Key Takeaways From The Universal Design For Learning Workshop
- Kara Wasnewsky
- May 2, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 17, 2023
By: Kara Wasnewsky
Last Friday Regis welcomed two presenters from Goodwin College, Dr. John Kania and Dr. Lisa Wisniewski, who shared their knowledge of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with some of our faculty and staff.
Dr. Kania working with Regis faculty.
Goodwin College has introduced a college-wide initiative around Universal Design For Learning and Dr. Kania and Dr. Wisniewski have undergone extensive training on the framework with UDL’s founding organization, CAST. We are so fortunate that they were willing to share what they have learned with us and I want to make sure that some of the key takeaways from the workshop are shared with the entire Regis community.
What is Universal Design For Learning?
Universal Design for Learning is “a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn” (CAST). It focuses on providing:
multiple means of representation, so learners can acquire information and knowledge in various ways,
multiple means of engagement that provides the appropriate level of challenge, stimulates interest, and motivates learning, and
multiple means of action and expression that give learners alternative ways to demonstrate what they know.
What did we learn?
Dr. Kania and Dr. Wisniewski made the point that barriers to learning are not in students themselves, but that barriers lie in the environment. In the workshop they shared some of the ways that they have been able to minimize barriers and maximize learning for their students and challenged us to think about our own classes and how we could make small changes that would minimize barriers.
Some of the suggestions Dr. Kania and Dr. Wisniewski made included:
An example Design Lab poster
Have students respond to a few preliminary questions as the first assignment when they get to class (entry ticket), so that you can get a sense of where they are and can adapt the class as needed based their responses.
Have students answer questions at the end of class (exit ticket), so that you can check to see how much they have taken away from the class.
Keep lectures short (15-20 minutes at a time, think “lecture burst”) and include more opportunities for students to actively do something with the content.
Some active learning ideas they demonstrated were:
Think-Pair-Share where learners think about a question/challenge, then pair with a partner and discuss, then each pair shares with the class what was discussed.
Design Lab With Gallery Walk where learners are tasked with designing a solution to a problem. They work together to analyze the problem and come up with a solution. The work is recorded on large sticky note (or poster) and posted on the wall. Then everyone can walk around and see each other’s work.
Dr. Kania and Dr. Wisniewski also suggested some great learning tools that we could try in our classes including:
Padlet– a simple way to create and collaborate. Think a bulletin board that everyone can post to.
Kahoot– a tool where you can create, share and play learning games.
Powtoon– a simple tool to create awesome videos and presentations.
Plickers– a tool where you can have students answer questions by holding up cards. The tool will scan the answers students show and will provide you with the data.
I welcome everyone to think about how they can use the Universal Design For Learning framework to minimize barriers for their students. Start with a goal (for example, how can we engage students with the text?). Then identify the barriers (found in the environment, not in the student), and brainstorm some ideas on how the barriers can be minimized. Small purposeful changes can have big impacts on learning.
For more information of Universal Design For Learning, take a look at these resources:
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