Putting Universal Design for Learning into Action

In this three-part blog post series, I have shared some of my reasons for using UDL principles in my instruction design. If that’s interested you so far, you will certainly find this last post helpful in a more practical and hands-on way.

Let me begin by asking this – what’s the first thing you would do if you had to design a training program around a given set of training needs? Most training and development professionals I meet start by opening their MS PowerPoint or equivalent tool. What follows then is a traditional course requiring students to attend the ILT/ v-ILT, read specific texts, and then take a quiz or assessment at the end of the course to demonstrate their understanding. The outcome of such a program is content that leans more towards the style of the course creator, rather than being universal in its access and approach, like we discussed in the first blog post.

So how do you start applying UDL? I start by addressing the three key components of UDL in the course design by asking –

1. Affective Network: Can I engage my students in active learning and encourage them to see the value in content knowledge?
2. Recognition Network: Can I offer a variety of materials or paths in order to learn content to achieve each outcome?
3. Strategic Network: Can I offer multiple means of representation and expression for each learning outcome?

This helps me plot the different options I can design for recruiting and maintaining interest in the course, organizing and learning new knowledge or skill, and communicating or expressing that acquired skill. Some of you may rightly find this similar to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Indeed, the questions asked at varying levels of complexity make it possible to include the greatest number of students and also helps to make the subject matter more engaging for everyone. In fact, Bloom’s Taxonomy compliments the principles of Universal Design for Learning because it allows students to learn about the same content at varying levels of complexity.

Now having answered the above three questions, what are some of these design options or strategies you can use for ensuring each of the UDL principles of engagement, representation, and motivation? Here are some of my favorite actionable steps that I take to target each of the three networks while designing an inclusive program.

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