Universal Design for Learning: Top Ten Tips (advanced)

Following on from the Top Ten UDL Tips for beginners, and Top Ten UDL Tips for intermediates, in this posting we'll look at the Top Ten Universal Design for Learning tips for advanced teachers, remembering that the ultimate goal is to ensure multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement:

Universal Design for Learning: Top Ten Intermediate Tips (Advanced)

1. Communicate high expectations to all students in your class. If you have accommodated all students, everyone should have an equal chance at success. Provide them with examplars.

2. Upload your videos onto YouTube, and caption them, and learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

3. When developing learning materials, in terms of the range of learners sensory preferences use the V-A-R-K Learning Styles model to create different types of learning materials and activities, e.g. PNG, Podcasts, PowerPoint, and Playdough

4. Explore each of the three common types of alignment in programme design: Vertical Alignment (linking modules between different years), Horizontal Alignment (linking modules in the same year), and Constructive Alignment (linking Learning Outcomes, Teaching, and Assessment, in a single module).

5. Pre-teach all symbols and unfamiliar vocabulary in an early class, and create a glossary booklet (with both text and visual descriptions) that you hand out at the start of the semester.

6. Consider the physical tasks that the students are required to do in class, find ways that you can provide alternatives in the requirements for speed, strength, timing, and range of these activities.

7. Create assessments so that the criteria to achieve a passing grade, a good grade, a very good grade, and an excellent grade are clearly articulated. Is it possible to provide alternative criteria for each level also?

8. Involve students as much as possible in setting their own learning goals. Also work with them to create a personalized checklist of goals agreed to, and encourage them to tick off each goal as it is accomplished to let them see their progress.

9. When developing learning materials, in terms of the range of learners' cognitive preferences use Keirsey Temperament Sorter to create different types of learning materials and activities, e.g. create activities that include aspects of problem solving, planning, personal growth, and proficiency.

10. Create a series of supporting documents to increase students' independent learning skills and discipline-specific skills that they can access at their own rate.

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Universal Design for Learning: Top Ten Tips (intermediate)

Following on from the Top Ten UDL Tips for beginners, here are ten more tips once you are comfortable with the first ten to help in Universal Design for Learning, remembering that the ultimate goal is to ensure multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement:

Universal Design for Learning: Top Ten Intermediate Tips (intermediate)

1. Start each lesson stating a set of learning outcomes you want the students to achieve in this class (and link these outcomes to material they have already covered in previous lessons where possible).

2. Provide sample assessments (CA and exams) with solutions, and annotate these solutions with advice on answering questions and study tips. Give the assessments early in the semester, and provide the solutions over the following weeks.

3. If you are using videos and audio files, include a transcript. If it's a pre-existing video normally if you goggle a distinctive phrase from the video/audio, there's usually a transcript of it somewhere on the web.

4. Consider checking your materials using an accessibly tool where applicable.

5. Consider incorporating a peer reviewing element into your assessments, but make sure you teach students to be supportive and respectful of each other and their work.

6. Once a semester do an activity that gives the students some choice in the activity (it could be for example in terms of doing the activity individually or in groups; on-line or paper-based; in the classroom or as fieldwork; or some combination of these).

7. Instead of having a single large assessment, consider breaking it down into a few parts, and provide some quick feedback after each part to help the students understand what you are looking for in your assessments.

8. Give your students marks for participation in class (this is very easy to do on-line with discussion boards).

9. Create an anonymous comments box for students, you can do this on-line using SurveyMonkey

10. Give assessment instructions both orally and in written format, and remind students frequently of deadlines and delivery dates (Consider creating a class calendar also, with assessments, lab times, and other class activities).

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Universal Design for Learning: Top Ten Tips (beginners)

A colleague recently asked me for my top ten tips to introduce people easily to Universal Design for Learning, now we know that the ultimate goal is to ensure multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement, but we have to start somewhere, and here it is:

Universal Design for Learning: Top Ten Tips to Begin With

1. Use a minimum of 14pt font size where possible in all documents, and justify the text to the left margin only.

2. Colour the document backgrounds with off-white/cream (for PowerPoints and other documents), and for handouts print out on cream paper if possible.

3. Try to break sentences into short readable units

4. Explain new terms when you first use them (consider creating a glossary)

5. Use bullet points, or better yet numbers, rather than long passages of prose

6. Include Pictures and Graphics to support text (e.g. flowcharts) and get students as an activity to create their own graphics/visuals for your topic

7. Make sure all handouts and notes are available well in advance of class

8. Try to break large documents (PowerPoints, Word docs, etc.) into multiple smaller documents, or at least create clear section breaks, and make the documents available to the students in a format that allows them to alter font size, type and colour (e.g. avoid providing PDF files)

9. Avoid Idioms, colloquialisms, and figurative language; also avoid examples that are too culturally specific, or gender biased

10. Consider using a font kind to people with dyslexia, so stick with sans serif fonts such as Arial, Comic Sans, Verdana, Tahoma or Sassoon. Also check if fonts like OpenDyslexic and Dyslexie help. 

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