Universal Design: Course Design
Universal Design: Instructional Strategies
UDL: Every learner is different, and there is no such thing as “the average student.” Learning styles and learning needs are as diverse as humanity. When curriculum and pedagogy are designed to meet the “average,” it results in invisible barriers to learning that create a climate that’s not conducive to fostering student success.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of principles based on scientific insights into how people learn that help in designing learning environments that are accessible and effective for all. There are three basic principles of UDL:
Using multiple means of representation of learning content gives learners diverse ways of acquiring information and knowledge.
Enabling multiple means of action and expression provides learners with alternative avenues for demonstrating what they know.
Fostering multiple means of engagement and collaboration helps in tapping into learners’ interests, offering appropriate challenges and increasing motivation.
DEI: Teaching for diversity refers to acknowledging a range of differences in the classroom. Teaching for inclusion signifies embracing difference. Teaching for equity allows the differences to transform the way we think, teach, learn and act such that all experiences and ways of being are handled with fairness and justice. These ideas complement each other and enhance educational opportunities for all students when simultaneously engaged. Three imperatives make it essential for us to actively practice teaching for diversity, inclusion, and equity:
Difference is an essential part of our history and current reality. Dealing with human diversity and differential status is intractable in America due to our national history of racism and tensions between individual freedom and the common good.
Difference is an unstoppable part of our future. Classrooms are increasingly diverse and demography assures that this trend will continue.
Diversity and inclusion improve teaching and learning. People learn and enrich their abilities to think critically and creatively as they engage in conversations across difference, especially when all learners’ abilities and attributes and embraced.
https://ctal.udel.edu/resources-2/inclusive-teaching/
Additional Resources:
How to Use DEI in Online Courses