Universal Design for Learning UDL: What You Need to Know

Table Of Content

• Why Use UDL?
• Best Behavior Management Techniques for the Classroom
• The 7 Principles of Universal Design Ed Roberts Campus
• Learning and attention issues and UDL
• Supporting Student Learning and Metacognition
• Accessible Text Formats
• Universal Design for Learning Strategies and Examples for the Classroom
• Accomplish your course creation and student success goals faster with Thinkific.

Just as students engage with and respond to content differently, so too do they vary in their preferences for demonstrating learning. The 20th century brought remarkable social advancements in civil and human rights. An important part of this story is the Universal Design (UD) movement, which promoted the accessibility and usability of public environments, buildings, and products for all. UD is design that is equitable—in other words, usable, marketable, and appealing to people with a diverse range of abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Why Use UDL?

With UDL, students get feedback — often every day — on how they’re doing. At the end of a lesson, teachers may talk with individual students about lesson goals. Students are encouraged to reflect on the choices they made in class and whether they met the goals. If they didn’t meet the goals, they’re encouraged to think about what might have helped them do so. UDL gives you a framework to follow so you can reduce the barriers to learning. The main way to do this is to prepare a learning environment where students have what they need to flexibly meet learning goals.

Best Behavior Management Techniques for the Classroom

When teachers use UDL principles in their instruction, students learn more and achieve better outcomes. UDL provides ways to meet the needs of all learners, including those who are traditionally marginalized or left behind. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that guides practitioners to create and develop learning environments, curricula, and assessment tools to accommodate diverse learners.

The 7 Principles of Universal Design Ed Roberts Campus

UDL recognizes that if students can’t access information, they can’t learn it. So in a UDL classroom, materials are accessible for all types of learners. Students have many options for reading, including print, digital, text-to-speech and audiobooks.

Learning and attention issues and UDL

For example, you might give scaffolded support to struggling students and more challenging tasks for excelling students. When all students have access to high-quality instruction and materials, achievement gaps decrease. Learners differ in the way they are able to navigate a learning environment and demonstrate their learning.

Supporting Student Learning and Metacognition

An excellent place to start is the UDL Center’s website, which provides various resources, including an overview of UDL, how to get started, and case studies. You can also find helpful information from the National Center for Universal Design for Learning (NCUDL). If you use materials not explicitly designed for UDL, you may need to modify them to make them more accessible and inclusive. This could include changing the font size, adding alternate text, and increasing the contrast of colors. SplashLearn inspires lifelong curiosity with its game-based PreK-5 learning program loved by over 40 million children.

Accessible Text Formats

The principles of UDL stipulate that teachers need to accommodate this characteristic rather than trying to make all children fit into one mode. For example, closed captioning is often used in noisy places like restaurants and airports to help everyone follow what’s being said on TV. Though it requires forethought and effort, proactively applying UDL will help you minimize barriers to learning and maximize success for all of your students. In a 2006 article on UDL in college classrooms, David Rose et al. describe the value of choice in student discussions. Consider setting up optional Carmen discussions or Teams channels based on various student needs. You might have a Review Forum for sharing questions, challenges and study tips, an Advanced Forum for expanding on material, and a Collaborative Forum for brainstorming and peer feedback.

However, adaptive representation of information is essential in this aspect of universal design for learning. Flexibility in the classroom also involves the physical space where students are learning. Try flexible seating by switching up the furniture arrangements to make students feel more comfortable (which, in turn, makes them more productive). Ultimately, UDL can be defined as a teaching method that aims to make learning accessible to every student's individual needs, regardless of the challenges and barriers they may face.

UDL series — Representation: Perception – ITS Blog – Carleton College - Carleton College

UDL series — Representation: Perception – ITS Blog – Carleton College.

Posted: Tue, 21 Jun 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

With a video, students should be able to adjust the speed and volume. Unfortunately, not all students will recognize when it’s time to ask for help. This involves providing multiple ways to assimilate subject material, such as textbooks, audio files, digital books, or images and graphs. It also implies customization and flexibility within those formats. Allowing students to choose the methods by which they take in information allows for all types of students to thrive as they interact with subject materials.

One approach that can help you achieve this is the Universal Design for Learning. Once students have taken in the information, it’s time for them to demonstrate their understanding. By now, teachers should be aware of which students learn better through audio descriptions, which students have specific interests or which students require a particular learning process. While this helps adapt to students with disabilities such as autism, it’s good for all students to get used to classroom routines. This means structuring class time so that each student knows what they should be doing and when. It also may be helpful for teachers to take note of which students excel when using certain formats, or even to involve parents in helping find their children’s strengths and weaknesses in learning.

But UDL extends beyond accessibility to addressing learner preferences and other characteristics. It’s important to teach to each student’s individual strengths, skills and needs. This is true for all kids — not just kids with learning and attention issues. Teachers can encourage high school students’ success by focusing on learner variability and creating customizable learning experiences. UDL is similar to universal instructional design and universal design for instruction.

Then, they can discuss this goal with the class at the beginning of the lesson and write it out in a visible place for the whole class to see. Here are 13 different guidelines for how to use universal design for learning, along with examples that show what it looks like in practice. Follow these guidelines to make universal design for learning a part of your school. At Alludo, we believe that removing barriers to learning is one of the best ways to improve student learning and get to the best possible student outcomes. That’s why we have included courses and missions about Universal Design for Learning in our professional development catalog.

When students are actively engaged in their learning, they are more likely to succeed. Learners have different ways of perceiving and comprehending when presented with information. Sensory perception, learning disabilities, cultural and social differences all impact how content is perceived. Architects first incorporated the concept to remove the barriers to building access and use for all. If you have ever hit a button with your elbow to automatically open a door to enter a building, while carrying two coffees, then you’ve experienced universal design. The basic premise of UDL is that each and every lesson has to take into account the incredible range of student characteristics that exist in the classroom.

By creating VR simulations of medical scenarios, surgical students can acquire endless practice to hone their skills. Simulations can be uniquely adapted to individual student’s learning speed and abilities, and fine-tuned in ways never before possible in the classroom. I won’t pretend it’s easy, but it’s crucial to commit to the UDL mindset in order to have success.

Learners differ in the ways that they can navigate a learning environment and express what they know. Some may be able to express themselves well in written text but not speech, and vice versa. It should also be recognized that action and expression require a great deal of strategy, practice, and organization, and this is another area in which learners can differ. In reality, there is not one means of action and expression that will be optimal for all learners; providing options for action and expression is essential. Learners differ in the ways that they perceive and comprehend information that is presented to them.