessing course resources, completing assignments independently, or participating in an online discussion forum. Synchronous learning activities take place at the same time with others online, for example, meeting for an online class session (e.g., using Google Meet or Zoom) or working together in real time using collaborative e-learning tools (e.g., Google Docs).

Synchronous meetings can be a powerful way to check in, interact, give feedback, and make connections with lessons that students are otherwise working on independently. Synchronous meetings should be intentionally designed to clarify areas that students may have questions about, extend what they have been asked to do on their own time, and provide opportunities to connect and interact with the instructor and with peers. Synchronous meetings can also be conducted in small group formats or as one-on-one meetings with the teacher to provide additional opportunities for interaction and individualized support for students as needed.

Mastery-Oriented Feedback to Support Engagement and Persistence

In the online environment, teachers can help students engage and persist by creating a presence and embedded ways to communicate and interact regularly. Formative assessments provide an authentic and useful way to interact with students and support the development of knowledge and skills. To support engagement, one of the UDL guidelines highlights the need to provide supports for effort and persistence by "increasing mastery-oriented feedback." Mastery-oriented feedback focuses on the process of learning, valuing effort and practice, rather than evaluating students solely on fixed targets of performance (CAST, 2018). Mastery-oriented feedback encourages perseverance and focuses on the development of efficacy, helping students develop skills with guidance. This can be in the form of specific feedback on how to meet expectations for an assignment and/or the provision of models/examples of a target response.

Providing mastery-oriented feedback is an especially important strategy to incorporate within online learning experiences. Without the built in structure of an in-class experience, students can benefit from strategies that encourage effort and persistence when learning in online formats. Mastery-oriented feedback is effective when it is specific and timely. When designing learning experiences, teachers can embed formative assessments that let them provide mastery-oriented feedback highlighting for their learners what they are doing well, what they can continue to work on, and how they can meet targets. In the online learning environment, teachers can provide mastery-oriented feedback using collaborative and interactive digital tools that facilitate leaving comments and notes using text, audio, and/or video.

Purposefully Integrating Features of Digital Tools

Digital tools are the materials and resources at the foundation of online learning experiences. Because online learning inherently relies on technology-based delivery of instruction, it is a natural environment in which to incorporate various digital tools for teaching and learning. However, using the tools alone does not make learning more accessible or reduce barriers. Understanding which features of digital tools can provide supports for learners is an essential aspect of UDL-based design for online environments. When designing for online learning, teachers should consider the features and affordances of digital tools and how these can be integrated with instructional strategies to support learners.

The multimodal nature of digital technology provides various options for students that can be helpful for many and essential for some. For example, text-to-speech (TTS), a feature built into many digital textbooks and available as a browser extension, is a powerful way to support students with reading skills such as decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Tools that allow users to interact with or create content using text, images, audio, and video also provide powerful supports for demonstration and application of knowledge and collaboration/interaction with peers and teachers. By considering these tools in the context of the UDL Design Cycle, teachers can select tools that align with lesson goals and use instructional strategies that incorporate the support features of the tools. Table 1 provides a few examples of key skills areas and digital tools that can support students (Dawson et al., 2019; Ok & Rao, 2019). Please note that this table does not provide a comprehensive list of all tools, but examples of tools that can be used to reduce barriers in both online and traditional face-to-face environments. More information on UDL-based design and digital tools can be found on the School Virtually website ( www.schoolvirtually.org).

Table 1

Examples of Digital Tools

Skills

Reducing barriers and providing support with digital tools

Examples of Digital Tools

Reading

Utilize digital text features, such as text to speech, annotations, vocabulary and comprehension supports, translation

Text-to-Speech (TTS) helps with decoding and reading fluency; Dual Highlighting with TTS helps students track the word being read out aloud

Literacy support tools allow teachers and students to annotate and highlight digital text, which can support comprehension

Text to Speech

Literacy support extensions (e.g., Read & Write for Chrome

Just Read

Natural Reader

Voice Dream Reader (app)

Using digital text features of e-textbooks

Writing

Digital graphic organizers support brainstorming and planning

Speech to text tools support generation of text

Grammar and spell-check tools support revision and editing

Digital graphic organizers (Lucid Chart, MindMup, Kidspiration Maps)

Speech to Text apps

Grammarly, Ginger (browser extensions)

Demonstration of knowledge

Multimodal tools that allow students to integrate text, images, audio, and video can provide ways to demonstrate what they know.

Multimodal tools can provide ways for students to develop and express ideas with feedback from the teacher.

Book Creator, UDL Book Builder

Infographics (e.g., Canva, Piktochart)

Flipgrid

Padlet

Organization and Self-Regulation

Checklist apps

Calendar and reminder tools

Weekly Check-in form

UDL Reporting Criteria

The last two steps of the UDL Design Cycle focus on implementing, reflecting on, and revising lessons. The considerations for these steps are similar in all delivery formats, whether online, blended, or face-to-face. In these phases, teachers implement the lesson they designed, reflect on which elements of the lesson worked well, consider which UDL-based strategies supported learners, and revise the lesson (or upcoming) lessons as needed. The UDL Reporting Criteria (UDL RC) can facilitate these steps, providing a structure for recording design decisions in the planning phase, describing implementation, and reflecting on outcomes related to UDL.

