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Making UDL work for everyone with Thomas J. Tobin

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Making UDL work for everyone with Thomas J. Tobin

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On today's episode, Lillian talks with Thomas J. Tobin about how UDL reduces barriers to learning while maintaining academic rigor. They talk about how UDL is about so much more than accessibility, how UDL can be done poorly or very well, and how to apply UDL principles easily in single classes or at the system level across the university. They also discuss the reason why he wrote his recent book with co-author Kirsten Behling, Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education.

Resources:

UDL on Campus This is a great resource for UDL in Higher Education settings produced by CAST, the creators of the UDL guidelines.

UDL Progression Rubric This self-grading progression rubric is perfect for those educators who would like to know how they are doing in their own practice of UDL implementation.

From Accommodation to Accessibility: Creating a Culture of Inclusivity This article helps you, and perhaps your administrators, understand why UDL is so important.

Universal Design for Learning and Digital Accessibility: Compatible Partners or a Conflicted Marriage? A great article that explains how UDL and digital accessibility's perceived tensions can be reduced when institutions create and follow an implementation plan.

Silent World Facebook Video Did you know that 85% of Facebook video is watched without sound? How we think learners receive information may not always be correct! Options are important.

The Evolution of an Accidental Meme This meme has had so many versions. This article, from the original progenitor, brings up many nuanced understandings of what the differences are between equity, equality, justice, and barrier reduction!

Tom Tobin's website to learn more about or contact him

Reach Tom Tobin on LinkedIn

Reach Tom on Twitter @ThomasJTobin

Behling, K. & Tobin, T. J. (2018). Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press. https://wvupressonline.com/node/757. And save 20% with the code: REACHTEACH
Tom's other books include: Evaluating Online Teaching, and The Copyright Ninja.

Transcript

[ Lillian] Welcome to Think UDL, the Universal Design for Learning podcast where we hear from the people who are designing and implementing strategies with learner variability in mind.
[00:00:11]
[ Music]
[00:00:16]
[ Lillian] I'm your host Lillian Nave and I'm interested in not just what you're teaching learning guiding and facilitating but how you design and implement it and why it even matters
[00:00:30]
[Music]
[00:00:39]
[ Lillian] Welcome to episode 3 of the think UDL podcast where my guest today is Thomas J. Tobin who along with Kirsten Behling co-authored the book Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education now available from West Virginia University Press.

Tom is an internationally recognized speaker and author on topics such as copyright, evaluation of teaching practice, academic integrity, accessibility, and Universal Design for Learning

Welcome Tom to the think UDL podcast!
[00:01:19]
[ Thomas] Well thank you very much Lillian I'm glad to be here and I'm hopeful that our conversation will be useful for your listeners and we can point them to some practical useful takeaways during our time together today
[00:01:30]
[ Lillian] Absolutely, I've really enjoyed listening to your presentations when we were at the CAST conference this past year and particularly enjoy with the little lightsabers and wonderful things that you've added to so many of your presentations that make it so interesting for everyone.

Can you tell me why you decided to write your book Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education with your co-author Kirsten Behling?

Why did you decide to write it and why did you decide to write it right now?
[00:02:10]
[ Thomas] I've specialized in my career for a long long time on things that tend to scare the heck out of faculty members, staff members, senior leaders on campus things like copyright, things like academic integrity, things like evaluating online teaching, and the other part of my expertise was always inclusive design and Universal Design for Learning.

Kirstin Behling on the other hand as a Disability Services Coordinator she was relatively new to UDL because from a disability services perspective those folks are doing amazing work on our campuses in colleges and universities across the United States and Canada making one change one time for one person. They're in the trenches fighting for people with disabilities, people with title nine challenges you know folks who perhaps have been through rough things in their lives like assaults or sexual harassment and therefore they need to have something go differently in their studies in order for them to be successful so it's not just people with disabilities and Kirsten and her colleagues were finding that their workload over the past five years especially has skyrocketed.

Now that is probably a good thing more people feel comfortable coming forward and saying hey I need a hand please treat me differently something isn't going right let's figure out how we can make the college experience go more smoothly and give me a better chance to be successful but at the same time she was a little frustrated because so many people were coming forward and her faculty colleagues were also frustrated because they had so much more work now to make these individual accommodations for people with disabilities or other barriers to learning

And so when we connected we started talking about Universal Design for Learning which we both knew was just a way of thinking about the interactions that we have with our learners so that fewer people will have to put a hand up and say treat me differently fewer people will say make one change one time just for me and so as we started thinking about why that trend was moving in the direction of many more people seeking accommodations we started to think well isn't there a way that we could make it so that fewer people would even have to bother with accommodations

Both of us authors are in the jobs where our job is to put ourselves out of work we really do want to make learning interactions design them so that fewer people have to request accommodations fewer people have to say treat me differently we're battling against a common mindset that accessibility is just for people with disabilities it's about those people over there and with the book we wanted to put it together right now because we have now reached a point where everybody's got a mobile phone in their pocket

86% of US adults and Canadian adults own a smartphone 93% of college students do and so we have now reached a moment where if we have any learning question at all whether it's part of our college and university experience or it's just our experiences in our everyday lives a pipe bursts under my sink I want to find a good Chinese restaurant that's close to me my child has a fever and I don't know what to do the first call isn't to the doctor or the plumber or to go to the restaurant section of the Yellow Pages for those of you young people listening Yellow Pages was a book that actually listed all the businesses in your area right the fact that I have to say that tells me that where we go is our smart phones hey Google hey Siri where can I find a plumber how do I stop this fever where are these restaurants near me and because we go to our mobile devices for learning tasks that are simple universal design for learning dovetails right into that and so if we can give people choices and how they search for information get information demonstrate their skills and stay motivated then we are giving students just 20 more minutes for study that they might not have had before in their day and that can be the difference between I'm struggling and I'm keeping up so that's why we wrote the book and why we wrote it right now
[00:06:53]
[ Lillian] So your new book addresses learning for so many students not just those with disabilities can you tell me more about how Universal Design for Learning helps other students perhaps those who do not have a disability or who choose not to disclose a learning disability to their professor or to the University or do not ask for any accommodation at all how does UDL help other students and isn't this going to be a lot of work for our instructors?
[00:07:26]
[ Thomas] One of the things that UDL really helps with and this is the promise of what we're looking at in our book and when we talked to experts across the United States and Canada this was the message that came through loud and clear.

First Universal Design for Learning is work it is effort that you need to do above and beyond just the usual design practices that we have but the silver lining to that statement is that it's work that pays you back if you're a faculty member designing the interactions that you have ahead of time in an inclusive way mean that fewer students are going to ask you the same question by email 700 times fewer students are going to get things wrong on the tests & quizzes forcing you to reteach things and fewer students are going to say "oh yeah hey professor Nave that was great but I still don't get it" and they're gonna ask you for a different explanation or to have some other perspective on something

So, the argument for UDL is that:

A) It's not just for people with disabilities it's for everybody and especially by reframing it in terms of mobile learners is a good way to think.

and

B) It's work that pays you back.

And here's the other cool thing on top of that. Because our learners are so varied we can't assume that just like we wouldn't never assume that everyone is a white male in our classes
[00:08:59]
[ Lillian] Right, Right
[00:09:00]
[ Thomas] We can never assume that everyone is neurotypical we can never assume that everyone is actually there and able to pay attention at the same rate at the same level on the same day so if we design our interactions with our learners to take advantage of that variability we're actually doing ourselves a favor

So in the book we talk about those three things that I just talked about where do you have the pain points in the teaching or the interactions that you have with your learners those are great places to start with Universal Design for Learning where do the students ask you that same question 700 times where do they get things wrong on the tests where do they ask for alternate explanations so instead of trying to retrofit absolutely all of the interactions you have with your learner's to be more inclusive it's a good thing to think about those three questions and just start there it's a great way for designers instructors and campus leaders to put a toe in the water in terms of accessibility in terms of good inclusive design
[00:10:05]
[ Lillian] So that's really fantastic for me to hear for us to hear as instructors we don't have to change everything overnight how what an enormous task that would be but if we can just tweak one thing in a course that's going to make a huge difference

And I've got to tell you a story. when I teach my first-year students I was finding that I had all these great things planned during the class and then students would show up and they hadn't done the reading that I had assigned and we know that you know there's lots of time crunches there's so many differing attention-seeking devices you know for our first-year students that I thought how is it that I can motivate them that they're going to remember to be prepared for class and I have a little reading recap quiz which is something that just is a minimal something to check off with minimal points but it does give a little motivation but I found that the sending an email to my students to say looking forward to discussing this don't forget these chapters.

Now of course they've had the syllabus since the beginning of the semester they know what's expected but just that little nudge helped a little bit with that executive function challenge of when do I start no I'm gonna start before the pizza party or after the pizza oh that little bit changed my entire course and that's the only tweak that I did you know from one semester to the other was that little tweak about executive function right one of those students gonna start it and if I could just remind them hey remember we're gonna be talking about this tomorrow I need you to come in with this done and it's not like I never told him to read they knew it they ever we had this understanding but that small took me two minutes right to send out an email to everyone in the course what a huge difference.

