Official Course Discussion Platforms

Discussion platforms are a great way for students to get involved by asking questions about the course to course staff. They also help facilitate interaction between peers and can even help create a sense of community in engineering courses. When implementing these discussion platforms, it’s important to monitor student interactions and set proper guidelines to ensure that students are following course guidelines.

Below are some examples of discussion platforms and when they are useful:

• Discord: Application that allows course staff to create specific channels and threads for specific topics. Many students are comfortable using Discord, so it’s easy for students to get involved by asking questions and answering other peers’ questions. However, Discord use will usually require some oversight (e.g. moderation and occasional reminders of appropriate communication behaviors).
• Canvas: Canvas allows for discussion boards where students can create posts and respond to other students’ posts. Canvas also has the option to remove. This is especially useful when asking students to respond to a specific prompt.
• CampusWire: Students can create questions and other students or course staff can answer them. Course staff can also add announcements to send out to the entire class. Students are also rewarded for contributing, as they can receive specific badges for answering or creating questions.
• Ed Discussion: Ed Discussion is similar to CampusWire, but it’s specifically tailored for STEM courses. For example, students and course staff can upload code blocks to their posts.

Dig Deeper:

Beyond just posting announcements and having online Q&As, discussion platforms have additional features that improve the quality of a class. A few examples are provided below:

• CampusWire: Instructors can create polls for students to respond to. These polls can also be conducted during class to increase lecture engagement.
• CampusWire: Students can create group chats among themselves or with course staff to communicate in a smaller group setting.
• Discord: Oftentimes courses also have an “off-topic” channel where students and staff can interact beyond the course. This can help build a sense of community and can also help students get to know each other better.

Discussion platforms are a great way to help increase course engagement and to help students stay informed. If you have any concerns about these platforms or ideas on how they can be used to improve education, please let us know! A big part of our UDL and Accessibility Research Group initiatives is in understanding opportunities for improving student and instructor experiences in accessible education.

See you again next time!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming education, presenting both opportunities and challenges for instructors. By thoughtfully integrating AI, educators can create more engaging, personalized, and accessible learning experiences.

AI as a Teaching Partner 

Instructors can use AI-powered tools to develop educational materials that are adaptive and inclusive. Generative AI can help create diverse examples, translate content into multiple languages, and assist with accessibility features like text-to-speech or alternative text generation. They can even be a great source for generating multiple choice responses when developing assessments. Read more from Harvard’s guide on AI in the classroom or FSU’s AI teaching resources.

Risks of AI 

As students increasingly use AI tools in their coursework, it can become difficult to ignore their impact on learning. Reliance on tools like ChatGPT may cause discrepancies between curriculum expectations of students and instructors. Common concerns of improper use by students are academic integrity violations and lack of learning. At the same time, specific implementations of AI in the classroom, such as automated grading of subjective materials, may alienate students from the learning process. It is incredibly valuable to initiate and develop dialogue surrounding clear guidelines on ethical AI use, discuss its limitations, and encourage critical engagement rather than passive reliance.

Practical Steps for Instructors

• Experiment with AI tools for content generation, quiz creation, or accessibility enhancements. Often, these can be used as a jumping point or inspiration for developing educational material specific to your goals.
• Engage students in discussions about AI’s role in learning and critical thinking. A great starting point may be in adding generative AI statements to your syllabus, as recommended by UT Austin.
• Provide structured opportunities for students to reflect on their AI usage and its impact on their learning.

Dig Deeper:

• Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: A comprehensive report by the U.S. Department of Education exploring the implications of AI in educational settings.
• The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Learner–Instructor Interaction: This research article examines how AI systems can support online learning and teaching by personalizing learning experiences and automating routine tasks.
• Artificial Intelligence and Education: Curated by JSTOR Daily, this reading list offers a selection of articles discussing various aspects of AI in education.

Generative AI has great potential in enhancing the learning process for students and improving workflows for instructors. If you have any concerns about AI tools or ideas on how they can be used to improve education, please let us know! A big part of our UDL and Accessibility Research Group initiatives is in understanding opportunities for improving student and instructor experiences in accessible education.

Engagement

Student engagement is a great way to keep students motivated and to help students stay attentive in classrooms. Research has shown that class attendance is a key factor of a student’s success, but it can be difficult to keep students’ attention in lectures. As a result, it’s important to include interactive activities where students can engage with course content in a variety of ways.

