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Universal_Design_for_Learning

Page history last edited by jrbeers@csupomona.edu 14 years, 10 months ago

 

What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL) 

 

The best one sentence description of what Universal Design for Learning (UDL)  is comes from the cast website and states "UDL provides a blueprint for creating flexible goals, methods, materials, and assessments that accommodate learner differences" (www.cast.org).

 

UDL gets its roots from architecture. Ronald Mace who was an architect and wheelchair user started the Universal Design movement about 40 years ago. Universal Design was about designing buildings that were functional for a larger group of people without having to go through and retrofit. The term “Universal Design” (UD) was coined to reflect this approach of proactively incorporating inclusive design features while minimizing the need for individual, retrofitted accommodations (Center for Universal Design, 1997). 

 

UDL principles help educators customize their teaching for individual differences in each of these three brain networks. A universally-designed curriculum offers the following:

  • Multiple means of representation to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge
  • Multiple means of action and expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know, and
  • Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners' interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn (www.cast.org)

 

The Access Project at Colorado State University has created a video that explains UDL and its best practices. The video is a quicktime file and can be viewed at http://accessproject.colostate.edu or by clicking the picture below.

 

 

Benefits of UDL

 

Most educators realize that students come with variying learning styles. What works for one student may not work for another.  UDL delivers the content across multiple modalities which can increase a students access to the information being provided. 

 

"UDL improves educational outcomes for ALL students by ensuring meaningful access to the curriculum and accurate skill and knowledge assessment" (www.advocacyinstitute.org).
 
Another great benefit to UDL is that in most cases it can help with the Accessibility requirements the some institutions are required to meet. For example, offering closed captions and a transcript with a video is a good UDL practice for learners that do better reading over listening and also meets 508 guidelines for delivering video.

 

How Do I Incorporate UDL Into My Teaching

 
UDL gives you the chance to greatly improve you effectivness as a teacher. There is a lot of liturature on the subject to help you get started using UDL. However the best way to learn UDL is to see how others are tackling their subject matter and recreating there lessons using UDL principles. On this page there are a few case stories from different grade levels. Colorado State University has created a website that offers free training modules and tutorials in UDl that covers creating documents and websites, through their AccessProject at http://accessproject.colostate.edu/.
  
 

UDL Case Studies

 

UDL for Music 

This first video is an excert of Dr. Sandra Yang's case story on UDL for music. The scene is Dr. Yang describing how she used the UDL approach to offer multi-modalities of learning to her students on her intervals lesson.  It was part of the ELIXR grant. Her case story was highlited by CAST in February of 2009.
 
 
The entire case story can be viewed at http://pachyderm.cdl.edu/elixr-stories/udl-music/.
 

UDL For English Education 

This video showcases Universal Design for Learning in English Education by Chingling Wo.

 
 
The entire case story can be viewed at http://pachyderm.cdl.edu/elixr-stories/udl-english/.
 

Other Case Stories 

More Elixr Grant UDL Case stories can be found at http://elixr.merlot.org or by searching YouTube with Elixr.
 
Another case story in the elementary school setting can be found on the National Universal Design for Learning Task Force wesite at http://www.advocacyinstitute.org/UDL/classroom_scenarios.shtml
 
 

Other Resources

The National Universal Design for Learning Task Force has a great two page pdf document that highlights all the key principles of UDL in a short format. The document is available at this url http://www.advocacyinstitute.org/UDL/UDLTaskForceFactheet6-08.pdf
 
The Harvard Press has a book the discusses using UDL in higher Education. It is titled Universal Design in Higher Education: From Principals to Practice.
 

 

References

CAST: What is Universal Design for Learning?. Retrieved May 6, 2009, from CAST: Center for Applied Special Technology Web site: http://www.cast.org/research/udl/index.html


Center for Universal Design (1997). The Principles of Universal Design, Version 2.0. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/about_ud/udprinciples.htm 

 
Merlot Elixr - Sharing Faculty Stories about Exemplary Teaching. Retrieved May 15, 2009, from elixr.merlot.org Web site: http://elixr.merlot.org

Universal Design for Learning - The ACCESS Project - Colorado State University. Retrieved May 15, 2009, from The ACCESS Project - Colorado State University Web site: http://accessproject.colostate.edu/

Universal Design for Learning - Questions and Answers. Retrieved May 14, 2009, from Universal Design for Learning Web site: http://www.advocacyinstitute.org/UDL/faqs.shtml 

 

Comments (2)

Amanda said

at 4:28 pm on May 16, 2009

Hi,

Your grammar looks really good. I found one link under the ‘Benefits of UDL’ section that does not work. I tried to fix the link couple of times but I could not figure it out. I kept getting a pop up that said certain characters were not allowed in link, but I didn’t see any of those characters in the URL. The only other thing would be don’t forget to use APA to site all of the sources in a recourses section at the end of your Wikki.

Amanda

jrbeers@csupomona.edu said

at 4:24 pm on May 19, 2009

That one was actually an inline citation. Thank you for the other comments.

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