And so the learning absolutely increase and that wasn't painful right but it was it got a lot of fantastic results I bet I'm wondering I'm sure you have some stories or examples from folks in the book or what you've done is just one small thing can really cause some great dividends
[00:12:25]
[ Thomas] Absolutely and the story you're talking about is a splendid one Lillian you mentioned the words executive functioning that's something from psychology and neuroscience it talks about why are we motivated to learn anything and executive functioning most of us know it in a more layman's term way as time management how do we make sure that we have enough time that we can pay attention during that time and that we're getting the information and ideas that we need to do that we make sure that we're studying in a quiet space or we have music on our headphones if that's what works for us.

But executive function is a huge huge thing and I imagine all of our colleagues in colleges and universities across North America who are listening to this podcast if I asked you what are the two biggest challenges for your students the first one's going to be time management and the second one's going to be they don't read the materials so your story about your students not reading the lecture notes or the journal articles or other resources that you provide for them your foundation is an excellent one so just sending out that quick reminder hey I'm looking forward to working with everybody on these chapters that reminder at the point of need at the time when they might want to start studying or might want to start reading is a really great way to help them with time management and executive function let's build on that too that's a really good way to start thinking about universe Design for Learning
[00:13:59]
[ Lillian] So I found that I would send out an email to my students at about 10 o'clock like late at night right before the assignment was due the next day and even though that was pretty late it seemed to be a good time to get the students attention enough to remind them to do the reading if they hadn't already and it seemed to get it done before class
[00:14:23]
[ Thomas] Absolutely and here's some statistics that we love to share when our students are most active in the learning management systems that we have at our colleges and universities during the during the day it's between 11 a.m. local time and 1:30 p.m. so the lunch hour and then the other spike is between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. our students are burning the midnight oil our students have work responsibilities family responsibilities they are military deployed learners they have all kinds of barriers in their lives.

In fact when we talk about distance education we've conquered distance we can reach up to students who are you know various distances from our campuses the big barrier that we have to address now is the clock so if we can give the our students 20 more minutes for studying that they didn't have before and this goes back to building on your example Lillian so if you send out that email message that says hey I'm looking forward to it there's two other things you can do that really help your learner's and it's a good way to start with UDL.

One of them is when you give your students something to read watch or experience also tell them how long it's going to take this is like takes no time at all to figure this out and so if how do you do that a good sort of back-of-the-envelope way is you read it and then give your students half again as much time so if it takes you 10 minutes tell them 15 if it takes you 20 minutes tell them half an hour and just at the top of that reading assignment if it says estimated reading time 30 minutes then a student who is doing her laundry at the laundromat at night will say "Oh while that while my stuff is in the washing machine I can read this and I can plan for when I can do this

Now there will be some of us who say "Oh the things that Tom and Lillian are talking about that's coddling our students that's too much hand-holding these students are adults shouldn't they know how to manage their time?" yeah I agree they should know and in many cases they don't and so one of the challenges is what Universal Design for Learning is all about is lowering barriers to access it is not dumbing down the rigor of the content that we are assessing with our students it is not making it easier for students to get or find the information or think about it we're not actually saying oh instead of reading this long journal article just read this bullet point summary of the journal article that's not Universal Design for Learning

But if we have a journal article and we provide that in a way that a reader program could read it out loud then imagine you have a student who is a single dad and he has to drop his daughter off at school on one side of town and then he has to fight through traffic to get to his job on the other side of town and he's taking an evening class from us if he could download a read out loud program from the Google iPhone store or from the Android Google Play Store and there's a bunch of them out there for free that will take any PDF or any Microsoft Office document and just read what's in it out loud to you that single dad can hook his phone into the Bluetooth device on his in his car and have that journal article read out loud to him while he's sitting in traffic
[00:18:04]
[ Lillian] So I'm curious to what are the challenges of implementing UDL we can do UDL poorly if we just say to our students here show me how you do this it's your choice but that can be paralyzing to students sometimes there are too many choices and they really want structure and structure's a really good thing so how do we implement UDL well
[00:18:32]
[ Thomas] One of the challenges that we face as designers generally is that our learners come to us seeking subject expertise so we are experts in our subjects and we're going to share that with them but they also come to us seeking ways of being in our fields and this is a challenge not only just for mathematicians but also for art historians nursing faculty members HVAC folks you name it how do I approach this study of the field so that I can get the expertise and if we can give students even one more path through that information through that design a way to sort of be a scholar in the field that's what really moves the needle for a universal design for learning
[00:19:25]
[ Lillian] So thinking about this learner variability makes me wonder Tom what makes you unique or different as a learner
[00:19:38]
[ Thomas] For myself in business in the jobs and positions I've held you often hear the phrase being a big fish in a small pond.
[00:19:48]
[ Lillian] Yeah, absolutely
[00:19:50]
[ Thomas] Like you know the valedictorian of your class and you want to be the person who moves the business forward because you know everything about the field you want to be the faculty member who is an expert in the field
[00:20:01]
[ Lillian] A mover and a shaker
[00:20:03]
[ Thomas] Yeah! I never wanted to be a mover and a shaker I wanted to be a big fish in the wrong pond
[00:20:10]
[ Lillian] Interesting what do you mean by that
[00:20:12]
[ Thomas] What I mean by that is my doctorate is in English literature and I've never practiced as an English professor
[00:20:20]
[ Lillian] Really?
[00:20:22]
[ Thomas] I have another master's degree in Library and Information science I've never practiced as a librarian I've always wanted to go and take those skills and apply them in fields where they traditionally weren't applied so coming into neuroscience coming into faculty development coming into curriculum design all of those education related fields I was able to take my humanities and Social Sciences background and say let's look at this from a different perspective

So you know in terms of copyright I'm not a lawyer I really love the idea of being able to simplify a concept do the deep research and learning on it but then simplify it so that people can think "oh well this I can put my head around this it's not so bad I can approach this I can take a first step" and as a learner myself I've always loved nerding out and diving into a field and then coming back and being able to explain it in a way that other folks could understand it get excited about learning more and then keep moving with their own learning

It's, and it's funny you talked about how I like to dive in on something take a pause and then come back on my morning training runs I'm training for a half marathon right now my morning training runs is when things usually solidify and I think oh I should do that in terms of structure I can put that together I'm a huge believer that we've got processing cycles in our brains that only come alive when we're not really paying attention to anything else

There's a few scholars these days who talk about the importance of boredom or the importance of unfocused attention and I was always that kid and I'm still that adult as well that I really value the times when I'm not plugged into a phone I'm not constantly communicating with others or seeking input and information does that make me a Luddite does that make me an anti tech person no but I do recognize that you know when I'm asleep when I'm in the shower when I'm going for a run those are opportunities for my brain to wander a little bit and I come up with good connections and I start making connections with things that I'm learning about and I'm excited about so those are things that we really want to preserve as learners and a little bit of that sneaks into the book too so I'm glad you asked thank you
[00:22:55]
[ Lillian] I really believe in that time away and time apart and how valuable that is for our brains. I love to hike. I can't do the long running anymore. One half marathon five years ago was it for me, but I love hiking. I live in the mountains in North Carolina and I remember really clearly being on a hike and thinking about one problem in my class, which was a teacher in a general education course and all the students expect it's going to be an A and they hate being there because it's required and so there's a lot of motivational problems and in teaching that class motivation for the students. I really like it, but the students aren't that motivated and that problem about: here they are thinking they should have a hundred and at the end of the semester if they don't, they expect an explanation from me about why they don't have it. So on this hike I thought I need to completely reimagine my grading system so that it's much more competency-based or mastery-based, where they're building up a grade and they have no more grades; actually they're called learning opportunities. For each learning opportunity they can accrue a certain amount of learning opportunity points to make it from zero to two-thousand; so it's about effort and mastery and no longer about "well I did the assignment why don't I have a hundred," or you know instead of explaining that starting at a hundred and chipping away like I'm the one that's chipping away at their hundred. I thought about climbing this mountain with these learning opportunities and having to build it and I never would have come to that had I not been on a probably six-hour hike and thinking about it and just having that time to get away from it and come back. I think it's so valuable.
[00:24:55]
[Thomas] Your putting your finger on something that we really stress in the book and that is for Universal Design for Learning it actually frees us up as instructors to get away from being the grade police.

[Lillian] Yes .
[00:25:14]
[Thomas] One of the pieces of advice that actually has very little to do with Universal Design for Learning is, I always tell learning designers, instructors: grade a lot less of what you're asking your students to do. Give them practice opportunities and perhaps those things tie into your grade in a cumulative way. So, if there are ten practice opportunities and your students do nine of them successfully, then maybe that counts for five percent of your grade, but it's a checkmark; you did it or you didn't. Then the idea of doing the practice is: come to class and tell us why you knew this stuff or why you don't know this stuff. And then it turns into conversation, then it turns into oh here's something that I need to dive into, here's something that I need to practice with. It becomes more of that Socratic dialogue that a lot of us got into teaching, design, and higher education in the first place in order to do.
[00:26:16]
[Lillian] Yes. Right! So thinking about designing and including UDL and how we design things having that as our guideline. I was curious again about what sort of barrier or barriers have you found (have you encountered), either as a teacher or as a learner, and how have you been able to address them.
[00:26:42]
[Thomas] When I started out with my PhD studies I was going to be an English professor. In fact, my very first book is in nineteenth-century literary and art historical studies. I was a scholar of the Pre-Raphaelite artists and poets in 19th century Britain.
[00:26:59]
[Lillian] On that we share a love and passion for art history.
[00:27:04]
[Thomas] and what changed my entire career was an experience that I had. I was working back in the late 1990s. It was my first professional job. I hadn't even finished my PhD studies and I got hired by a two-year college in Pennsylvania to help them create online courses. Now, this is back when nobody had online courses.

