Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

The Universal Design for Learning is an educational framework that focuses on the development of learning environments that support and accommodate individual learning differences and provide an equal opportunity for all students to succeed.  In other words, “UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone – not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs” (National Center on Universal Design for Learning, 2012).

The following video from CAST, the Center for Applied Special Technology, provides a great overview of how this framework can guide design. 

The guidelines in this video offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

(2020, August 22). CAST: Home. https://www.cast.org/

Additional Resources

CAST also provides an interactive Universal Design for Learning Guidelines tool that includes tangible ways you can implement UDL into your course. 

The article, Ten Steps Toward Universal Design of Online Courses is tool that you may find helpful.

For additional information on this important piece of course design you can also visit Bethel's Office of Accessibility Resources & Services (OARS) confluence space. 

References

About Universal Design for Learning. (2020, September 25). Retrieved December 01, 2020, from http://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl

Ten Steps Toward Universal Design of Online Courses: SPOT. (2020). Retrieved December 1, 2020, from https://mtsac.instructure.com/courses/3031/modules/items/357537