Below are some ways to help increase engagement in classrooms:

• Polls and clickers: A quick and easy way to grab students’ attention and check student understanding of lecture content. Allows students to reflect on what they’ve learned during class.
• Small group activities: Split students into small groups and provide an open-ended problem for students to solve. Allows students to apply content, collaborate with others, and build a sense of community.
• Think-pair-share: Instructors ask students a question and students have a quick discussion in pairs or small groups. This can help students reflect on what they’ve learned so far during class

Dig Deeper:

For engagement and attendance purposes, instructors commonly default to paid tools like iClicker and PollEverywhere that provide base polling features to measure and assess student engagement. While potentially convenient, a large downside is in its paid nature. Here are some free alternatives with their own powerful features:

• Microsoft Forms allows instructors to quickly create forms to use in their classrooms with support for tools like LaTeX (in the quiz mode) and template galleries. Once published, the forms can track student responses, as well as metadata like time of submission. After data collection, analysis techniques like word clouds help instructors gain insight on students’ results.
• Vevox fulfills many of the features provided by iClicker, allowing instructors to create real-time polls, interactive quizzes, and anonymous Q&As to collect results analyzed with word clouds and other data analytics. For the free tier, however, there is a participant limit of 100 students.

More sources

• Engagement in Engineering Education (SIIP)
• Study exploring the impact of attendance on student success
• Berkeley page for encouraging attendance

These tools are a great start towards adding engagement into your classroom. If there are any barriers to implementing them or if any of the software are missing features you’re interested in having, please let us know! A big part of our UDL and Accessibility Research Group initiatives is in understanding opportunities for improving student and instructor experiences in accessible education.

Thank you for your interest. If you found this tip helpful, please share it with your colleagues!

See you again next week!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a core theme for our research group and weekly nuggets. Most notably, UDL specifies three principles: Engagement, Representation and Action & Expression. In this week’s nugget, we will dive into the practices of Engagement.

Engagement

Engagement concerns the interests and motivations of students, emphasizing the variability between different learners in finding best educational practices. Some prefer to work alone or follow strict routines while others may prefer to work with peers or engage in spontaneous activities. These individual preferences may even fluctuate over time. Put simply, what practices or adjustments can we make for different students to best engage them?

Dig Deeper:

Basic principles of engagement (source)

• Give students opportunities to share learning preferences through informal feedback forms or even ask students to choose methods of completing academic tasks (group vs. individual or asynchronous vs. synchronous)
• Provide meaningful course objectives and break down those objectives into manageable parts to motivate students and allow them to make connections between course materials and course objectives
• Give students feedback frequently and provide rubrics if possible, allowing students to understand areas of improvement for future course success
• When giving examples to illustrate concepts, try using real-world applications where relevant to additionally motivate students on learning purposes. Even better, especially if props (models) or gamification (Kahoot, point systems) is applicable, engage students with as much interactivity (iClickers) and novelty as possible.

Individuality in engagement

Due to the variability in students’ learning preferences, an “optimal” environment may entail the usage of multiple engagement methods like:

• Provide flexibility through alternative assessments or flexible deadlines
• Invite students to share relevant personal experiences during discussions
• Use multiple learning formats through recorded lectures or texts

This may not be accessible for all classrooms of all subject fields. However, other powerful methods of indirectly engaging with students’ preferences include referencing support tools (campus tutoring), using formative peer feedback to pair students together in the learning process, and sharing various ways of how past students succeeded in your course.

Research on engagement

• What next for Universal Design for Learning? A systematic literature review of technology in UDL implementations at second level
• The Effect of Universal Design for Learning on Student Engagement and Achievement in a Southwest Missouri School District

See you again next week!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu

Accessibility in Math

We’ve previously covered student accommodations with respect to general methods of accommodating students with accessibility needs. However, different academic subjects have different methods of delivering educational content to students. In this nugget, we emphasize how instructors can adapt various modes of instruction in mathematics in order to maintain accessibility for all students.

In mathematics courses, many instructors teach primarily through in-person lectures guided with blackboard demonstrations. For some students, this is a sufficient and effective method of instruction. However, under the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), the educational experience of more students can be improved with some quick guidelines.

