Led by guest Kevin Merry @kevinudlmerry 

Whenever I’m delivering a workshop or giving a talk on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), I always begin by asking the audience three questions;

1) How did you get here today? 2) How long did it take? 3) How far have you travelled?

Predictably, responses are wide and varied, with some attendees walking short distances in just a few minutes, with others travelling hundreds of miles by car, train, or even plane, requiring several hours to reach the venue. The point of the questions? To remind us that learning is a bit like travelling to a common destination. We’re all aiming for the same place, but we will each get there in our own unique ways because as learners we are variable.

Learner variability represents all of those things that make learners different from each other, impacting upon how we approach and engage with learning (Merry, 2023). Sources of variability interact with the learning environment to give rise to barriers (Merry, 2023). For example, being a learner with dyslexia isn’t a barrier, but being required to read an extensive amount of text quickly, and then respond to that text equally quickly, in writing, could be a barrier for a learner with dyslexia, as well as many other learners.

Three sources of variability are particularly important in the effective pursuit of learning goals. The first reflects the ways in which learners become interested in, and motivated for learning, supporting their effort and persistence (Engagement). The second reflects how learners perceive and comprehend information related to learning (Representation), and the third reflects the way in which learners demonstrate their learning (Action & Expression). These are known as the UDL principles (CAST, 2018).

You don’t have to be a member of the “cult of UDL” to recognise that learners will likely vary across the above three areas – you just need a bit of common sense. Since learners are likely to be different in relation to what motivates them and makes them curious, how they perceive and understand information and how they demonstrate their learning, it makes sense to offer options and choices in relation to these things. Options and choices aren’t offered for the sake of it, or to “tick the accessibility box” though. They are offered to legitimately reduce or remove environmental barriers to learning. Sure, offering options and choices requires a bit more thought and a bit more planning and preparation time. But what’s the alternative? Leave the barriers in and make people struggle? Yeah, that’ll work…

Practitioners sometimes get a bit muddled when applying the UDL principles. Fortunately, Meyer et al. (2014) created the Intentional Learning Design Framework (ILDF) to help. ILDF has four constituent parts; 1) Learning Goals; 2) Teaching Methods; 3) Learning Resources; 4) Assessments. The Teaching Methods aspect aligns with the Engagement principle, Learning Resources aligns with the Representation principle and Assessments align with the Action & Expression principle. Hence, offering some variety in relation to teaching approaches, resources and assessment can represent a basic UDL starting point. That’s not much to ask is it?

The #LTHEchat on 10th January 2024 8pm will explore Universal Design for Learning.

References

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, version 2.2. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Universal Design for Learning.

Merry, K.L. (2023). Delivering inclusive and impactful instruction: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. Wakefield, MA: CAST Professional Publishing.

Meyer, A., Rose, D.H., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal design for learning: Theory and Practice. Wakefield, MA: CAST Professional Publishing.

Host’s Biography

Kevin Merry is the lead for academic development at DMU and a DMU Teacher Fellow. An award-winning teacher, Kevin has received accolades for his pioneering approach to online learning via flipped classroom approaches and has become internationally renowned for his work on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Specifically, Kevin has developed a unique approach to embedding UDL into modules and courses using his own ‘Cheese-Sandwich’ pedagogy which fuses Bloom’s Learning for Mastery approach and Constructive Alignment alongside the principles of UDL. The result is a technology enhanced learning experience within which learners are supported to become purposeful and motivated, knowledgeable, and resourceful and strategic and goal oriented – the true ‘expert learner’.