by Mitch Lorenz, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center
Winter break approaches and, with it, comes the Reinert Center’s annual Winter Institute. This half-day institute is tailored to match the Reinert Center’s annual theme. This year’s theme is “Teaching, Learning, and Neurodiversity” and the Winter Institute will focus on applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to support a neurodiverse student body.
With this in mind, I thought to myself: what a perfect opportunity to reflect on how to get started with UDL in your course! Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, is a framework designed to help shape course design so it is accessible for all learners. Another way to imagine this framework is to imagine it as a set of guidelines for helping to recognize where the structure of a course may be causing inequitable challenges for some of your students (see this resource guide for an overview and the UDL website for more information).
In lieu of a more formal resource, like one of our many amazing resource guides (linked below), I asked myself:
What I would do if I wanted to incorporate UDL into my teaching with no prior familiarity with the concept?
More specifically, if I were an instructor with classes already prepped for Spring and little time to make changes to my courses, and even less time to learn an entire set of “design guidelines,” how would I proceed? In the name of “keeping things simple,” I would accept that I’m not going to be able to learn all there is to know about UDL and its various design subcategories. Instead, I would focus on the intention behind the design of the UDL framework itself.
UDL leads with a focus on the learning environment (location, lecture materials, assessments, etc.) and how it elicits different reactions from each student. According to CAST (authors of UDL), the primary intention behind UDL is to increase the agency of learners with an understanding that every student is different (hence the term “neurodiversity”). Agency refers to students’ feeling that they actively participate in choices related to their learning. Thus, I would revisit my course materials with these broad, UDL-esque questions in mind:
- Do students understand the intention behind the information they are being presented?
While expectations (schedule, assessments) may be clear, there may be areas where I am not sharing why I have organized the course as I have. Students, when left to guess “what the instructor really wants” may feel less able to engage with their learning in a way that feels purposeful and self-directed.
- Do students have agency in how they interact with the course materials?
A more obvious type of agency – student choice. Am I providing options in terms of readings, types of assignments, or other course-environment factors (e.g., how course materials are accessed, how lecture slides are shared)? Assuming I have very little time to make changes, I would balance effort and impact, perhaps adding small additions to existing assignments or course activities.
For example – providing students with the option to select from a collection of readings for an assignment rather than assigning a specific, pre-determined reading.
You might be thinking: “I don’t have time to find all of these readings?!” – I know I would! Finding ways to connect class time and assessments can help reduce the instructor workload. For instance – finding the readings might be an additional in-class activity during which students work together to create a collection of readings which may then be used for future assignments. This reduces my stress while increasing student agency.
Prior to this reflection, I might have assumed that students’ performance on assessments reflected their personal characteristics (ability, effort, etc.). After reflecting on the intention behind UDL, my sensitivity to the influence of the environment of the course will help me look for more ways to build in support rather than assume fault in my students. Of course, this would only be a starting point. After all, a new course design framework is not learned after only 10 minutes of reflection. Yet, even small changes can help the diverse collection of learners in my class feel more empowered to engage with the course.
Fortunately, in this hypothetical situation, I teach at SLU where the teaching center on campus is hosting a Winter Institute dedicated to revisiting my course materials with a focus on three areas of UDL application: access, support, and executive function.
Good news! You might just teach here too!
If this thought exercise has piqued your curiosity about all the ways you can apply UDL to your course, please join us! To register for the Reinert Center’s 2025 Winter Institute, which takes place on January 9th from 11-3:30, follow this link. If you cannot attend the event, you are welcome to schedule an individual consultation using this link.
Reinert Center Resource Guides Related to UDL:
The Notebook 