What is UDL?

universal design

Universal design is all around us. Many buildings, products and environments are designed in ways to ensure accessibility to all - no matter what age, mobility or ability. A ramp going into a building may be intended to help people with limited mobility access, but in reality, anyone can use it. Universal design for learning is the same idea - only it is applied to the learning environment and curriculum. Check out this video to see how.

UDL - From a PLant's perspective

UDL - What is it (1).pdf

Universal Design for Learning - What is it?

Here is an article I wrote to help make understanding UDL more accessible to all.

What is udl?

What it is not.

Universal design for learning is a framework; (or a way to translate research and innovation into practice). UDL is an approach to designing learning environments that gives all learners equal opportunities for success. Designing learning universally means teachers identify firm learning goals for all, identifies and reduces barriers to learning and offers flexibility in the ways all students engage and stay motivated, access material and show what they know. UDL is proactive to learning. It is NOT just about giving choice in learning. UDL is about identifying barriers to learning and finding ways to remove or reduce them to ensure equity and inclusiveness for ALL.

UDL is not differentiated learning. DI has its own framework, based on formative assessment with the teacher making choices for individual students - choosing groupings, choosing how each will learn and how each will show their own learning. This type of design is based on individual student strengths and challenges and what is needed at that moment in that specific context. DI is reactive.

Check out this great article that explains how DI is different from UDL.

udl guidleines

UDL Guidelines

Guidelines - A Framework

The UDL Guidelines are a tool to help educators think about and identify potential barriers in learning and provides suggestions to remove them. These guidelines are designed based on neuroscience and cognitive research into how learning occurs as it identifies three different networks of our brain that is involved in learning. The guidelines highlight ways variability can exist in learners. The nine guidelines along with the 31 checkpoints takes the guess work out of identifying barriers that may exist in learning. (These checkpoints are evidence based practices that have been proven to be effective in teaching and learning. Many, if not all, are identified as having a strong affect size in increasing student achievement according to John Hattie's Visible Learning research.) While this is not a step by step checklist of things you have to consider when designing universally, it does provide a scaffolding and tiered approach to creating expert learners, which is the ultimate goal of UDL. These guidelines offer concrete suggestions that can be applied to any course, domain or disciple so all learners can participate in meaningful, authentic and relevant learning opportunities.

So, what does all this mean?

Universal Design for Learning challenges some of our traditional thoughts about education. The first is that the curriculum is the centre of the learning experience. If curriculum is the centre, it defines the learner. If a student struggles, we often assume there is something wrong with the learner. By contrast, UDL places the learner at the centre of the learning experience where we plan learning opportunities and options to support and accommodate the diversity and variability of students. UDL supports the idea of getting away from the medical model and fully supports the social model of learning. Learners are different from each other and need different things to be successful in different contexts. A one sized fits all approach does not work. Every child in every class, in every grade in every school deserves equal opportunities to learn. Believing every child can learn, understanding the role that learner variability plays, providing flexible means to achieving a goal and working towards creating expert learners in our schools (and society) then UDL becomes how this is accomplished. These then, become the core beliefs of UDL.

Core beliefs of UDL

Variability is the rule,

not the exception

Learners are not only different from each other, they bring different interests, abilities and skills in different contexts. Variability is the different mix of skills, ideas, preferences, interests, strengths and needs learners bring to classroom. Because of this, what learners need may change depending on the context of learning. Therefore, providing different options, choices and paths to achieve the same goal promotes equal opportunities to learning. Learner variablity puts into question the whole idea about learning styles. Check out this article "The Lochness Monster, Yetis, Big Foot, and Learning Styles" by Katie Novak.

Learner variability

firm goals, flexible means

Everyone can learn,

all in different ways

All learners deserve equitable access to high standards of education. Setting firm learning goals and then providing flexibility in the learning environment makes the achievement of these goals possible. Believing all learners can learn where the focus is on the achievement of the learning goal and not how one gets there is the second core belief in UDL. Determining the learning goal, defining what the attainment of the goal looks like, then planning the different paths learners can take to get to the final destination (achievement of the goal) are the first steps in universally designing learning. As you do this, think about what might impede success (barriers to learning) and plan ways to remove these barriers. Offering choices and options within the learning environment (how they learn new material, how they engage with the learning and how they show what they have learned) promote and encourage expert learners.

For more information about firm goals, flexible means, have a listen to this podcast "Firm Goals, Flexible Means. Variability Here + Now with Katie Novak"

Expert learners

Offering choice and options for learning creates opportunities for learners to have a say in how they learn. They are in the driver seat and are empowered to make choices in their learning. It is EXPECTED that they will make mistakes. It is expected that they will choose wrong options, but it is from these mistakes that more learning will happen. Helping learners reflect on these choices, guiding them to understand that works for them and what doesn't, and providing more opportunities for them to make more choices will lead them towards being an expert learner; or learners who are motivated, self directed, engaged and goal oriented.