By: Melissa Emler

Universal Design for Learning's primary goal is to create "expert learners". They define expert learners as purposeful and motivated, strategic and goal-directed, and resourceful and knowledgable.

Those are really great descriptors, and CAST broke each of those pieces down even further in their image. I use this graphic to coach the design process of learning experiences.

I always begin facilitating a learning experience by asking learners to define their learning goals which serves to engage them in the learning experience. Asking them to define their learning goals allows learners to establish why it is important to them. Defining their own learning goals is a big part of becoming an expert learner.

The next step is to determine a learning plan. Sure, as the learning experience designer you are going to be encouraging a specific path to a specific outcome, but do your learners have options for reaching the outcome? Have they committed the the path they will take? Do they recognize and know how to use the resources being provided?

Finally, do they know how they will express their learning and will they have options to do so?

As the learning designer, you will benefit from thinking about these expert learning skills and providing opportunities to identify these skills throughout the learning experience.

By: Cory Welke

Universal Design for Learning is something that I have been deeply engaged in learning about over the last 5 years. When in training and showing the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines I have often heard participants say “Oh, I do UDL”. I knew when I started to hear that I needed to take a different approach because I knew that UDL isn’t something you “do”.

As Katie Novak and Allison Posey state in their book UNLEARNING: Changing Your Beliefs and Your Classroom with UDL “ The goal of UDL implementation is not to “do” UDL itself but is to use UDL to reduce or eliminate barriers and to design for all students to become expert, empowered learners.” As Katie and Alison point out when taking your journey into UDL thinking, we must always hold tight the goal of UDL which is to create Expert Learners. I now start every UDL session with the Expert Learner Characteristics, letting participants know that you are truly using UDL thinking when you can say your learners are purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, strategic and goal-directed.

Novak and Posey stress, “We aren’t born expert learners, we become them.” The UDL Guidelines and Principles are our toolkit to help us build and grow expert learners because our learning experiences are designed with an intentional focus on the expert skill and content goal we want all learners to achieve. In order to do this at the highest level we must engage our students in the process of learning that allows their voice and choice to bring the content to life for them. This doesn’t happen overnight, but the small steps we take can have a big impact on empowering our learners to engage to make connections and change for their future.