Designing Remote Learning Experiences Using the Universal Design for Learning Framework

From Crisis to Design

Switch to remote learning exposes need for better design

The 2020 Pandemic rocked the education world. Today, we are challenged to design educational experiences where all students can be successful in remote and blended learning environments. It has forced us to examine the barriers across environments for every student. In the spring of 2020 educators responded to the crisis with mixed results. Students in the margins struggled more than ever before. The switch to remote learning has exposed a need for better design and we are called to act upon it. The Universal Design for Learning Framework (UDL) provides guidance to help educators design learning opportunities that minimize barriers to teaching and engage students in learning.

This is our opportunity to design educational experiences with every student's success as the central focus.

Our New Design Challenge:

How can educators provide the scaffolding, support, flexibility and guidance once provided to learners in a face-to-face learning environment, in a new distance-learning landscape? The two frameworks below are interwoven into the design, strategies and tools on this site.

Universal Design for Learning:

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a design framework based on scientific insights into how people learn. It’s an intentional way of designing learning experiences that address the varied needs of all learners. The UDL Guidelines offer educators a blueprint for designing inclusive and equitable learning experiences. The guidelines are organized according to the three principles of UDL: Provide Multiple Means of Engagement, Provide Multiple Means of Representation and Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression. (Web page/Video UDL: A Teacher’s Guide)

For more about Universal Design for Learning:

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL): A Teacher's Guide

• UDL Best Practices for Distance Learning

Accessibility:

Accessibility refers to providing every student with the "ability to access" the same information, content and interactions. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education defines accessibility as meaning “when a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally integrated and equally effective manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.” Educators are challenged to design learning experiences that allow all students access to learning.

Follow the AEM Center POUR acronym for easy guidance about accessibility.

• Is it Perceivable? Is content presented in a way that learners can use more than one sensory input? (e.g. see it, hear it, read it, do it)

• Is it Operable? Is the content presented in a way that gives learners flexibility (choice) in how the information is displayed and ways they can interact with it? (work alone or with others, use text-to-speech or read printed page, chunked in smaller sections, use built-in scaffolds and graphic organizers)

• Is it Understandable? Is the content presented in a way that uses student and family-friendly language and makes explicit the expectations of the assignment/activity? (clear goals, clear directions, provide models and/or checklists)

• Is it Robust? Is the content presented in a way that allows for all kinds of learners and access methods?

(adapted from CAST’s AEM Center)

Learner Variability:

Understanding the variability of our learners is the first step in designing accessible, inclusive and equitable learning experiences.

Learning science and cognitive neuroscience research clearly indicates that ALL individuals are unique in how they learn, and that strengths and needs change in response to the environment and the context in which we learn. This variability is normal and a predictable part of teaching any group of learners. Because it is predictable, we can proactively plan for it. (More on Learner Variability) (Video: Embracing Learner Variability) Watch the video below to see why variability matters and the need to slay the myth of the average student.

Link to Recorded Webinar