[Lillian] That's really a big thing.

[Thomas] Right. You can tell how old I am when I say I helped them to adopt blackboard version one.

[Lillian] Wow. Oh my.
[00:27:38]
[Thomas] So yeah, I've been around for a minute and many of the faculty colleagues with whom I worked were very excited to try out the idea of an asynchronous online course, but not Marty in the business area. Marty thought that it was all a bunch of hooey and that nothing would replace face-to-face instruction, but he came to me and he said "I want to teach an online course not because I think it's great but because I see the handwriting on the wall, this is what's going to happen and it's going to happen with or without me and I better get on it," so he said, "I want to teach my intro to business course online." Now, what you don't know yet is that Marty had gone blind in his 40s due to complications from undiagnosed and untreated diabetes.

[Lillian] Wow.
[00:28:31]
[Thomas] So, he didn't really know how to be a person with a visual disability. he didn't walk with a cane, he didn't know touch typing on a keyboard, he couldn't read Braille. So, you know I was a young professional and I said, "yeah of course I'll help you," and then I turned to my computer and I said, "surely the literature will tell me what to do," and there was no literature.

[Lillian] Wow.
[00:29:00]
[Thomas] I panicked for a moment and I acted. I was very fortunate I ran into Norm Coombs. I ran into Norm who was a professor in Rochester. He had been blind since birth and he was an advocate for the rights of faculty members with teaching barriers. I wrote to him and he was very kind and generous with his time and he helped me to understand some of the challenges that I might come across, but I worked with Marty and we actually were able to design an online course with him and he taught it for three semesters. You know how we did it? This is before there was jaws or read speaker or any of the tools that would read things out loud to you. So, how we did it was we got graduate students from one of the local universities to be Marty's eyes and ears. Since he had been a sighted person, he knew when we said imagine a television screen that has these icons, and these things on it, and these buttons are down the left-hand side. So, he sort of memorized what the learning management system looked like and then when students would post information or take part in a discussion or send papers to him, the graduate students whom we had hired would be his eyes and ears. They would read things out loud to him, he would give feedback, and the graduate students would put it in, and so on and so forth; and it worked splendidly well. I was very proud of my work that I had done with Marty and some other colleagues until I realized that we were violating FERPA privacy laws 17 different ways and we really had to stop. Now with the level of difficulty of just helping Marty, I thought, if it took this much effort and it was this hard and we still didn't get it right. It was in the end a failure. That failure caused me to look around and think, "okay if that was that hard, who else are we not serving well or maybe not serving at all." I started seeing rural learners who lived a long distance from campus, students with work responsibilities, family responsibilities, military deployments, people who worked odd shifts and couldn't come to campus. I started thinking maybe I should start focusing on these folks because one of the big challenges for all colleges and universities is finding new students. It costs a lot of money to bring a student in the front door.
[00:31:45]
[Lillian] Yes it does and we want them to stay.

[Thomas] Right, and it costs a lot less money to keep them there once you've got them.

[Lillian] Absolutely.
[00:31:53]
[Thomas] So, if we can reach out to students who are in our service areas already, and that's the majority of our growth these days in the United States and Canada. We conquered distance a long time ago and most of us, unless we're you know, the university of New Southern, New Hampshire University, or one of the big online players like Western Governors. Most of us figured out that we're not going to be getting students from Hawaii, and Montana, and Manitoba, and France. That we're going to be reaching out to students who live within 15 or 20 miles of campus and if we can reach out to those students and give them even a little bit of a study advantage, even a little bit more access, that is something that we tell our senior leaders about. That has to do with increasing student persistence, retention, and satisfaction. That's like the holy grail of what Provost's and Chancellor's and presidents stay up nights worrying about. We've got data that shows that being more inclusive in our design, adopting the UDL framework, on top of the things we're already doing. So, if we're into flipped learning or we're into active classroom, we don't have to change that in order to be inclusive along with it. UDL is a framework that goes along with instead of replaces the way we teach; and because that's true, it increases student persistence. The students who are there on day one are more likely to be there to take the exam; it increases student retention. The students who take a class from Professor Tom this semester are more likely to be there to take a class from Professor Lillian next semester; it increases student satisfaction. They're more likely to find value in their experience because they have more control over how they pass through their stuff and they're more likely to recommend your institution to their friends. So, those are things that we tell our senior leaders about and that's one of the chapters in our book where we move from 'what is UDL and how do you do it on a small scale' to 'how do you make this part of your campus culture (how do you convince your leadership team that this is worth doing at a certain level for everybody)'.
[00:34:04]
[Lillian] It makes a lot of sense, I mean, and if you can convince an administrator then you're going to be able to implement something; absolutely, that's the important part. I have one more question for you Tom and you've answered it already many times, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to see if there is anything else that I've missed in talking about UDL. That's my question, is how has UDL changed the way you teach or learn and already many examples of how it's changed even your whole job search and what your career, but I wanted to give you that opportunity. If there's anything else that you think UDL has done that's changed the way you teach or learn I'd love to know about that.
[00:35:00]
[Thomas] Thank you. This is an important core of how I approach all of my learning interactions now. I used to see students as one audience and I had the mindset of, "I'm giving you the information, I'm sharing this with lectures and conversations and I'm giving it my best. They don't you get it." I was very concerned early on in my career about why weren't all of my students learning well and what could I do better to reach out to them, but I kept reaching out in the same way that I tended to learn best; and because I was one of the 'A' students, I wasn't one of the struggling students.
[00:35:50]
[Lillian] Right, you were good at learning.

[Thomas] That's most of us who are professors, who are teaching center people, who are learning designers, who are administrators in colleges and universities. That's most of us. We were the good students.
[00:36:03]
[Lillian] So we tend to repeat that. Right? We want to do exactly what we learned how to do.

[Thomas] Absolutely and there are extremes on this spectrum.

[Lillian] Yes.
[00:36:15]
[Thomas] So there was a professor at a university in Florida who refused to give his lecture notes out ahead of time because he thought no one would come to class and even when students with disabilities said I have this accommodation please give it to me ahead of time he refused. Now that's an extreme on this spectrum. The other extreme is, "oh I just let students do whatever they want and you know I'm really open to what students bring to the table." I think Universal Design for Learning allows us to keep some structure in the interactions that we have with our learners, while maintaining that high level of academic rigor in our subject matter in our field, while lowering the barrier for getting access to that information, and demonstrating skills in the first place. That's what's powerful about UDL.
[00:37:10]
[Lillian] Thanks so much Tom for your time today. I really appreciate you talking to me on the think UDL podcast.
[00:37:17]
[Thomas] Thank you very much Lillian, and to all of our Think UDL listeners, thank you very much for this podcast. If you're interested in continuing this conversation I'd love to put together just a 20-minute phone call, hear what's going on in your college or university, and see if there's ways we can work together down the line. My website is just my name ThomasJTobin.com and you can find all kinds of cool resources there and I'd love to see if I can help you in some way. So, Lillian, thank you again for inviting me on and I'll see everybody on the road. Take care.

[ Lillian] Thanks Tom.

[ Music]
[00:37:58]
[ Lillian] You can follow the think UDL podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to find out when new episodes will be released and also see transcripts and additional materials at the thinkUDL.org website. The think UDL podcast is made possible by College STAR. The STAR stands for Supporting Transition Access and Retention in post-secondary settings and the website provides free resources and instructional aids based on UDL principles. If you'd like to know more, go to the CollegeStar.org website. Additional support for the podcast is made possible by Appalachian State University where if you call it Appalachian I'll throw an apple at you. The music on the podcast was performed by the odyssey quartet comprised of Rex Shepherd, David Pate, Bill Folwell, and Jose Cochez. Our sound engineer is Tanner Jones, our social media coordinator is Reuben Watson, and I am your host Lillian Nave. Thank you for joining us on the think UDL podcast.

[ Music]

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Making UDL work for everyone with Thomas J. Tobin - Think UDL

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On today's episode, Lillian talks with Thomas J. Tobin about how UDL reduces barriers to learning while maintaining academic rigor. They talk about how UDL is about so much more than accessibility, how UDL can be done poorly or very well, and how to apply UDL principles easily in single classes or at the system level across the university.

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After watching this, your brain will not be the same | Lara Boyd | TEDxVancouver

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Interactive Brain | How the brain works & the impact of injury

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Take an interactive journey to see how the brain works and what impact an injury can have

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Disclaimer

The simplified model presented here is just one of many ways to categorize types of memory. There are other models too, and some of them use slightly different definitions for some of the terms used here.

This model highlights just a few of the key brain regions involved in different memory functions. Since no part of the brain exists in isolation, most types of memory include more areas than the ones listed here. The big idea to take away is that different areas of the brain have different functions.

If you wish to delve more deeply into the types of memory or the brain anatomy involved, we encourage you to explore the references linked at the bottom of the page.

When we learn, our brain takes in information about the world that causes us to change our behavior in some way.

For example, a young baby doesn't understand that fire can hurt them. But thanks to learning, if they touch a candle flame even one time, they will probably not do it again. The information that feeds into the brain-candle, flame, hot, pain-is physically recorded in the connections between cells. And those connections influence our future behavior-don't touch!

