What is necessary for some, can be good for all. – Allison Posey, CAST
How do we support a diverse student population so that they become expert learners with the resilience to succeed? We believe the answer is Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which is a framework or mindset that is about providing options, choices, flexibility, and variety in how content is represented and how assessments are designed to create rich learning experiences for every student.
Take a moment to review the Persona section of this website and see what helps and what frustrates our seven personas. We created the personas partly to raise awareness about the challenges our students with disabilities face. It is important to note that what helps them also helps students who are doing coursework on a smartphone, want to print to read content offline, want to watch a video without disturbing anyone, or while in a noisy location, have a slow internet connection, or want to convert their readings to an audio format to listen to while jogging or driving – just to name a few examples.
In our fast-paced, interconnected world, our learners have more variable needs than ever before. We also have new technology that makes education accessible for more people, providing us with new and innovative solutions. Just as curb cuts, elevators, and automatic doors are useful for all of us in the built environment, UDL practices are helpful to all in the learning environment.
Watch this video from CAST about UDL in higher education:
No doubt you have an approach you already use in your course design process, such as Backward Design or ADDIE (analysis, design, develop, implement, evaluate). Those ideas are not contradicted by UDL, but rather reinforced. In UDL, the first task is to define the learning goal or goals, and that determines what the assessments are, just like in Backward Design. In the Analysis phase of the ADDIE model, “the designer identifies the learning problem, the goals and objectives, the audience’s needs, existing knowledge, and any other relevant characteristics. Analysis also considers the learning environment, any constraints, the delivery options, and the timeline for the project.” (2005-2019, Learning-Theories.com). Those same considerations are part of the UDL framework.
UDL and Assessment Design
The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework can help you select varied assessments that effectively measure learning. Teaching and assessment strategies that provide students with multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression foster flexible learning experiences that account for the variability in your students’ learning preferences, challenges, or limitations. UDL provides students with options of how they learn and how they demonstrate their learning, which motivates them to want to learn. It reduces the systemic barriers students often encounter on their paths toward learning, which often lead them to quit, find workarounds, or cheat their way to the end.
Reducing those barriers also addresses the most commonly provided accommodations, saving you time and immediately engaging those students with physical, emotional, intellectual, and socio-economic challenges, as well as those caused by athletics or work schedules, family obligations, distance, learning a new language, or even lack of software, a computer, or unreliable internet access. Instead of continually reacting to one student’s, one-time request for one specific accommodation or challenge, UDL helps address the learner variability proactively as part of the course design process.
The following recommendations are examples of UDL implementation in assessments, based on the UDL Guidelines. They are not meant to serve as a checklist, nor should you attempt to incorporate each item into your course at one time. We advocate what Tobin and Behling call the “+1 Approach to UDL” (2018). Start by identifying one additional way students can complete an assessment and build from there.
Multiple Means of Engagement
- Use authentic assessments to encourage unique and genuine application of course content to real-world, career-specific, or personal experiences. (Guidelines 3.1, 6.4, 7.2, 8.1)
- Use problem- or project-based assessments, directing students to address a real-world audience, e.g. members of their community, governmental body or leader, corporate board or executive, consumers, patients, or clients. (Guidelines 3.2, 3.4, 7.2)
- Couple direct assessments with indirect assessments to provide students with a chance to generate their own learning goals and reflect upon their progress toward achieving them. Low-stakes assessment strategies like clickers in the classroom or a Zoom poll can help you get a sense of where students are struggling, so you know what to clarify. (Guidelines 5.3, 6.4, 7.2, 8.1, 8.4, 9.3)
- Be transparent about the real-world or professional relevance of the assessment, how it aligns with the course or program learning objectives, and the assessment’s role in the learning process. (Guideline 8.1)
Multiple Means of Representation
- Provide options for course content in formats other than a textbook, and allow students to choose their preferred format, e. g. book or movie, article or podcast, video with transcript and captions. When appropriate, assign multiple formats to prompt deeper discussion when comparisons or opposing viewpoints emerge. (Guidelines 1.2, 1.3, 2.5, 4.1, 7.1)
- Share information about tools like SensusAccess, which allows students to convert documents into other file types, and EquatIO, which allows them to hear math content read aloud and provides math authoring options. (Guidelines 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.3, 4.2)
- Couple written assignment instructions with an audio or visual recording of yourself answering frequently asked questions or clarification that you often deliver in person, either in class or after class. (Guidelines 2.5, 5.1)
- Refer to 14 Rules for Writing Multiple-choice Questions to craft unambiguous test items that measure learning, not guesswork. (Guidelines 2.1, 2.2)
- Use rubrics, checklists, and examples of student work (with permission) to facilitate assignment completion and efficient grading. (Guidelines 6.1, 6.4)
Multiple Means of Action and Expression
- Reduce test anxiety, discourage cheating, and improve knowledge retention by breaking up longer exams into lower-stakes, mini-exams. Allow students to drop their worst test score, or to resubmit an assignment and average the grade between the two attempts. (Guidelines 7.1, 7.3)
- Use multiple, frequent formative assessments to scaffold learning, activate prior knowledge, encourage knowledge transfer across course modules, semesters, or disciplines, and to increase application of course content. Shorter exams also benefit students approved for extra time on exams and lessens the need for time-consuming accommodation work. (Guidelines 3.1, 3.4, 5.3)
- Use and assign students to use centrally supported, accessible courseware and tech tools that support student learning, such as Canvas, Zoom, Kaltura, and Office 365, all of which are available as mobile apps. If appropriate, let students choose the tools they use for collaboration or assignment completion. If a specific type of courseware is needed that is not centrally supported or fully accessible, design the assignment so that students work in pairs or teams to help each other. (Guidelines 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 7.1)
- Offer several options for completing assignments, e. g. permitting either typed or audio/visual online discussion responses; writing an essay, recording a video, or creating a PowerPoint presentation (the Single Point Rubric can help with grading); selecting from several topics, problem sets, or homework activities. (Guidelines 3.1, 3.4, 5.3)
- Use multi-modal assignments that require students to express what they have learned in multiple, multimedia for multiple audiences. (Guidelines 5.2)
As technologies change and students’ variability increases, UDL provides us with a framework that helps us to continually build upon our existing best practices. UDL is not a checklist. It is a journey!
Learn More
If you are interested in diving deeper into UDL practice, Penn State offers an excellent 1-month course titled Teach to Reach through the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence (SITE) where faculty and instructional designers can learn more about UDL practice and get feedback from their peers and from the course instructors. UDL principles are also addressed in the World Campus Faculty Development course, OL 3400 Online Course Design. UDL can be applied in any context whether you are teaching online or in person.
Please contact Sonya Woods (szw151@psu.edu) if you need any of the information provided on this page in a different format. This page was written by Mary Ann Tobin from the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence and Sonya Woods from World Campus Learning Design.