Dig Deeper:

Basic principles of accessible math:

• Apply general accessibility practices (effective syllabi, disability accommodations, etc.)
• Engage in multiple modes of instruction, such as providing slides, notes, or recorded lectures digitally, especially for students with difficulties toward in-person attendance
• Provide information in advance where possible, giving students time to prepare prerequisite knowledge for lectures or assessments (more on basic principles by UW)

Digital accessibility in math:

If you already manage a digital presence for your classroom, whether it be through Canvas or some other online system, that’s great. If not and you’d like to get started, check out these resources:

• Mediaspace playlist on Canvas workshops
• UIUC CITL’s guide on Canvas

We want to re-emphasize the value of multiple modes of instruction and encourage practices of providing some form of accessible digital content. With that said, here are some tips:

• For recorded lectures, try out ClassTranscribe (a nugget on this tool)
• For slides and notes, follow digital accessibility guidelines, such as those listed here
• Digital equations and diagrams also have specialized methods of accessibility. Here are some examples

Research on accessible math:

• Learn more about process-driven math, a UDL method for providing multiple modes of access in mathematics content
• Assistive technology for mathematics students with accessibility needs

See you again next week!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu

I’m an instructor, and I’m new to accessibility. Where should I start?

CITL has published their course accessibility guide for online content:
https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/make-your-course-accessible

It includes general course design, document guidelines and specific guides for MSWord, PowerPoint, Excel, pdf, and html documents, and guidelines for Canvas and Multimedia content. For feedback or further information you can reach CITL via citl-info@illinois.edu or use their web contact form (https://citl.illinois.edu/about-citl/contactus). 

Additional resources for accessibility in courses:

Here are some additional resources that may help you while creating accessible materials for your courses:

1. Our Canvas Training modules help teachers create discussions on canvas and post materials in an
accessible format [basic module of UDL UIUC training course]

2. This resource from the University of Washington goes through a general accessibility checklist for
all online content, following the POUR (perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust) model 
https://www.washington.edu/accesstech/checklist/

3. The University of Central Florida developed UDOIT, a free open-source software that analyzes a
canvas course for accessibility issues https://cdl.ucf.edu/teach/accessibility/udoit/

Dig Deeper

• WCAG 2.1 Guidelines and Techniques https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/quickref/?versions=2.1
• Explanation of the POUR model for accessibility https://aem.cast.org/create/designing-accessibility-pour
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines for general accessibility principles https://udlguidelines.cast.org/

If you ever have questions about this nugget and getting started in accessibility, please email the SIIP UDL and Accessibility Group at the email provided below.

Thank you for your interest. If you found this tip helpful, please share it with your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe using the link at the bottom of this email.

See you again next week!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu

Why is it important to allow teamwork?

It is important to help students learn in teams outside the classroom for thereby we provide an alternative format of mastery-based assessment. Research has found peer learning to be beneficial to students in many perspectives and students with disabilities are more inclined towards casual teamwork asynchronously.

The common formats of teamwork

1. Group work on homework assignments such as machine problems.
2. Quizzes completed in groups during course TA-supervised discussion sessions.
3. Asynchronous teamwork enabled by course learning management systems (LMS), such as Canvas, PrairieLearn. Typically, these LMS facilitate group set up and grading methods.

Dig Deeper:

Below are examples of these various methods on different platforms.

On Canvas: 

1. Teamwork using the Graded Group Discussion: this facilitates flexible modalities of assignment contents and diverse methods for submission and deadline customization. This is particularly important as a UDL design for students with disabilities. 
2. Teamwork using the worksheet type of new Quiz on Canvas: this is particularly good for flipped class instruction.

On Prairielearn:

The instructor can set up quizzes that enable teamwork using the following information in the information .json file: “groupWork”: true, “groupMaxSize”: 4, “groupMinSize”: 1,    “studentGroupCreate”: true, “studentGroupJoin”: true, “studentGroupLeave”: true,

Links to specific examples:

1. Canvas Graded Group Discussion Link
2. Canvas Worksheet quiz for groups Link
3. PrairieLearn documentation on group work Link

Research about teamwork

• Team-Based Learning: A New Approach Toward Improving Education
• Analysis of the Team-Based Learning Literature: TBL Comes of Age
• A Review of Research on CAnalysis of the Team-Based Learning Literature: TBL Comes of Age – PMCollaborative Assessments in the Open Distance and e-Learning Environment
• Opportunities and Barriers in UDL

See you again next week!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu

Who are we Accommodating? 

Our student body here at UIUC is incredibly diverse. While it is easy to adopt a “one-size-fits-all” approach to instructing our student body, it is important to acknowledge that many students have accessibility needs that enable them to be as successful as possible. So, who are these students and how can we accommodate them?

Students with Disabilities

While “students with accessibility needs (SWAN)” broadly refers to any student who has difficulties interacting with standard methods of instruction, students who live with disabilities can be especially helped by accessibility arrangements.