As the brain takes in any information and stores it, there are physical changes to the connections between brain cells. And those connections influence our behavior.

Neurons that fire together wire together

The brain is an enormous interconnected network of specialized cells called neurons and supporting cells called glia. To transmit information in the brain, neurons pass signals to one another. This passing of signals can cause physical changes to the connections between cells.

When we learn a skill (like riding a bike) or new information (like multiplication tables), we are building brain connections. The more we use those brain connections, the stronger they get. It's the reason "practice makes perfect."

In the activity above, you can read about how injuries to certain brain areas cause certain memory functions to stop working. But just as important are the connections between them. If two brain areas can no longer communicate, then learning and memory can break down.

Like trails through the wilderness, brain connections get stronger the more they're used

Learning is a process that relies on long-term memory systems in the brain. People who study learning typically divide it into 4 steps: attention, storage, consolidation, and retrieval. These steps dovetail with the Types of Memory described above, and they provide a slightly different framework for thinking about what happens when one or more of these steps go wrong.

Attention - Our sensory systems are constantly bombarded with information, yet most of it fades before we are even aware of it. Attention is like a filter that lets important information into the brain while keeping the irrelevant information out. Without attention, we would remember very little.

Encoding - As sensory information comes in, the brain processes it. Strings of sounds become words, flashes of light and color become images. The brain begins connecting this new information with what it already knows about the world. Some information that is encoded will fade, and some will stick around.

Storage - Long-term storage of information requires new brain connections. The brain has its own way of rehearsing experiences (there's evidence that this is what dreaming is all about), which helps strengthen brain connections. But we can also consciously repeat information or skills to help the brain form strong memories.

Retrieval - Retrieval is the process of accessing stored memories. We use it when we recall a fact or reimagine an experience. But we also use it when we take in new information. It's part of what helps us connect new information to old.

Even when memory systems function normally, memory is imperfect. To learn more about the fallibility of memory, visit The Seven Sins of Memory.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The simplified model presented here is just one of many ways to categorize types of memory. There are other models too, and some of them use slightly different definitions for some of the terms used here. This model highlights just a few of the key brain regions involved in different memory functions.

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Judy Willis 'Want children to pay attention? Make their brains curious!' at Young Minds 2012

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A person's memory is a sea of images and other sensory impressions, facts and meanings, echoes of past feelings, and ingrained codes for how to behave-a diverse well of information. Naturally, there are many ways (some experts suggest there are hundreds) to describe the varieties of what people remember and how. While the different brands of memory are not always described in exactly the same way by memory researchers, some key concepts have emerged.

These forms of memory, which can overlap in daily life, have also been arranged into broad categories. Memory that lingers for a moment (or even less than a second) could be described as short-term memory, while any kind of information that is preserved for remembering at a later point can be called long-term memory. Memory experts have also distinguished explicit memory, in which information is consciously recalled, from implicit memory, the use of saved information without conscious awareness that it's being recalled.

Episodic Memory

When a person recalls a particular event (or "episode") experienced in the past, that is episodic memory. This kind of long-term memory brings to attention details about anything from what one ate for breakfast to the emotions that were stirred up during a serious conversation with a romantic partner. The experiences conjured by episodic memory can be very recent or decades-old.

A related concept is autobiographical memory, which is the memory of information that forms part of a person's life story. However, while autobiographical memory includes memories of events in one's life (such as one's sixteenth birthday party), it can also encompass facts (such as one's birth date) and other non-episodic forms of information.

Semantic Memory

Semantic memory is someone's long-term store of knowledge: It's composed of pieces of information such as facts learned in school, what concepts mean and how they are related, or the definition of a particular word. The details that make up semantic memory can correspond to other forms of memory. One may remember factual details about a party, for instance-what time it started, at whose house it took place, how many people were there, all part of semantic memory-in addition to recalling the sounds heard and excitement felt. But semantic memory can also include facts and meanings related to people, places, or things one has no direct relation to.

Procedural Memory

Sitting on a bike after not riding one for years and recalling just what to do is a quintessential example of procedural memory. The term describes long-term memory for how to do things, both physical and mental, and is involved in the process of learning skills-from the basic ones people take for granted to those that require considerable practice. A related term is kinesthetic memory, which refers specifically to memory for physical behaviors.

Short-Term Memory and Working Memory

The terms short-term memory and working memory are sometimes used interchangeably, and both refer to storage of information for a brief amount of time. Working memory can be distinguished from general short-term memory, however, in that working memory specifically involves the temporary storage of information that is being mentally manipulated.

Short-term memory is used when, for instance, the name of a new acquaintance, a statistic, or some other detail is consciously processed and retained for at least a short period of time. It may then be saved in long-term memory, or it may be forgotten within minutes. With working memory, information-the preceding words in a sentence one is reading, for example-is held in mind so that it can be used in the moment.

Sensory Memory

Sensory memories are what psychologists call the short-term memories of just-experienced sensory stimuli such as sights and sounds. The brief memory of something just seen has been called iconic memory, while the sound-based equivalent is called echoic memory. Additional forms of short-term sensory memory are thought to exist for the other senses as well.

Sense-related memories, of course, can also be preserved long-term. Visual-spatial memory refers to memory of how objects are organized in space-tapped when a person remembers which way to walk to get to the grocery store. Auditory memory, olfactory memory, and haptic memory are terms for stored sensory impressions of sounds, smells, and skin sensations, respectively.

Prospective Memory

Prospective memory is forward-thinking memory: It means recalling an intention from the past in order to do something in the future. It is essential for daily functioning, in that memories of previous intentions, including very recent ones, ensure that people execute their plans and meet their obligations when the intended behaviors can't be carried out right away, or have to be carried out routinely.

It's a new year. What happened a century ago, and what can we learn from it?

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A person's memory is a sea of images and other sensory impressions, facts and meanings, echoes of past feelings, and ingrained codes for how to behave-a diverse well of information. Naturally, there are many ways (some experts suggest there are hundreds) to describe the varieties of what people remember and how.

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We don’t think hard enough about what we mean by the term “thinking.” And if we’re not clear enough, the age-old question of how language is involved in cognition becomes very messy.

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Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

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Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

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Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

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Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World [Grant, Adam, Sandberg, Sheryl] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

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WorkLife with Adam Grant: A TED original podcast

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WorkLife with Adam Grant: A TED original podcast

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The Science of Recharging on Weekends and Vacations

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You spend a quarter of your life at work. You should enjoy it! Organizational psychologist Adam Grant takes you inside the minds of some of the world’s most unusual professionals to discover the keys to a better work life. From learning how to love your rivals to harnessing the power of frustration,…

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Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning

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Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning

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Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning empowers educators to harness rigorous research on how students learn and unleash it in their classrooms. In this book, cognitive scientist Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D., and veteran K-12 teacher Patrice M. Bain, Ed.S., decipher cognitive science research and illustrate ways to successfully apply the science of learning in classrooms settings. This practical resource is filled with evidence-based strategies that are easily implemented in less than a minute―without additional prepping, grading, or funding!

Research demonstrates that these powerful strategies raise student achievement by a letter grade or more; boost learning for diverse students, grade levels, and subject areas; and enhance students' higher order learning and transfer of knowledge beyond the classroom. Drawing on a fifteen-year scientist-teacher collaboration, more than 100 years of research on learning, and rich experiences from educators in K-12 and higher education, the authors present highly accessible step-by-step guidance on how to transform teaching with four essential strategies: Retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and feedback-driven metacognition.

With Powerful Teaching, you will:

Develop a deep understanding of powerful teaching strategies based on the science of learning

Gain insight from real-world examples of how evidence-based strategies are being implemented in a variety of academic settings

Think critically about your current teaching practices from a research-based perspective

Develop tools to share the science of learning with students and parents, ensuring success inside and outside the classroom

Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning is an indispensable resource for educators who want to take their instruction to the next level. Equipped with scientific knowledge and evidence-based tools, turn your teaching into powerful teaching and unleash student learning in your classroom.

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powerful teaching: unleash the science of learning

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education / teaching methods & materials / general

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education/teaching methods & materials - general

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methods of instruction and study (general)

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education / teaching methods & materials / general

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education/teaching methods & materials - general

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Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning

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Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning [Agarwal, Pooja K., Bain, Patrice M.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning

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Transfer of Learning - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

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Robert E. Haskell, in Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology, 2004

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Neuroplasticity: Learning Physically Changes the Brain

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Neuroplasticity: Learning Physically Changes the Brain

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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We tend to think of stress as an immediate problem: The boss hovering over our desks; the mad dash to the subway at the end of a long day. And in the short-term, stress makes us feel irritable, anxious, tense, distracted and forgetful. But that's only part of the story.

Over time, elevated levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, can chip away at our physical, mental and emotional health. The link between chronic stress and the potential for mental health conditions -- such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and other mood disorders -- is well-established. But what kind of changes -- both fleeting and lasting -- are actually taking place in the brain when we experience a stressful event?

Here are four ways stress changes your brain.

Stress could trigger a chemical change that makes you irritable

Many of us know that we're not pleasant to be around when we're stressed out -- we may get irritable and grumpy. Under pressure, many people get distracted and forgetful and this could be a sign of the destructive effects of stress in the brain.

French researchers discovered an enzyme, when triggered by stress, that attacks a molecule in the hippocampus which is responsible for regulating synapses. When the synapses are modified, fewer neural connections are able to be made in the area.

"These effects lead subjects to lose their sociability, avoid interactions with their peers and have impaired memory or understanding," a university press release explained.

Chronic stress can shrink your brain

Stressful life events could harm your brain's memory and learning capacity by reducing the volume of gray matter in brain regions associated with emotions, self-control and physiological functions.

Chronic stress and/or depression can contribute to lost volume in the brain's medial prefrontal cortex, which is associated with emotional and cognitive impairment. Researchers found that this is particularly true of people with a genetic marker that can disrupt the formation of synaptic connections between brain cells.

A 2008 study on mice found that even short-term stress could lead to communication problems among brain cells in regions associated with memory and learning.

One stressful event can kill brain cells

As we learn new information, we constantly generate new neurons in the hippocampus -- a brain region associated with learning, memory and emotion. But ongoing stress can halt the production of new neurons in the hippocampus and may also affect the speed of connections between hippocampal cells, according to Scientific American. What's more, an animal study found that a single stressful event can destroy newly created neurons in the hippocampus.

University of California at Berkeley researchers found that the brain in a state of chronic stress generates more myelin-producing cells and fewer neurons than a typical brain would, resulting in excess myelin (an insulating layer of protective coating around neurons) in the hippocampus.

"The hippocampus is especially vulnerable to ongoing emotional distress, because of the damaging effects of cortisol," psychologist Daniel Goleman wrote in Social Intelligence.

Stress can disrupt memory by triggering the brain's threat response

While cortisol hampers the activity of the hippocampus, it increases the size and activity of the amygdala, the brain's main center for emotional responses and motivation. The amygdala is responsible for fear processing, threat perception and the fight-or-flight response. Increased activity means we're in a state of reacting to perceived threat, which can have the effect of restricting our ability to take in new information. It can also heighten emotional reactions.

"After a day when a student gets panicked by a pop quiz, he'll remember the details of that panic far more than any of the material in the quiz," Goleman wrote.

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We tend to think of stress as an immediate problem: The boss hovering over our desks; the mad dash to the subway at the end of a long day. And in the short-term, stress makes us feel irritable, anxious, tense, distracted and forgetful. But that's only part of the story.

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Disclaimer

The simplified model presented here is just one of many ways to categorize types of memory. There are other models too, and some of them use slightly different definitions for some of the terms used here.

This model highlights just a few of the key brain regions involved in different memory functions. Since no part of the brain exists in isolation, most types of memory include more areas than the ones listed here. The big idea to take away is that different areas of the brain have different functions.

If you wish to delve more deeply into the types of memory or the brain anatomy involved, we encourage you to explore the references linked at the bottom of the page.

When we learn, our brain takes in information about the world that causes us to change our behavior in some way.

For example, a young baby doesn't understand that fire can hurt them. But thanks to learning, if they touch a candle flame even one time, they will probably not do it again. The information that feeds into the brain-candle, flame, hot, pain-is physically recorded in the connections between cells. And those connections influence our future behavior-don't touch!

As the brain takes in any information and stores it, there are physical changes to the connections between brain cells. And those connections influence our behavior.

Neurons that fire together wire together

The brain is an enormous interconnected network of specialized cells called neurons and supporting cells called glia. To transmit information in the brain, neurons pass signals to one another. This passing of signals can cause physical changes to the connections between cells.

When we learn a skill (like riding a bike) or new information (like multiplication tables), we are building brain connections. The more we use those brain connections, the stronger they get. It's the reason "practice makes perfect."

In the activity above, you can read about how injuries to certain brain areas cause certain memory functions to stop working. But just as important are the connections between them. If two brain areas can no longer communicate, then learning and memory can break down.

Like trails through the wilderness, brain connections get stronger the more they're used

Learning is a process that relies on long-term memory systems in the brain. People who study learning typically divide it into 4 steps: attention, storage, consolidation, and retrieval. These steps dovetail with the Types of Memory described above, and they provide a slightly different framework for thinking about what happens when one or more of these steps go wrong.

Attention - Our sensory systems are constantly bombarded with information, yet most of it fades before we are even aware of it. Attention is like a filter that lets important information into the brain while keeping the irrelevant information out. Without attention, we would remember very little.

Encoding - As sensory information comes in, the brain processes it. Strings of sounds become words, flashes of light and color become images. The brain begins connecting this new information with what it already knows about the world. Some information that is encoded will fade, and some will stick around.

Storage - Long-term storage of information requires new brain connections. The brain has its own way of rehearsing experiences (there's evidence that this is what dreaming is all about), which helps strengthen brain connections. But we can also consciously repeat information or skills to help the brain form strong memories.

Retrieval - Retrieval is the process of accessing stored memories. We use it when we recall a fact or reimagine an experience. But we also use it when we take in new information. It's part of what helps us connect new information to old.

Even when memory systems function normally, memory is imperfect. To learn more about the fallibility of memory, visit The Seven Sins of Memory.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The simplified model presented here is just one of many ways to categorize types of memory. There are other models too, and some of them use slightly different definitions for some of the terms used here. This model highlights just a few of the key brain regions involved in different memory functions.

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Emotion and Cognition by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.

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Emotion and Cognition by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.

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Conexiones: The Learning Sciences Platform

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Emotion and Cognition by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.

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How to practice effectively ... for just about anything:

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Digital devices, such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones, are ubiquitous in society, across college campuses, and in college classrooms. A vast majority of college students bring and/or use a laptop in the classroom ( Patterson and Patterson, 2017; Elliot-Dorans, 2018). In many ways, the ubiquity of these devices has been a boon to higher education-students can now respond instantaneously to online polls, collaborate in real time on written work, and engage with a range of media more flexibly than ever before. Using digital devices to teach remotely for a year and a half helped further demonstrate some of the ways they might be used in-person to promote learning.

However, we all know that digital devices can also be an impediment to education, insofar as they enable students who are prone to distraction to indulge in the illusion that they can multitask at no cost to their learning. In a 2015 survey of college students in 26 different states, undergraduates reported using their digital devices for non-classroom purposes an average of 11.7 times per day in class, accounting for an average of 21% of class time ( McCoy, 2016). In a survey conducted by Tindell and Bohlander (2011), 92% of college students reported using their phones to send text messages during class.

Given this tension, how do you create a classroom and course where technology is used to engage, rather than distract, students? Looking at the research and our experiences using technology both in-person and remotely, we've found that using technology well involves being intentional, flexible, and transparent. Below you'll find some advice about how you might use technology to support your learning objectives, supplemented by research on how to prevent technology from becoming a distraction.

Distraction, not the device, is the problem

Let's be clear: the presence of electronic devices in the classroom is not, in and of itself, the problem. Rather, it's the way we incorporate electronic devices into situations in which we are already inclined to pay attention to too many things. Broadly, we are not wired to multitask well (e.g. Mayer and Moreno, 2003), which is precisely the temptation that many students report experiencing when they are in the classroom. Let's take a moment to look at what the research on in-class device usage tells us about multitasking; or, you may wish to jump directly to our recommendations below.

Studies of individual class sessions

A growing number of studies have found that off-topic device usage-whether on a phone or on a laptop-impedes academic performance (e.g. Glass and Kang, 2019; Felisoni and Godoi, 2018; Bjornsen and Archer, 2015; Demirbilek and Talan, 2018). Several studies have compared students who texted during a lecture versus those who did not. Those who texted typically took lower quality notes, retained less information, and did worse on tests about the material (e.g. Kuznekoff and Titsworth, 2013, and Rosen et al, 2011; Lee et al, 2017). Students themselves are aware that in-class multitasking does not promote learning; in one survey, 80% of students agreed that multitasking in class decreases their ability to pay attention ( Sana et al, 2013).

In addition, device usage is distracting to neighboring students. In several surveys, students have reported that texting is distracting to nearby students ( Tindell and Bohlander, 2011). A study on laptops in a simulated classroom found that students in the vicinity of another student who was multitasking on a laptop during class scored worse on a test than those who were not near multitaskers ( Sana et al, 2013). However, a follow-up study found that it matters what one's neighbors are doing on their computers; a neighbor who engages with off-task content has a more harmful effect on one's comprehension than if the neighbor is on-task ( Hall et al, 2020).

Studies of semester-long courses

Much of the above data comes from simulated class situations, correlational studies, or studies of a single class session. What happens when students are not allowed to use computers in class for an entire semester? Two studies comparing actual college classrooms in which students were or were not allowed to use computers over the course of the semester found that students who bring a laptop to class earned lower grades than those who do not ( Patterson and Patterson, 2017; Carter et al, 2017).

However, the evidence is not uniformly against laptops. Elliot-Dorans compared different sections of the same course that either banned or allowed laptops, and found that banning laptops led to lower quality of written work, lower attendance, and lower exam scores ( Elliot-Dorans, 2018). The author surmised that students' note taking was worse without a laptop, which impeded their learning.

