cehs.unl.edu
At the University of Nebraska,
we are committed to providing
students with the highest quality
educational experience possible.
Our student population continues to
diversify and we must continue to meet the
ever-changing educational
needs of our students.
Our ability to meet those needs
starts with our incredible
teaching staff at the university.
Diversity can look like a lot
of things at the university.
We can look at people with different
abilities being in classrooms.
It can be people from
all over the country.
So representing different diversity
and races, different
diversity and gender.
I think we see the whole gamut at the
university in regards to diversity.
You know, there's diversity in
experiences and perspectives.
There's diversity in access, you know,
the way students are
accessing information,
there's diversity in the way
students process the information.
I see a lot of diversity in
how they engage in the content.
Diversity is a tricky one to talk about
because it means so many different
things to someone they different
people. So it's not just race,
it's not just ethnicity,
it's not just disability,
it's also everything else. Like
first-generation socioeconomic status.
The level of support you have.
So, I try to think mostly what
impacts me as a teacher and them
as students.
So, I'm a lot more flexible in
terms of any students
who want
any Zoom, private tutoring sessions,
whether I'm teaching live,
which I currently am.
I provide those. I make sure that
students that would have any special
needs are always seated where they want to
be. I have one student,
who's hard of hearing,
so I make sure she sits
in the front.
And then always, always
help students review for quizzes.
The diversity comes with teaching.
You have to be thinking about how
all students learn and then adapt
your teaching style to everybody.
So it's presenting differently.
It's having different activities,
it's assessing students differently.
So at some point, you're meeting all of
their needs with the end result of making
sure that they learn the content
that you've deemed valuable.
Well, it impacts the way
I design my courses
in thinking about how to
ensure that, you know,
all that diversity is welcomed and
creating an inclusive environment
where all the students, regardless
of how they approach learning,
feel,
you know,
comfortable engaging in
the, in the course.
Hello and welcome. Over the
course of this video series,
we will be investigating
one very important topic,
Universal Design for Learning.
Over the course of this video,
we will address three main tenants.
What is Universal Design for Learning.
What are the tenants of
Universal Design for Learning.
And what are the benefits of
Universal Design for Learning.
Universal Design for Learning,
or UDL for short is a framework
to improve and optimize teaching and
learning for all people based on
scientific insights into how humans learn.
UDL is a framework that can help guide
educators on how to meet the
individual needs of their students
in their classroom.
This can range from classroom design to
use of specific instructional methods
and assessment methods,
and even classroom materials such as
textbooks and seating arrangements.
All of which provide for
better instruction for
students and more efficient
planning for teachers.
Accessibility is always at
the forefront of my mind,
thinking about how to make
my content and my activities,
accessible to all learners.
I try to incorporate different ways
students can engage in my courses.
So giving them options for how to say
participate, whether for my
in-class courses.
In terms of my online courses,
I give them options for how they want to
respond to their discussion boards.
Whether they want to do it
by typing their answers or
doing a video recording.
Yes,
students have to take responsibility
for their own learning,
but ultimately in general,
if they're not prepared,
that means I wasn't prepared.
And so it's important for me to
build that scaffolding in and build,
build that structure around students.
I think the way it impacts
my teaching most is from
the assessment perspective, I guess.
So I think that's where I focus
most of my teaching is I want to just
make sure everyone can show
me what they learned.
In a way that they're comfortable
with, even if they also have to do it,
maybe in a way they're
less comfortable with,
there's like a measure where I can tell.
I think all teaching is intentional.
And if you are looking
at those principles
the universal design principles,
it's all front-loaded.
And so once you have that
framework put into place,
then it makes it pretty easy to
be able to have everything
laid out in a fashion.
When you're teaching that
day or you're assessing,
or you're thinking about it.
Now, it's just become such a
natural part of my planning process.
It's just how I approach my planning,
thinking about all these different
types of learners and
ensuring that,
you know, what the content
that I'm presenting is accessible.
If you get into the practice of doing
that regularly for everything, it just,
it, it's just a seamless
part of the planning process.
I try to spend as much time upfront as
possible so that during the semester,
it's less of a struggle
because I think as students,
you guys can tell when we show up an
are, like I'm less prepared today.
And so if I have a plan for that,
then I'm not like every week going.
Oh no, what am I doing next
week? Cause I think that's,
that's not good instruction, I think.
Made my planning a lot more diverse,
in terms of the types
of activities that I do
and the types of learning experiences.
I prefer to put students in groups
and have them go over the content.
Allows the content to
be more accessible,
which then in turn improves
their, you know,
access to the content and their
ability to learn the content.
By ensuring that, I mean, not
only that it's accessible,
but that they have,
there's flexibility,
that they have different
ways to access, participate,
and engage in the learning process. I
think that just improves learning overall.
I think the impact is a, my hope
is that they learn it. I,
that they walk away having
the content that I have
planned for them to learn. If, if not,
then that comes back to me that I
need to change things up and take the
feedback that I get from students and
do things differently in the future.
But if I've done it correctly,
the majority of all of my students
are learning the content and
meet the objectives.
One of the things is when they're working
in groups and their basically,
basically they're doing
their guided practice.
And I'm circulating around.
I can tell who's participating.
I can tell who's getting it.
Who's not getting it.
Also one of the things that I've done
is I do, I do a lot of questioning,
with students.
One of the things that
teachers
are uncomfortable with
is silence. When they ask a question
at all levels at all levels.
And so lots of times
teachers ask a question,
they become uncomfortable and then
they answer their own question.
And then of course, if a teacher
does that, students are like, ah,
I don't have to answer this question.
One of the things that I
tell my students is
my background is not only in
education, it's also in counseling,
so I'm very good at waiting.
And I can, I,
my wait time is definitely
longer than yours.
And once students understand
that there's more participation,
the technique of having students
turn to each other and come up with
three reasons, why,
teachers don't understand
positive reinforcement.
And then that way I know
that everyone has an answer.
The Universal Design for Learning framework
was first developed by researchers at
the Harvard Graduate School of Education
and the Center for Applied Special Technology
in the 1990s.
To create classrooms
that are accommodated
for all different types of learners.
Since the Universal Design for Learning's
development. Applications of its
research and its framework have
been incorporated into the Higher
Education Opportunity Act of 2008,
2004 Reauthorization of the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act,
and the Every Student Succeeds Act
of 2016.
Now, before we dive headfirst
into this invaluable tool
and the educator's tool belt,
let's first talk about some general
truths that make up the foundation of UDL.
One, all students can learn.
This might seem obvious,
but it's important to
think about it for a second.
Every student in your classroom
has the potential to be successful.
No student is born knowing more or
less about what you're teaching,
nor are they any more apt to
pick up your content faster
or slower than their peers.
Every student in your classroom has
a unique learning profile and can
demonstrate knowledge
in diverse ways.
It is the job of educators to adapt
their instruction, to meet the
needs of their students.
Not, the job of students to rewire their
brains so that they might
understand you better.
Two,
every student is different.
It is widely believed in educational
research that individual's learning
characteristics are as unique
as one's own fingerprint.
If you instruct every student the same,
it's almost certain that some of your
students will miss out on valuable
learning opportunities.
This means that instructors frequently
have to make accommodations to their
instructional methods and assessment
technique to best teach students.
Three,
planning is key as we just reviewed.
If every student can learn,
but every student is different than
how do we ever create instruction?
Enter UDL.
The framework we will be covering shortly
is a preemptive strategy to address
individual needs before students ever
step into your classroom.
Saving you valuable time
that would have been spent
responding to the multiple different
individual needs of students.
Universal Design for Learning is
based on three major instructional and
assessment beliefs.
One,
providing multiple means of engagement,
which is frequently referred
to as the "why" of learning.
And it's targeted towards creating
lessons that grab students' attention
and keep them locked in.
Two,
providing multiple means of
representation frequently referred
to as the "what" of learning.
It's focused on the ways in
which information is perceived,
comprehended and encoded.
This area is closely tied to the second
mindset issue we discussed earlier that
every student is different.
The representation provides a multitude
of different formats to show content and
how it might affect student outcomes.
And finally three,
provide multiple means of
action and expression.
Frequently referred to as
the "how" of teaching,
as stated earlier in our mindset
section, all students can learn.
This section will help you learn different
ways that students can display what
they know.
There is not one means of action and
expression that will
be optimal for all learners.
And therefore a range of
assessment measures is essential.
We will be covering these tenants in
greater depth in subsequent videos,
but it's important to know
that these are three areas,
crucial to establishing a healthy
learning environment in your classroom.
Please check out the next video in the series.
Multiple Means of Instruction,
The Three Tenants of UDL.
Where we will go further into
the specifics of
Universal Design for Learning.
On behalf of the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln.
We would like to extend our gratitude for
you taking this important step towards
improving your instruction.
And as always
Go Big Red!