Notably, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires universities to provide reasonable accommodation to these students with disabilities. Students can apply for disability-related accommodations through DRES to obtain a Letter of Academic Accommodations. However, interested instructors can also proactively provide some of these accommodations in the form of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Here are some common disabilities and how methods like UDL can help:

1. Vision Impairment: Students’ vision impairment lies on a spectrum from low vision to totally blind. This may present difficulties in attending lectures or following instructional material. When instructing students with visual impairments, avoid nonverbal cues and try providing alternative accessible learning and assessment formats where possible, such as recording lectures and supporting assistive technologies. For students with relatively stronger vision, it may be sufficient to provide closer seating, better lighting, or larger print sizes of instructional materials.
2. Hard of Hearing: Similar to vision impairment, students who are hard of hearing lie on a spectrum of degree of hearing loss. In the classroom, instructors can try speaking slowly and enunciate (without over-enunciating) words so that lip readers or partially deaf students can more easily follow along. Outside the classroom, providing textual lecture materials, captioning, and assistive technologies are all key to improving accessibility for hard of hearing students.
3. Other Physical Disabilities: Students with physical disabilities are highly individual and affect their accessibility needs in many ways. In general, ensure that classroom layouts are free from obstructions and provide alternative learning formats for students who find it difficult to reliably attend class. But, ultimately, it is important to understand the accessibility needs from the student and accommodate accordingly.
4. Learning Disabilities: Students with learning disabilities face neurologically-based difficulties that may disturb attention, acquisition of skills, expression of understanding, or executive functions. In the classroom, this may manifest in difficulties following course materials, completing assignments on time, or lacking organization. Depending on the learning disability, using a variety of instructional modes, alternative learning/assessment formats, individual accommodations, and patience are powerful ways to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of education for these students.

During this semester, we will present many different UDL tools that proactively enhance learning and accessibility for all students.

Dig Deeper

Learn more about the Americans with Disabilities Act

• ADA from the student’s perspective
• ADA at UIUC

Research about accommodating students with disability

• Academic success factors in university students with disabilities: a systematic review
• Assistive technology for the inclusion of students with disabilities: a systematic review
• Effects of disability-related services, accommodations, and integration on academic success of students with disabilities in higher education. A scoping review

See you again next time!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu

Welcome Back to Campus

Fall 2024 instruction has begun and we, the UDL and Accessibility Research Group, would like to welcome those who are joining us for the first time and welcome back those who’ve seen our nugget before! As classes have just started and students are acquainted with their coursework, this week’s nugget will cover how to make an effective syllabus.

But first, here is some key information and changes from last semester:

• The weekly nugget newsletter began in Fall 2023, which has been archived here.
• In order to accommodate old and new viewers, we plan on mixing between sharing new Universal Design of Learning (UDL) concepts and revamping previously-covered topics.

Crafting a Syllabus

Course syllabi serve three overarching functions including structural, motivational, and evidentiary. Research has shown it’s good to have a detailed syllabus to make explicit the expectations for both the students and the instructor. Students benefit from information on how to succeed in courses, such as grading schemes to educational objectives. Using a warm tone is good to generate an engaging atmosphere. In order to serve all students well, try to describe UDL practices, including ways students can get accommodations, flexibility in the assessments and the availability of course support or university supports such as disability services.

Dig Deeper

School Supports

Our university has a strong commitment to help instructors manage course policies, especially through syllabi. To take advantage of this, check out the Provost’s page on course policies or the Student Affairs syllabus statement recommendations. These are strong starting points on what to include in a syllabus to help students understand your policies and to access needed care.

Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES)

At DRES, you can find resources and guidelines for coordinating with disability services, including syllabus statements and course policy construction suggestions. It can be helpful to understand what expectations or rights that instructors and students have in navigating accessibility requirements. For example, students are not required to disclose any disability they may have, but in return are not entitled to additional accommodations without such a disclosure. By outlining such details in syllabi, both students and staff are able to make more informed decisions.

Counseling Center

Another key student resource to share through your syllabus is the Counseling Center. Mental health can be a difficult topic to approach, so a page with suggestions on referring students has been provided by the Student Counseling Center to help you navigate various situations relating to mental health concerns.

Research on Syllabus

Interested in doing more research on an effective syllabus? Check out these research resources:

• Jeanne M. Slattery & Janet F. Carlson “Preparing an effective syllabus: current best practices” College Teaching 53:4, 159-164, 2005
• Wagner, J. L., Smith, K. J., Johnson, C., Hilaire, M. L., & Medina, M. S. (2023). Best Practices in Syllabus Design. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 87(3), ajpe8995. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8995

Syllabus and schedule examples:

• https://cs341.cs.illinois.edu/syllabus.html
• https://cs341.cs.illinois.edu/schedule.html
• https://canvas.illinois.edu/courses/44061/assignments/syllabus
• https://lor.instructure.com/resources/f4c68a4b81a34c0dbd53145ed3c84802?shared

See you again next time!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu

Take Time To Celebrate Good Work

There are only two more days of instruction this semester then on to finals to complete the spring semester. Hopefully you’ve found a way to work at least one of the UDL or Accessibility nuggets into your course this spring. Congratulations and well done!