Our recommendations

Maintaining focus

Boredom is one of the main reasons that students report using a digital device during class ( McCoy, 2016). By keeping your students engaged, thinking, and doing activities during class, they are less likely to be tempted by digital distractions. Two studies, one that asked students to use clickers to report lapses in attention ( Bunce et al, 2010) and one that tracked students' eye gaze patterns during lectures ( Rosengrant et al, 2012, summarized here), found that students' attention is highest during and immediately after a change in pedagogy or behavior of the instructor. Some examples of changes that can help students maintain focus include:

1. Variety in pedagogical activities. If you want students to pay attention to you, then you have to offer them something more interesting than your slides (which they're perfectly capable of reading for themselves). Look for opportunities to change up the interaction in the classroom. If you're lecturing, why not ask your students to provide examples of the concept you're describing? If you are leading a discussion seminar, why not design activities for students to talk to each other in small groups instead of just answering your questions for the duration of the class? For example, prompt students turn and talk to each other about a question or challenge you've posed. Technology can help promote engagement and collaboration during an activity like this; students could write and respond to each other in a shared Google Doc.

2. Proximity to the instructor. You are not a prisoner of the podium, or the front of the table, or however your classroom is set up. Of course, you can't be proximate to each student all the time-so move around! You can use your position in the classroom to change the flow of the conversation and the way that students direct their attention.

3. Humor. You probably already knew that students typically pay attention to jokes. But there's a lot more behind that surface observation: laughter in the classroom can make students more comfortable, lower their affective filter, encourage intellectual risk-taking, decrease anxiety, and establish a more productive student-teacher relationship.

Using technology for learning and engagement

Our recent experiences with remote learning have reinforced the idea that digital devices can be incorporated into the learning environment to great effect, often in ways that we might wish to continue to deploy in an in-person classroom. Technology can be helpful for collecting instantaneous feedback on student learning, promoting collaboration, and helping students engage more closely with readings and other materials related to the course. For example, students can use a mobile device to respond to questions (multiple choice, open ended, and other formats) through applications such as Poll Everywhere and Learning Catalytics. This encourages class participation and provides instructors with instantaneous feedback about student learning. Collaborative tools such as Google Docs or Google Jamboard allow students to jointly contribute ideas to a shared project or give each other peer feedback, and annotation tools such as AnnotationsX or Perusal enable students to annotate a document. Additionally, students might use their device to look up information on the internet, or engage with a simulation or other educational app.

Furthermore, students may prefer taking notes on their computer rather than by hand. In one survey of college students, 70% of students report that having a laptop in class is helpful for their academic performance, with note-taking cited as the most important benefit ( Kay and Lauricella, 2014). Additional reported benefits include engagement with in-class academic activities, and communication and collaboration with peers ( Kay and Lauricella, 2014; Fried, 2008).

Technology as a technology of inclusion

While for many students banning devices from the classroom may seem like a minor inconvenience, students with dyslexia, ADHD, or visual impairments use computers to take notes and to access cloud-based assistive technologies. People with invisible disabilities are enrolling in higher education settings in increasing numbers, and require access to technologies that assist with their learning. Allowing all students access to a device in class avoids singling out students who have important reasons for using one.

When you do use technology in the classroom, check to see if the digital tools you use are accessible to different students. Consider using sans serif fonts, providing materials for lecture in advance of class for review, and using files that can be read aloud via text to voice software (avoid scanned pictures of text). A Boston Globe article entitled " Digital education shouldn't bypass disabled" highlights and personalizes these issues.

To allow or not allow devices?

Faculty are often hesitant to allow students to use devices in the classroom due to the potential for distraction. However, we note that the challenge with digital devices is not the device per se, but off-topic usage. We can decrease the temptation by ensuring that the class itself is interactive and engaging, and that any use of technology is relevant.

We recommend being intentional, transparent, and flexible about use of digital devices in the classroom.

Start by thinking carefully about your learning objectives, and identify activities that align with your objectives and enhance learning. Sometimes the most appropriate activity might not involve technology, but instead might include students talking to a neighbor, drawing a diagram on paper, or solving a problem on a white board. In other cases, you might see an ideal use case for electronic devices. For example, you might incorporate online tools that provide insight into student understanding (such as polls) or that allow collaborative work.

During some portions of a class, you might encourage students not to use their devices, but to instead maintain their attention on the conversation, for example. (You may wish to apply these directions flexibility, with the understanding that some students rely on digital tools for learning.)

Communicate clearly-and frequently-about when and why to use a device, as well as why not to use a device. Share the research about how off-topic device usage impedes learning.

Include a technology policy on your syllabus. In addition to letting students know what they can and cannot use, it is important to let them know why.

Share advice about good practices for using digital devices. Guidance about turning off extraneous applications and notifications, and closing the device when an activity is completed, will help students not only in your class, but also in their future work environments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Digital devices, such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones, are ubiquitous in society, across college campuses, and in college classrooms. A vast majority of college students bring and/or use a laptop in the classroom ( Patterson and Patterson, 2017; Elliot-Dorans, 2018).

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UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality

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UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
DOI link for UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality

UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality book

Designing accessible and engaging online courses

DOI link for UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality

UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality book

Designing accessible and engaging online courses

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UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality | Designing accessible

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DOI link for UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality book Designing accessible and engaging online courses DOI link for UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality UDL, online accessibility, and virtual reality book Designing accessible and engaging online courses

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Center for Teaching and Learning | Wiley Education Services

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Principles of Multimedia Learning - Center for Teaching and Learning | Wiley Education Services

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Multimedia materials are everywhere now. Check out these tips for how to harness the power of multimedia learning in your online classroom.

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Retrieval practice is a simple research-based teaching strategy that dramatically raises students' grades. When students retrieve and bring information to mind, this mental challenge produces durable long-term learning. Easy learning leads to easy forgetting. Stop cramming, reviewing, and re-teaching. Instead, simply ask students what they remember. No prep, no grading, just powerful teaching.

The science of learning exists. It's time to unleash it.

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Retrieval Practice: Unleash the Science of Learning

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Harness powerful teaching strategies, unleash the science of learning, and transform your classroom with resources by cognitive scientists.

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Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education

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Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education

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Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher begin Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education (2016) with a bold and inspiring statement: "Teachers are brain changers" (p. 1). Thus begins their exploration into how teachers can leverage Mind Brain Education (MBE) strategies to design enhanced learning experiences for students. Early on, Whitman and Kelleher, both teachers at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland, make a powerful analogy between teachers and doctors to relate the importance of keeping up on research and innovations in practice. As medical patients, we would not choose a doctor whose only treatment plan consisted of the use of leeches, as this would indicate both an impoverished 'tool kit' and a lack of knowledge (although leeches are still used in innovative ways). Likewise, the authors of this book argue that we would not want teachers working with our students who are not keeping up with pedagogical advances. It is simply not good enough to do things the we always have just because it has worked for us in the past.

In Neuroteach, Whitman and Kelleher wade into the ongoing debate over the value of neuroscience in informing and guiding classroom teaching, attempting to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research on the brain and school-based learning environments. Both have extensive teaching experience and together lead the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CCTL) at St. Andrew's, which declares its mission to be to "create and innovate in the field of Mind, Brain, and Education Science Research to allow teachers to maximize their effectiveness and students to achieve their highest potential" (CCTL, 2018). Importantly, they practice what they preach. The book is structured according to MBE principles from the outset, modeling many of the strategies it includes. For example, the authors include a formative assessment at the beginning so that readers can establish a baseline of understanding and monitor their own progress as they learn. Each chapter ends with three formative assessment questions to encourage recall and contextualization, both of which are strategies for which they advocate. In addition, the chapters are short, leveraging what neuroscience tells us about memory and attention and the brain's capacity to chunk information. And, they begin each chapter with the most important information to highlight the primacy-recency effect, which tells us that students remember most what they experience at the beginning of a class and second most at the end.

Not only does the book model the strategies it advocates, but it works to debunk myths about how people learn, particularly ones which are prevalent in education spaces. First, they tackle the issue of learning styles. Teachers have long been trained to believe that students have different ways of learning (e.g., visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) and that instruction should be provided in modalities that meet those needs. Whitman and Keller assert, however, that "there is no evidence, despite many studies, to show that [students] learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style" (p. 37). Rather, teachers should be encouraged to provide instruction based on the content instead of their perceptions of individual learning styles in their classrooms. Further, the authors "explode the myth that we are right-brained or left-brained-all tasks use brain networks that involve both brain hemispheres-as well as the myth that we only use 10 percent of our brain" (p. 35), showing us that it is important to treat all students as capable of learning and growing across styles and preferences. Other myths they take on include that our brains are able to multitask (this is not possible) and that emotions are disconnected from learning (they are inextricably tied).

Whitman and Kelleher next move on to the importance of the growth mindset-for both students and teachers-as integral to the MBE framework. Building on the work of Dweck (2007), Whitman and Kelleher's take labels the growth mindset as a "yet sensibility" (p. 43), going so far as to say that "yet" is one of the most important words in education. The idea of the yet sensibility is that when students say they can't do something, they need to add the word yet to the end of the statement. In this way, students can cultivate an internal dialogue that anything is possible with hard work and focused attention. The authors also stress the importance of explicitly teaching students about the plasticity and adaptability of the brain, asserting that when students learn their minds are not fixed entities and that through intentional effort they can grow and improve, they are more likely to take on challenges and build intrinsic motivation.