Describing UDL Design Decisions and Implementation

Because UDL application can take on so many forms, the ways in which UDL is described varies greatly across studies (Rao et al., 2014). This has made it challenging to define what a UDL-based lesson or intervention looks like and what its outcomes and implications are. To provide a consistent format for describing applications of UDL, the UDL Implementation and Research Network (UDL-IRN) research committee developed the UDL Reporting Criteria (UDL RC). The UDL RC provide a structure for defining why and how UDL guidelines are applied during the planning, design, and implementation phases and for articulating student outcomes in relation to UDL components. The UDL RC were designed to be useful not only to researchers but also for teachers to articulate how they made design decisions related to UDL and what the outcomes were for their students (Rao et al., 2018; Rao et al., 2019).

The UDL RC can be used for a broad range of educational applications, including curriculum design, lesson planning, and designing and reporting on UDL-based educational interventions. The UDL RC capture the essential aspects of UDL-based design and implementation in these three categories: 1. Learner Variability and Environment, 2. Proactive and Intentional Design, and 3. Implementation and Outcomes. The UDL RC, available for free download from the UDL-IRN website at https://udl-irn.org/udl-reporting-criteria, provides additional information on each of these categories.

Adaptations for Teachers

After the UDL RC were published on the UDL-IRN website, teacher educators have adapted them to support teacher usage of the criteria. The adapted version uses the three categories from the UDL RC noted above and expands the RC with additional guidance that can help K-12 teachers articulate how they have designed with UDL and implemented UDL-based lessons. The Adapted UDL RC for Teachers organizes the three categories into two distinct areas: 1. Before Lesson Implementation and 2. After Lesson Implementation. Using this format, teachers can record their instructional design and lesson planning decisions before lesson implementation. The Before Lesson Implementation area captures information on learner variability, aligning decisions made to use UDL checkpoints to lesson goals and variability. The After Lesson Implementation section allows teachers to document how the lesson went, identifying specific data and student artifacts as evidence of student outcomes in relation to the UDL-based strategies used in the lesson.

Table 2

Adapted UDL Reporting Criteria for Teachers

1. Learner Variability and Environment

a) Student Information and Setting Describe the learning variability among your students that is your focus. Describe the setting for the UDL practice/intervention (e.g., inclusive classroom, grade level, subject area).

2. Proactive and Intentional Design

a) Learning Goal What is the learning goal of the lesson? What foundational knowledge and/or skills might the student need in order to meet the learning goal?

b) Addressing Barriers and/or Increasing Access Provide a description of specific challenges, barriers, or issues of access that the design or intervention is intended to reduce or eliminate so students may achieve the learning goal. This can include barriers related to environment, curriculum, and/or instruction.

c) Application of UDL Guidelines and Checkpoints Provide details about how and which of the nine UDL guidelines and/or the 31 checkpoints are applied to your practice/intervention. This can include information on how UDL guidelines and checkpoints are applied to goals, assessments, methods, and/or materials.

d) Designing to Address Variability Describe aspects of design that address learner variability. This can include a description of how flexibility, choice, or engagement will be addressed in the lesson or intervention. How will the rigor of the lesson be maintained despite barrier removal?

3. Implementation and Outcomes

a) Description of Implementation of UDL Practice Describe how the UDL-aligned practice was implemented. Highlight information on the UDL-based aspects of the practice in relationship to the learning goal in 2a and level of rigor. The UDL-based aspects should align with what is described in 2d. Possible sentence starters for this section include: ● Students were . . . ● Teacher was . . . ● The learning environment was . . .

b) Outcomes/Findings in Relation to UDL In addition to describing the overall outcomes of the UDL implementation, describe UDL components in relation to outcomes for learners pertaining to the learning goal in 2a, as well as to other relevant outcomes. The following methods could be used to determine outcomes: ● student perception survey data ● formative or summative scores ● anecdotal observations ● observational data (qualitative/quantitative) ● student artifacts

c) Implications Describe implications of the outcomes/findings in relation to UDL-based aspects of practice.

NOTE: These criteria were adapted from the original UDL Reporting Criteria (UDL RC), which can be found at https://udl-irn.org/udl-reporting-criteria/

Conclusion

Teachers may not think of themselves as instructional designers, but design is at the heart of what teachers do when they create and implement lessons. Lesson plans, which teachers create daily, are the product of instructional design, a process that experienced teachers may do reflexively. Teachers make instructional planning decisions based on their knowledge of strategies and prior experiences with teaching. Universal Design for Learning provides a framework to make instructional design decisions with a focus on the inclusion of all learners, and the UDL Design Cycle gives teachers a way to intentionally and systematically design for all learners. By considering learner variability from the outset, teachers can reduce barriers and proactively support students to reach mastery of learning goals.

Online learning environments pose new barriers that were not there in the traditional classroom. However, along with the barriers, the digitally-mediated nature of online learning presents new possibilities for supporting students. In particular, digital tools and technologies have features that make it easy to provide multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement. By considering the UDL guidelines and making systematic instructional design decisions, teachers can reduce barriers and proactively integrate supports for their learners in the online learning environment.

References

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Inclusive Instructional Design: Applying UDL to Online Learning

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that can guide the development of inclusive learning environments. UDL has three principles, which are to provide multiple means of 1. representation, 2. action and expression, and 3. engagement.