CENTRE for TEACHING and LEARNING
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) helps make higher education more inclusive by addressing the varied needs of students. It boosts student success and encourages new teaching methods by creating a flexible and engaging classroom environment. When you are guided by UDL principles, your courses are more accessible and effective.
What is UDL?
Universal Design for Learning is a proactive pedagogical framework aimed at reducing barriers and creating inclusive and accessible learning environments.
- Students engage with course content in different ways.
- Incorporate text, image, audio, and other creative forms into classroom, online, and hybrid deliveries.
- Students benefit from a variety of assessments to demonstrate their learning.
- Provide a range or choice of evaluation, such as written work, creative work, and/or oral presentations.
- Students juggle competing external demands and face difficult personal circumstances.
- Offer a submission window, a no-penalty grace period, or different due dates with different feedback expectations.
- Course outlines are great places to begin discussions of accessibility.
- Use accessible language, incorporate imagery, graphs and calendars, for example.
Why adopt UDL?
- Meet students where they are at; diverse abilities, identities, educational backgrounds, stressors, life events, and other factors impact learning.
- Adding greater variety and flexibility to course design maximizes learning for students.
- Students AND faculty benefit—proactive student solutions enhance the student experience and encourage teaching innovation.
CAST
CAST leads, inspires and convenes a global community to design equitable, inclusive learning experiences through a Universal Design for Learning framework.
Accessibility and UDL working group
The Accessibility and UDL Working Group (A&UDLWG), a sub-committee of the General Faculty Council’s Committee on Teaching and Learning, has developed a resource that introduces the guiding principles of UDL. It provides a quick refresher of key themes and practices and reminds you of the UDL initiatives you may already be doing.
The themes captured in this infographic are based on wider evidence from the field and extensive collaboration across faculties and colleagues from Access and Disability Resources and the Centre for Teaching and Learning.