UDL theory into practice: Dr Karol Mullaney-Dignam

We asked our faculty and staff at the University of Limerick to give us examples of how they have implemented Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In this example, Dr Karol Mullaney-Dignam, Lecturer in History and Course Director, MA Public History & Cultural Heritage tells us how she incorporated reflective journals into her programme, and allowed learners to submit in a format which suited them, such as text, audio or audio-visual formats.

Transcription

One UDL change that I've implemented in my history teaching at UL has been the introduction of reflective blogs at undergraduate level. These are intended to be ungraded one-off end-of-term reflections on the content learned but also on the students learning processes and the reactions to their own learning experiences.

At postgraduate level reflective journals are graded and are designed to enable learners to develop self-assessment and reflection. I made this change in keeping with the UDL principle of Multiple Means of Engagement.

I was very conscious from my years of teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate levels that there's no such thing as a typical or average student and that all students learn differently.

Using learning reflections along with peer discussion forums, group work collaboration, and scaffolded coursework has allowed my students from different cultural and academic backgrounds to engage in different methods of learning in my classes.

The most significant impact that this has had is in my postgraduate teaching where two core modules are assessed by a semester-long reflective practice. This activity comprises weekly reflective blogs which amount to a journal.

The program to which these modules belong is the online MA in Public History and Cultural Heritage programme. Public historians reflect on their work and action changes where necessary they intentionally incorporate what they learn from their successes, their failures, and critical evaluations from their professional experiences into future research interpretive and engagement strategies so by incorporating reflective practice into a public history program students are encouraged to adopt critical reflection as a practice not only in their studies but also in their work and in their public history engagements.

In other words, students are engaging in learning by integrating a work-based practice based on UDL.

In keeping with the UDL principle of multiple means of action or expression, students are offered the option of submitting their reflections in whatever form they wish written form, audio form or audio visual form. This has necessitated me rewriting assignment briefs, adding instructions around content length and submission. It's also important for me to ensure fairness and standards as well as alignment with learning outcomes but students know that they have such choices in assignment types from the outset of their modules.