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EDDL 5131 Week 3 Activity 3
EDDL 5131, Sarah Cook

EDDL 5131 Week 3 Activity 3

How could UDL be applied to my context?
  • Educational level: High School
  • Age and other demographic info: Grade 11- 35% EAL.
  • Range of abilities: All abilities
  • Subject area: Careers and Digital Communications 11
  • Classroom (with web-based components), blended or online: Blended
  • Class size: Varied. Typically between 16-31
  • Description of any learning challenges present: Engage students in evaluating their skills, exploring interests and career options and creating personalized budget whilst simultaneously developing expertise in using a wide range of digital tools in real-life contexts.

To improve the UDL of this course I think I could make the following changes as suggested by Redford (2018):

  1. Provide different modes of instructions- for example create tutorial videos (with captions/transcripts) to allow students to re-watch instructions at their own pace
  2. Variety of assessment outcomes (offer suggested tools but provide access to Quick Links) to allow students to personalize their learning
  3. For self-reflection (a massive part of this course) students can present this orally or using text-to-speech apps
  4. Provide students with digital access to all resources so that they can format to their needs
references

Redford, K. (2018, January 24). When it comes to universal design for learning, don’t wait to be an expert. Education Week Teacher. https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2018/01/24/when-it-comes-to-universal-design-for.html

111 Comments

  1. Kirsteen Buchan

    I feel that anytime an educators can find ways to use UDL guidelines within their teaching practice to support learning is positive, as it shifts the thinking away from “how do I change this student to fit into my expectations as a teacher”, to “how do I change my classroom environment to meet the needs of my students”. This idea aligns with Redford’s point in his article “When It Comes to Universal Design for Learning, Don’t Wait to Be an Expert” (2018).

    In your summary, you stated some learning challenges within your environment as:

    “exploring interests and career options and creating personalized budget whilst simultaneously developing expertise in using a wide range of digital tools in real-life contexts.”

    I feel that these challenges could be addressed and needs might be met by “Providing Multiple Means of Engagement” by “optimizing relevance, value and authenticity”. (http://udlguidelines.cast.org). The UDL guidelines further state that the situation has to be relevant and authentic to learners’ individual goals and the instructional goals, which I feel is important given the learning outcomes you are trying to achieve. For students to see the authenticity of learning experiences and to connect it to themselves and to their future successes.

    Redford (2018) suggests that knowing more about your students through surveys, speaking with others who know them, and direct conversations with the students themselves, and will inform how to design learning environments based on our students’ diverse interests, needs, and abilities. Having that knowledge would allow for an approach to teaching with authenticity at the forefront.

    References:

    UDL Guidelines: http://udlguidelines.cast.org

    “When It Comes to Universal Design for Learning, Don’t Wait to Be an Expert” Redford, Kyle. 2018. Education Week Teacher.

  2. scook

    Thanks for this feedback. And I totally agree and have recently reformatted the course to allow for more mentorship at the start. When my partner teacher is teaching I am using this time to have more personalized conversations with students and getting a much better grasp of what different scenarios and possible career explorations I can cater for. By developing relationships earlier on and exploring student’s initial interests, I have considered Redford (2018) suggestion that knowing more about your students through direct conversations with the students themselves and will inform how to design learning environments based on our students’ diverse interests, needs, and abilities.

  3. Tmac

    Hi Sarah,

    It looks like you put a lot of effort towards UDL in your blended classroom. Using tutorial videos is an excellent way to engage students they are in control of the speed that they are learning at. Myself, when I am learning prefer to fast forward and go back while watching videos to ensure I understand concepts. One question I have for is do you use a online classroom management system such as Google Classroom? If you do, which one do you use? why do you use it? How does it help you incorporate UDL into your teaching?

    1. scook

      Hi.

      Last year we used Moodle but due to admin restrictions it meant that my partner teacher had no editing rights and so I had to upload and hcange everything. This year I use Google Classroom and love it. All my lessons are now hosted on a G-Site. Each lesson I set the lesson on Google Classroom and simply give them the link to that lesson. All resources are embedded in the G-Site and so their is no need to add attachments etc. There are so many great features on G-Sites such as ALT text as well as all resources are provided digitally so that students can re-watch, enlarge, edit the materials to suit their needs.I teach a lot of international students and being able to translate sections into their native language or use captions (In English) and/or varying the speeds when watching the video has been such a great tool.

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