Building:
Scaffolding skills for success
Key: formative feedback
Tolerance for error: Formative feedback
Another underpinning principle of UNIVERSAL DESIGN MODEL is the idea of tolerance for error, where tools and spaces are designed to allow for and minimize the risks and hazards of making errors or variability in performance.
The classroom: a safe place to make mistakes
The UDL classroom leverages errors to maximize student learning. Nursing simulation demonstrates this principle beautifully. The teacher set up a safe learning environment by explicitly stating: “The simulation lab is the place to make mistakes so we don't make them later with the patients,” and “what happens in the sim lab stays in the sim lab.” I try now to emulate this safe learning environment in my own lab.
Assessment as learning: collaborative exam
The method:
The exam has two parts. Part 1 is taken alone by each student, and is weighted to 85% of the grade to mitigate any grade boosting effect. Part 2 is taken together by groups of 3-4 students collaborating over a single answer card and is worth 15%.
"Scratch and win" feedback
I used these immediate feedback assessment technique cards - I like to call them "scratch and win" cards, because it reflects student reactions to correct answers. Without direct teacher intervention, each student gains instant access to their results through definitive feedback on the card. There's also plenty of question-level feedback from their peers since this method keeps the post-exam discussions inside the classroom while everyone is still invested in finding out the correct answer. Time required for exam review later is diminished or eliminated; students walk out of the room knowing how they did, but also with a better understanding of the exam content.
"Group work on steroids"
When I told the students we would try this, they looked at me as if I were setting a trap: "so basically... we're allowed to cheat," they said. Basically. I started wondering if this was a good idea....
I was pleasantly surprised. During the collaborative part of the exam, my students cooperated with frenzied, almost conspiratorial whispers, intense discussion and the occasional high-five. Students were engaged, prepared, and enjoyed themselves. Leaving the room, one student declared: “funnest exam ever!”
While I don't have definitive data that the process helped retention, student feedback would suggest it: "I feel I really remembered the material from that collaborative exam" was one survey response on the end-of-term CAT I had them complete.
Collaboration: fostering learning in an online environment
Encourage students to:
Use multiple means of representation (multiple media, links to video, articles, etc.) - anything that helps them build a stronger/clearer representation of concepts
Include links to sources (students model research skills for each other)
Work online to increase efficiency, feedback, and collaboration
Here is an example of a collaborative student-created course glossary I am planning to implement for next year. I have modeled the principles defined above. Commenting ability allows for ongoing peer and teacher feedback.
Compatible with cognitive load theory, in UDL this translates to "removing UNNECESSARY physical and cognitive effort," so that students can focus their attention and energy on your/their learning objectives. To be clear, we are not talking about reducing cognitive effort, but focusing it on our content, instead of unrelated extraneous effort.
For some students, especially those with attentional difficulties or print disabilities (e.g. dyslexia or dysgraphia), use of certain tech tools may "level the playing field" by reducing barriers to accessing information.
Access to tech tools: fostering learning in an online environment
We can't share information regarding assistive technology if we don't know it exists. Here are two tools I discovered this year through UDL available to ALL Dawson students:
Read, write, gold
Available to all Dawson students and teachers for use on any device
Extension for google docs
Screen reader, OCR, and SO MUCH MORE!
Useful for students with various learning difficulties, but also just as a research tool! (see video @ right)
Literacy skills: Antidote 9.0 bilingual
Valuable language learning tool, not just a spellchecker or grammar checker
Most useful for:
ESL/FSL students
Digital natives
Anyone having difficulty producing quality written work in English or French
Contact Roch Ducharme @ Dawson (accessibility tech specialist) for more information
Scaffolding use of tech tools: fostering learning in an online environment
In the online tech sphere we need to consider accessibility. Use of technical media can make our courses more accessible, or less, depending on the choices we make.
The “Inclusion Solution Assistive Technology Lab” is a great resource at Dawson.
Here is an instructional video I made for students explaining how to make a new google doc from a template:
