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