Our team has been busy with applications, finalizing research publication papers, hosting a workshop, and all of the other work that comes with the end of a semester. So, to avoid adding one more item to your to-do list, we wanted to summarize our UDL Nugget topics from this last semester so you could jump into any of the topics as you wrap up this semester and begin to plan for the next. We thank you all for your support and interest thus far. We’re excited to get back into UDL topics with weekly nuggets next fall!

Onboarding Forms

At the end of January, we encouraged you to Use Onboarding Forms to Understand Your Students Needs We provided an example of a semester onboarding form that you can use to proactively gather information about your students, their needs, and preferences. The Dig Deeper section highlighted ways such a form could allow students to submit their Letter of Accommodation, but also ask about interests, their comfort level with subject material, and other data about workload, assignment timing, and grading methods. 

Accessibility

In February, we really focused upon accessibility tools and best practices. In Use an Accessibility Checker to Improve Course Accessibility, we suggested using available accessibility checkers, particularly the one built into the rich text editor of our learning management system (LMS), to make even small changes to improve navigation of educational content and effective learning for all students. We also shared a variety of other accessibility resources for our campus LMS. In our dig deeper section, we suggested you encourage students to utilize the accessibility checker for their discussion board posts to take an active responsibility for accessibility in their learning community.

We discussed alternatives to color for information design in Use More Than Color to Highlight or Differentiate Pieces of Information. We recommended best practices to use text treatments, lines, patterns, and icons to reinforce importance rather than the use of color to solely communicate information. We introduced the idea of alternative text and descriptive text for graphs, images, and digital dashboards in the Dig Deeper section. And we introduced a few tools for testing color contrast when color is used. We also suggested tools for student use to control color contrast and suggested encouraging student use of color checkers for their own content creation.

In Know and Share About Assistive Technology for Students and Faculty, we defined accessibility tools and gave examples. In the Dig Deeper section we urged you to encourage students to use our school’s Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) accessibility tool resources, we suggested you do your own exploration of these tools. We provided a contact at DRES for further questions about specific tools, we linked to their ‘Try It Out’ webpage and included a link to policy pages.

UDL Foundations

In March we introduced the three pillars of UDL in Learn About the Foundations of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and included a brief history and four fun facts. In the Dig Deeper section we presented about the theory, best practices, and tools of UDL. We included a plethora of links: 20 Accessibility Tips, lecture-related software, UDL Guide from Yale, Interactive Module on UDL from Vanderbilt University, Cornell UDL resources, links to the latest research, an encouragement to hear from practitioners and join available UDL communities (CITL, UDL Team, UDL Podcast, Canvas Commons).

Course Organization

After spring break, we focused on some best practices around course organization and tools. We started with Course Organization – Syllabus and focused on how organizing your course with an effective syllabus can elevate your students’ understanding of the semester and course content. We covered topics of syllabus formatting, the use of inline topic links, and the use of multiple pages if hosting the syllabus in an LMS. We included fun facts about syllabus use and history. The Dig Deeper section highlighted the available supports for our school: DRES resources and guidelines and the student counseling center. We also included research information about syllabi and examples.

Next we tackled the Use of a Course Calendar and Scheduler. We provided a short discussion of what information should be included on a course calendar: due dates, deadlines, and progress in course content. We encouraged the use of the LMS built in calendar, explicit about deadlines and important dates, calendar feed to export to google calendar to provide students an alternative way to manage courses, be sure to include course staff office hours, fun facts, research on calendar tools, links to canvas and google calendar guides

Then we wrapped up course organization with Tools, Built-In Features, and Share Resources to Keep Your Students Informed and Engaged. We highlighted methods and tool types that enhance learning, provide multiple pathways to knowledge, and gave a long list of available tools available to both instructors and students. Tools included online discussion forums, remote meetings, multiple ways of engagement, video platforms, assessment tools, roster management tools, appointment tools, and survey tools. The Dig Deeper section provided a non-exhaustive list of links to examples of each type of tool and links to relevant support documentation.

Thank you for all of your feedback and support this school year! We’ll return next fall with more UDL Principles and tips for applying them to your instruction practices.

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu