Mainstreaming Universal Design for Learning (UDL) & Inclusive Practice at UL
Speaker: Dr Thomas J. Tobin
Date: 21st January 2022
This is the first of three workshops on Universal Design for Learning with Thomas J. Tobin. The aim of these workshops is to bring together people in UL who are interested in creating a fully inclusive and equitable learning environment. This workshop looked at the following:
- What is the goal of introducing UDL at UL?
- How should UDL be framed for broad impact and adoption?
- Moving from “step zero” concepts like “plus-one thinking” into more complex design goals.
The video from this webinar is below, please note the timestamps below the video to skip to particular sections.
Download the slides for this presentation (PDF)
Timestamps and links to video content
00:00 Introduction by Jess Beeley
01:14 "Housekeeping" information
04:10: Introduction to today's webinar with Thomas J. Tobin
07:28: Exercise 1: What's one "pinch point" in your interactions with your students? Think about the interactions that you have with your learners - what's one way in which it doesn't go the way that you had planned? Where do students end up asking the same question by email because they're confused about a particular process or a topic or where do you end up having to re-teach because your students get things wrong as a group on tests or exams or where do your students ask for an explanation in a different way?
10:02: Discussion on the first exercise.
25:42: How to talk to campus leaders about how UDL helps with student persistence, retention, and satisfaction.
28:06: How UDL is not just for learners with disabilities
"If we're thinking about accessible learning the challenge for us is that when we say Universal Design for Learning our colleagues at the university will hear "disability studies", "accessibility", "making accommodations", "making one change one time for one person" and that is terribly resource-intensive."
"We don't know who's going to come in with what kinds of needs because people are various. They present to us with lots of different identities and it's not just their identity across the ability spectrum. We teach folks whose native language isn't English. We teach folks from various economic tiers in society. We teach folks who come from different cultural backgrounds and all of those things intersect so that we cannot ever predict "this is what my average student is going to be like". We come with a different crop of learners every single time."
30:20 UDL and mobile learning
32:05: How UDL can help students with time management to be better prepared.
36:37: What is UDL?
39:35: The Plus One approach to Universal Design for Learning - what is one thing you can add to help your students?
41:37: Exercise 2: What would you like to try after this webinar?
43:04: Discussion on this exercise
62:24: Framing UDL for broad impact: UDL is not just for students with disabilities
64:23: Implementing UDL Plus One ways to show to your colleagues
65:44: Pyramid of accommodations for learners
67:50: A look into the UDL checkpoints
74:28: Exercise 3: Where will you add a Plus One interaction in your teaching?
78:04: Mainstreaming UDL at UL project and UL UDL Showcase
78:53: Kirkpatrick's Assessment Model
80:04: UDL Reporting criteria
80:41: Examples of UDL Projects in other Universities:
- Renton Technical College
- Eastern Carolina University
- CollegeSTAR Consortium
- Scholarly Publication
- ThinkUDL podcast
81:25: Final thoughts