As a former teacher and current program director for an education non-profit, I found the resources in this book to be invaluable. Neuroteach is chock full of concrete, research-based instructional strategies that can be implemented immediately (in fact, one of the three formative assessment questions included at the end of each chapter is "What are two things you would like to do tomorrow with the information you learned from reading this chapter?"). The strategies are so clear, sensible, and inspiring that it makes me want to be back in the classroom to try them. The authors include citations for each idea-from interleaving to self-testing to timely feedback to arts integration-which are included throughout the book and listed at the ends of the chapters. I have been so excited about the potential of MBE instruction that I have been widely sharing the content with anyone who will listen.

Where the book falls short, however, is in relation to equity. Serving students who have been underserved in the traditional education system has become a rallying cry for innovations such as student-centered learning and competency-based education (discussed at length on CompetencyWorks), but Neuroteach does little to address it. Throughout the book, Whitman and Kelleher refer to three kinds of students: the high flyer, the "just fine," and the struggling student. However, most of the examples the authors provide from their own teaching experience relate to the high flyer and the "just fine;" there are few, if any, illustrations relating to the struggling student. For example, they discuss the importance of including lecture-based instruction in classrooms, as students must be prepared for this type of environment in college; this is not inclusive of the many different opportunities of which students might take advantage upon graduating from high school. In fact, the only reference as to how MBE can improve learning for historically underserved populations is contained in one sentence: "Research has shown that developing a growth mindset among high-poverty, marginalized groups of students has shown statistically significant improvement in essential skills such as reading" (p. 50).

Despite the lack of focus on equity, Whitman and Kelleher make an important argument about the role of research in teaching. They dedicate an entire chapter to teachers as researchers, stating that teachers "collect enormous amounts of data each day, and they rapidly evaluate and make decisions based on those data...They may be second only to doctors in doing this" (p. 149). The authors importantly honor the amount of information teachers take in and analyze each day without necessarily being conscious of it and encourage them to start journaling and recording their observations. They also recognize that there is no one size fits all in the teacher-as-researcher approach: it is critical to acknowledge individual school settings and context and allow teachers to be responsive to the needs of their specific student populations. Whitman and Kelleher stress that collaboration around problems of practice can greatly increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning, and they espouse that the most important message of the book is to "be on an evolving-evidence, research-informed teaching journey" (p. 199).

Overall, Neuroteach is a worthwhile read, and I highly encourage any educator interested in the learning sciences to pick up a copy. The authors' contributions to teacher professional development are relevant, timely, and salient. The instructional strategies offered, all based on what we currently know about learning and the brain, should certainly result in improved learning experiences for students. The rapid pace of research and development in neuroscience means that we will continue to learn more about how the brain works, which has huge implications for instruction and pedagogy. I highly expect Whitman and Kelleher to continue sharing what they learn, but for now, this is one of the best works I've read on the science of learning. I am encouraged that, in the right hands, all students-especially those who are currently furthest from opportunity-can benefit from teachers who are actively researching in their classrooms and providing intentional brain-based instruction.
References
Dweck, C. (2007). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.

Whitman, G. & Kelleher, I. (2016). Neuroteach: Brain science and the future of education. Lanham, MD: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

Amy Spicer is a former teacher and current senior program lead at the Colorado Education Initiative (CEI), which seeks to accelerate innovation in education across Colorado. Amy leads the Competency-Based/Personalized Learning portfolio of work at CEI.

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Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education - Aurora Institute

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Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher begin Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education (2016) with a bold and inspiring statement: "Teachers are brain changers" (p. 1). Thus begins their exploration into how teachers can leverage Mind Brain Education (MBE) strategies to design enhanced learning experiences for students.

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Learning Science 101: Cognitive Load Theory

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Learning Science 101: Cognitive Load Theory

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Learning Science 101: Cognitive Load Theory

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How to Provide Meaningful Feedback: Teacher’s Guide

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How to Provide Meaningful Feedback: Teacher’s Guide

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Low-stakes assignments are forms of evaluation that do not heavily impact students' final grades or other educational outcomes. The purpose of low-stakes assignments is to provide students with an indication of their performance while taking a course and give students an opportunity to improve their performance prior to receiving a final grade, either on an assignment or in a course.

As Vincent Tinto writes in Completing College: Rethinking Institutional Action (2012), "To be effective, assessments must be frequent, early, and formative." At colleges and universities recognized by the National Survey on Student Engagement for their success in promoting student's active engagement in their learning: "Feedback from faculty to students is timely and frequent, as documented both by NSSE data and by interviews with students and faculty members" (Kuh, et al. 2010).

Low-stakes assignments tend to work best when they generate formative feedback regarding where students are in the course, what they are doing well, and where they may need development to ultimately succeed in the class. At DePaul, there is a general expectation that students will be given feedback early in the quarter or term, and low-stakes assignments are a powerful method of doing so.

For students in their first year, whether as freshmen or transfers, such feedback is especially important in order to help them understand the expectations at DePaul. Early feedback also enables faculty to use DePaul's BlueStar system to identify students who may need additional assistance and share that information with the students and their academic advisors.

Benefits of Low-Stakes Assignments

Low-stakes assignments

Give students a realistic idea of their performance early in the term, enabling them to seek appropriate resources as needed

Open up lines of communication between students and their instructors, and may increase students' willingness to ask for help

Provide feedback for instructors on how well students are absorbing information and progressing in their skill development

Allow instructors to direct students to resources if they need further assistance or support

Give students an opportunity to be active participants in the evaluation of their own learning

Increase the likelihood that students will attend class and be active and engaged

Low Stakes-Assignments in Online and Flex Modality Courses

While all classes can benefit from frequent low-stakes assignments, it's especially important in online and Flex modalities. In a face-to-face classroom, instructors may assess student learning in informal ways using nonverbal cues-a puzzled look or an affirming nod, for example. In a online and Flex courses, instructors may have more difficulty picking up these cues from students, especially if they don't always have their cameras on or you're not meeting synchronously. In Flex classes, it can also be more challenging to pick up on nonverbal cues among in-person students if also trying to monitor engagement and participation among remote students at the same time. ​​

D2L Tools for Low-Stakes Assignments

​D2L tools will help you to implement low-stakes assignments in all types of courses and course modalities.

Quizzes are often used for multiple-choice or other objective question types because they can be graded automatically, allowing students to get feedback immediately. For low-stakes assignments, you may want to allow students to review the questions and their answers after they take the quiz. You can set up Submission Views to allow for this. Instructors can also view quiz statistics to see if the class is struggling with a particular concept and review that topic with them.

Discussions

Discussions allow students to share short pieces of writing or other media with you and their classmates. They work well for sharing rough drafts or other early-stage components of larger projects for peer review or for certain journaling assignments.

Submissions

Submission folders allow students to submit work privately to you. You may be used to using Submissions for major assignments like research papers. For shorter, less formal pieces of writing, you can change the Submission Type to "Text" to allow students to type their response directly into D2L rather than uploading a file from their computer.

Examples of Low-Stakes Assignments

Though given less weight, low-stakes assignments may be similar in type and kind to high-stakes assignments: they tend to reflect the kind of work students are going to be expected to do for a final exam, paper, or other summative project.

Components of a Larger Project

When assigning students a writing or research project, break down the elements of the project and use one or more as a low-stakes assignment. Require students to submit their works-in-progress so that they can receive early written feedback and a small grade, which could consist simply of a check or check-minus. Any one (or more) of the following elements could be collected and used as a low-stakes assignment:

Prospectus or proposal

Abstract

Thesis statement

Outline

Annotated bibliography

Specific sections of the final project (e.g., introduction, methods, lit. review)

Early-stage drafts of a paper

Early Drafts and Peer Review

Midway through a writing project, have students bring a full or partial draft of their paper to class and then exchange feedback with a peer. Students will receive valuable feedback that they can use to revise their work.

Try providing students with a rubric to help them give their peers targeted, assignment-specific feedback. Also, consider inviting Writing Center tutors to your class to model how peer review can be conducted effectively.

Mid-Project/Quarter Conferences

Around midterm or during the planning stages of a major course project, ask students to meet with you for conferences. If the class is too large for you to meet with each student individually, assign students to meet with you in groups, or one-on-one with their TA. The conference time might be dedicated to discussing the students' progress towards course goals or providing feedback on a particular project.

To get the most out of your conference time, ask students to complete and bring with them a self-assessment form or project proposal. Alternatively, ask students to write down one question they have about the course, content covered in class, or an assignment they are currently working on. Having a document to reference will keep the conversation on track and help put both you and your students at ease.

Group Work Planning and Reflection

When students are working in groups, require them to submit a statement outlining each group members' responsibilities and/or a timeline that measures their progress. Periodically throughout the group project, ask students to submit short reflections detailing their progress and any areas where they need support.

Weekly Quizzes

For a course where exams are the primary means of summative assessment, give students a quiz at the end of each week with questions based on content covered up to that point. Although the quiz might not count for credit (or might only count for a very small portion of the final grade), it will give students an idea of what they already learned and which concepts they need to spend more time with. Quizzes can be paper-based, conducted during class using Polling or posted online in D2L Quizzes.

Class Problem Solving

In a course where students learn new computational or mathematical concepts, have a problem posted on the board or screen at the start of each class, or in a collaborative document. Students can work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to find the solution. Spend part of class going over the problem as a big group, or review the problem in a short video.

Course Concept Journals

Consider having students keep a regular journal where they can engage with and apply course concepts. For example, in an Introduction to Political Science course, ask students to read the politics section of the New York Times and keep a weekly concept-application journal. For each entry, students should select one article that they read, summarize it, and show how the article demonstrates a theoretical concept discussed that week in class. Review students' journals every other week or so and give each entry brief feedback.

