Below we will look at some Universal Design for Learning (UDL) things that you should consider and give examples for how you can use School of Education (SOE) and UNC Greensboro instructional technology resources to create UDL content in your course(s).
Engage students by making your first introduction personal. Consider including a photo or video to introduce yourself, the course, and your expectations.
If teaching online, add a video "tour" of critical features in the course, including available support, course navigation, and ways you will communicate with your students and how you expect them to communicate with you.
Consider adding several options for communication, utilizing these Canvas features:
Announcements (guides)
Canvas Studio (guides)
Discussions (guides)
Inbox (guides)
Screen capturing software
First impressions matter! You know who you are and you probably designed the course so you know what is there. That doesn't mean that your students know you or will easily understand how the course is set up. Help everyone get acquainted by considering the following examples.
Instructor Intro Video
To learn more about the instructor for this course, please watch this instructor introduction video recorded using Canvas Studio.
Course Tour Video
To learn more about how to navigate through this course, please watch this video "tour" of the course, recorded using Webex.
Discussions
To learn more about your peers in this course, please participate in the Self Introduction discussion board, created using Canvas Discussions. Learn more about your peers in this course by posting and replying to at least two others post.
Provide assignments and assessments that provide choices for physical actions, expressions, and communication.
When planning assignments and assessments, consider possible barriers that your students could experience.
Be sure assignments and assessments are clear, logically-ordered, and easy to find. Ensure they are repeatedly and explicitly connected to clear course learning objectives.
Provide feedback (personal and general) following assessments using Rubrics in SpeedGrader.
Develop low-stakes/high-difficulty practice test.
Consider taking a look at the Canvas guides below to learn more about these Canvas tools:
Assignments (guides)
Quizzes (guides)
Quizzes.Next (guides)
SpeedGrader (guides)
Everyone learns differently and when you apply the basic guidelines of UDL, you can better meet the various learners who have different physical, learning, attention, and communication abilities. Help everyone better express themselves and understand the content by considering the following examples.
Assignments
For your final assignment, you will be given the option to choose how you will present your information. You should think outside the box and feel free to show your personality in your presentation. Some examples include, a poem, poster, song lyrics, artwork, website, or video of your own creation.
Assessments
This week, you are required to review the Presentation and complete this short quiz to test your knowledge of the material being reviewed. The quiz has been set to allow for multiple attempts, giving you three tries to get the maximum amount of points, and ensure a better understanding of the material. If you get a wrong answer, be sure to look at the hints/tips to ensure that the next time you will have a better chance.
Include a variety of materials, beyond the required textbook, to increase the options of representation and increase engagement.
Invite students to contribute to the collection of materials being used to increase their feelings of ownership in the course. Create a collaborative document that can be used all semester long to track tools being used or information being shared. Urge the students to add to the list and help grow the repository.
Are you using OER resources in your course?
The UNC Greensboro Jackson Library has an in-depth site on Open Educational Resources (OER), public domain and free materials available for use in your course.
Be sure that any materials included in your course are accessible to all learners, including any links to outside resources and tools.
There are a variety of materials for the course, each designed to meet the objectives and increase awareness. Consider the following examples as ways that you can provide students with the course materials that they will need in order to succeed.
Textbook
Instead of a traditional textbook for the course, FREE Open Educational Resources (OER) will be provided throughout the semester to accompany the topic that is being covered.
Canvas Course
Your Canvas Course can be a great way to allow students easy access to the information that is being shared with them. Consider how you can use your course as more than just a place to "dump" files but make it into an interactive extension of the learning environment that your students to engage in outside the traditional class setting.
Collaborative document
Did you know that the Collaborations feature in Canvas, allows you to quickly and easily create a Google Doc to share with the students in your course. Once created, students can access the document from the Canvas course or from their Google Drive.
Presentations
There are a variety of tools available that you can use to create presentation materials, many through your university and even some great FREE Web 2.0 tools.
Also, don't forget that the Canvas Commons is another great resources for finding presentation materials that can easily be incorporate into your course.
Whatever you choose to use, make sure that you consider what your university supports and the responsibility that has to be taken for any non-approved software/programs.
At UNC Greensboro, they have a list of UNCG "Click Wrap" Software Licenses that you can view to ensure your choice is approved for use.
Multimedia Resources
Consider making your content more interactive by embedded videos, documents, and presentation (Box, Google, Microsoft 365) materials.
Choose the resource(s) that work best for you, the content you are sharing, and your students.