Reading Journals

In a course where students are required to do weekly readings, assign a reading journal. Entries might require students to summarize and respond to the source, or to answer a set of questions provided by the instructor. Students can submit their journal entries through D2L, by handing in hard copies every other week, or by posting them on a course blog.

Short Writing Assignments

Give students a prompt that corresponds to a class reading assignment, concept, or activity and have them turn in a short written response. Return the students' responses with your brief feedback, indicating whether the students are on track or not (a simple "check plus" or "check minus" could be used). In large classes where you might not have time to give individualized written feedback to each student, share and discuss one or two anonymous students responses at the next class meeting or in a D2L News item or weekly introduction.

Discussion Questions

Post open-ended questions designed to promote engagement with the current course content or an upcoming project or assignment. Invite students to ask questions and identify areas of confusion, and answer the questions posted by their peers. See Facilitating Discussions for additional suggestions.

Support for Low-Stakes Assignments at DePaul

University Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL)
Discuss how you can incorporate writing in a low-stakes assignment by contacting Matthew Pearson, Director of the UCWbL. You can also invite peer tutors to your classroom to demonstrate effective peer review before having your own students give feedback to one another.

University Libraries
If you're interested in using an element of a research project as a means of giving early feedback to students, connect with a university librarian. University librarians can offer feedback and resources for designing research projects for students.

Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)
Have a question about integrating discussion forums in your classes? Not sure which platform might be best for setting up a course blog? Contact the CTL for help identifying and implementing a technology tool to help meet your goals.

Further Reading

Angelo, T., & Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Bean, J. C. (1996). Engaging ideas: the professors guide to integrating writing,critical thinking and active learning in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J.S., and Whitt, E.J. (2010). Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Lang, J. M. (2013). Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Nilson, L. B. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Tinto, Vincent. (2012). Completing college: Rethinking institutional action. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Warnock, Scott. (2013). Frequent, low-stakes grading: Assessment for communication, confidence. Faculty Focus. Madison, WI: Magna Publications.

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Low-stakes assignments are forms of evaluation that do not heavily impact students' final grades or other educational outcomes. The purpose of low-stakes assignments is to provide students with an indication of their performance while taking a course and give students an opportunity to improve their performance prior to receiving a final grade, either on an assignment or in a course.

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Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers help you understand and develop your teaching practice and expertise across 4 career stages. By demonstrating the Standards you can have maximum impact on all learners.

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australian professional standards for teachers

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Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

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Do you have much experience with Universal Design? Today we're thrilled to welcome a guest author who has not only implemented UDL on her own, but is assisting her colleagues in applying the principles in their classrooms as well. Tianhong Shi, instructional designer with Oregon State Extended Campus, joins WCET Frontiers today to tell us about her journey learning about UDL, applying the concepts in a variety of learning settings, and expanding the design across the OSU campus. Enjoy the read and enjoy your day,
Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a practical tool for guiding course design to ensure that every learner succeeds, based on scientific insights into how humans learn (). There are three main principles of UDL:

1. multiple means of representations,

2. multiple means of engagement, and

3. multiple means of expressions.

UDL has roots in Inclusive pedagogy, which started around 1970s in the United States and as early as 1918 in the United Kingdom.

Why UDL?

With the multiple means of presentation, engagement and expressions, UDL strives to make content accessible to all learners, it stimulates interests and motivation for learning and it provides a pathway for every learner to succeed (; udlcenter.org).

By teaching students according to their individual needs, we make sure that every student succeeds and prepare them for the future (versus preparing for our own past by teaching them how we were taught) (Katie Novak,).

"You don't just get kids in the driver suit of learning; you get expert drivers once you use UDL" (Bill McGrath at UDL-IRN Summit 2018).

My Journey in UDL

In 2017, as part of the ID2ID program (a peer mentoring program for instructional designers organized by EDUCAUSE and Penn State University), my mentee Irene Knokh and I identified UDL as a learning topic. We read books such as Universal Design In Higher Education-Promising Practices, completed a free Canvas UDL training course (designed and taught by), browsed web resources (UDL at glance, ), and attended a webinar on Implementing UDL by Thomas Tobin.

Designing Courses Using UDL Principles: Removing Barriers

After intensive self-directed learning on UDL for several months, I started to promote UDL among online instructors at Oregon State University. My greatest gratitude goes to Oregon State University (OSU) online instructors Ted Paterson,, and Yvette Gibson who allowed me to share with them what I learned about UDL and started implementing the principles in their online courses in the Spring 2018 term. There are many applications of UDL design principles in some of OSU's Spring 2018 online courses.

During my meetings with Ted, Victor, and Yvette, we identified barriers and challenges to learning and designed courses to remove such barriers.

For Ted, the biggest challenge is the intensive reading and writing in managing ethics study. So, we added estimated average reading time for each reading assignment and created animated videos to explain complicated yet crucially important writing assignments.

For Victor, the challenge to his students was the abstractness of biophysics concepts in macromolecular structure study. To overcome this barrier, we designed simulation videos to explain the concepts and used graphics to illustrate other concepts. Students were assigned to use video, graphics, and texts to explain key concepts in meaningful ways.

For Yvette, the challenge was how to make learning meaningful and applicable in shrubland ecology study. We used learner-generated content as the main teaching strategy for the course and students were assigned to co-write portions of the textbook and create resources that will be published for public use upon instructor approval.

Examples of class activities in Ted's Managing Ethics course:

Text reading (Chapter 1 of textbook).

Listening to podcast (Ponzi Supernova podcast audio from Radio-lab).

Watching videos of instructor lectures.

Watching animated video explanation of a 7-page instruction for the term writing project.

Discussion forums: students post answers to prompts; students reply to peer classmates' posts.

Student developed Personal Ethical Action Plan (instructor provides feedback for students to incorporate prior to final due date).

Examples of class activities in Victor's Macromolecular Structure course and Yvette's Shrubland Ecology course:

Create a three-dimensional image.

Create a video to explain what "reciprocal space" means to the individual student.

Complete a literature search and review.

Write a letter to a relative to explain why the Fourier transform is so important to NMR spectroscopy.

Co-author part of course textbook.

UDL Implementation Success Tips

Promoting the implementation of UDL is bound to be a rough journey that is full of challenges. Why is it still worthwhile to do it? By adopting UDL principles, you will aid in a student's efforts to become expert learners.

Consider the following:

What challenges am I overcoming?

How could UDL add value to the learning design?

Implement one thing at a time (suggested by Thomas Tobin).

Consider UDL as operating system, not just as a framework (suggested by) in the days when you feel your UDL pioneering journey is becoming too rough: it is at work without you noticing it!

The College STAR program offers free access to UDL- Based teaching practices for faculty and staff members to implement in their college courses. College STAR also provides Incentive funding for faculty members to join Virtual Learning Communities and submit proposals which will be developed into online modules and case studies. Learn more about College STAR.

Here is a list of some tools that can help instructors implement UDL and several additional UDL resources for you to use and share.

Poll & Reflection Sharing

I would like to end this post with a simple poll (based on Katie Novak's presentation at UDL-IRN Summit 18) and a reflective question for us all to ponder:

"In your UDL journey for the next two years, what would you hope to be and how would you achieve that?"

Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas on this padlet wall.

Tianhong Shi
Instructional Designer
Extended Campus - Oregon State University
Tianhong.shi@oregonstate.edu
@tianhongshi

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Do you have much experience with Universal Design? Today we're thrilled to welcome a guest author who has not only implemented UDL on her own, but is assisting her colleagues in applying the principles in their classrooms as well. Tianhong Shi, instructional designer with Oregon State Extended Campus, joins WCET Frontiers today to tell us...

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Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome!

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.

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The Gardner Institute is a non-profit leader in advancing, teaching, student learning, success, retention, and completion. We achieve this by working with community colleges, 4-year colleges, and universities, on analytics, academic advising, first-year and transfer experience, course redesign, retention, teaching, and learning, to ensure student success.

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1. Home

2. Our Impact

3. About Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.

UDL at a Glance

Find out how the UDL framework guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs.

UDL to Change the World

CAST created the Universal Design for Learning framework, and it remains one of our core levers of change to help make learning inclusive and transformative for everyone.

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Visit the UDL Guidelines

Engagement

For purposeful, motivated learners, stimulate interest and motivation for learning.

Explore Engagement

Representation

For resourceful, knowledgeable learners, present information and content in different ways.

Explore Representation

Action & Expression

For strategic, goal-directed learners, differentiate the ways that students can express what they know.

Explore Action & Expression

Top of Page

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Home Our Impact About Universal Design for Learning Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Find out how the UDL framework guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs.

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Online Teaching Toolkit | Resources for Online Instruction

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Resources for instructors needing to make a quick transition to utilizing an online environment. Improved the online experience for teachers and students.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Reenvisioning the UDL Guidelines

Because the UDL Guidelines are meant to be informed by feedback from the field as well as new research, they have been updated several times in the past. We are in the process of updating the Guidelines once again in our UDL Rising to Equity initiative.

This update will focus specifically on addressing systemic barriers that result in inequitable learning opportunities and outcomes. CAST aims to develop a transparent, inclusive, and community-driven process. If you are interested in collaborating and staying updated on our progress, we invite you to complete a brief survey.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.