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Inclusive Learning Design: Quality and Accessible Learning.

Welcome to the Inclusive Learning Design: Quality and Accessible learning workshop.

For the purpose of the workshop and this website we will be referring to Inclusive Learning Design as Universal Learning Design (ULD).

This website has been designed for you to 'take away' information about Universal Learning Design. This will be updated as more evidence and examples become available and you will be be able to refer back here if you are thinking of redesigning or even creating new subject content using Universal Learning Design.

Today we will be going over the basic principles of Universal Learning Design to give you an understanding of how basic yet complex the framework is. The fundamental principles are basic in understanding yet can be complex in implementation. As one of the CAST videos has stated 'learning is as individual as your finger print', well so is implementing Universal Learning Design. Do not let this overwhelm you. We are here to step you through it and LTSE is here to support you in your quest if you choose to implement ULD. If you would like support please follow this link and complete the form.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Explain Universal Learning Design;
  2. Explain the principles of Universal Learning Design.

Overview

Universal Learning Design encapsulates your students academic, cultural, social and emotional success. At its basic form ULD is creating engaging, challenging and creative learning materials for ALL your students to participate in no matter who they are.

ULD's main goal is to change our way of thinking from 'something needs to change with my learners' to 'something needs to change about the learning environment that is being created'. We are here to break down the barriers to learning while not compromising the academic integrity of the learning.

The ULD principles when implemented together will start to interconnect and will work in a cyclical manner. That is they will become inter-dependant on each other in your Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Learning Materials. It is important to remember we are talking about all students here not just students with additional needs. In our learning community we have diverse learning styles, cultures, age, TESOL and first in family as well as students with additional needs. As academics we must be inclusive of all our students. To create learning materials for the 'minority' we are opening alternative learning environments for all.

Through implementing Universal Learning Design principles in your subject/course you will be will on your way to:

A. Making your work life easier as you will have engaged students

B. Improve the quality of assessments you receive

C. Increase all your students motivation, aspiration and achievement

D. Create empowered and expert learners

E. Create a safe and inclusive learning environment

F. Graduate competitive 21st century skilled professionals

We all want our students to have the necessary academic requirements to be successful graduates but we also want them to have competitive 21st century skills. Universal Learning Design allows us to accomplish this.

Note: Best practice especially in these new times we find ourselves in, is to design or redesign your subjects for the external environment and adapt for the internal environment. This ensures that ALL your learning activities and assessments are housed in Learn JCU. Your external and internal students will have equal and equitable access to the learning materials and those studying externally will feel part of your learning community. In this example you will see how I have designed for both environments and you will also I see I have employed many of the pedagogies discussed within the principles.

Here is an example of a learning sequence you can employ which will work across all modes of delivery.

There is NO 'one fit, fits all' this goes for you as the subject designer and your students. The best you can do is try to be as creative and inclusive as possible and have learning activities and assessments that cater to different learning styles (you do not have to have multiple ways of completing a single task for every learning and assessment task but it is good to mix up how students can demonstrate their learning to you). The main point is you are open to difference and continue to develop and learn through your student feedback and create inclusive learning and assessments materials.

Cyclical process

Cultural, Social and Emotional Learning

What does this mean? We are here to educate them academically not to look after their cultural, social and emotional learning?

The above questions are very common when it comes to talking about our students cultural, social and emotional learning. Thinking about this on top of our already heavy workload and jammed packed curriculum is too much. However, our students come to university as holistic humans not just academic entities.

We are all academic, cultural, social and emotional and this impacts on our engagement and learning. We as educators need to acknowledge this and turn it into a powerful and inclusive learning experience for all our students. When we acknowledge our students are holistic beings we can then start to design learning and assessments activities which incorporate this. As a result we will start to see our students engage in a more meaningful way.

Our students need to feel connected and apart of their learning and assessments. They need to feel a sense of community in order to thrive and succeed. They need to see their holistic selves, their current and future worlds in their learning and assessments. Authentic assessment allows us to do this.

We need to build learning materials and assessments that are transparent (tell your students why they are learning what they are learning and how this relates to their future profession/subjects). This empowers the students in the most subtle way to feel part of your learning community.

Embodied learning is a way of connecting your holistic student to your learning and assessment activities. By having your students connect to their learning through their emotions, body, past experience and current knowledge you are connecting them on a deeper level to your materials and their retention of knowledge will increase.

Cultural, Social and Emotional intelligence  are equally as important as IQ. If we can design learning and assessment activities with all four of the quotient in mind we will be appealing to the students holistic self and will see them complete our tasks in an engaged manner not just an active manner which makes our marking more pleasant. This will also help them to develop those all important 21st century skills, employers are looking for.

Engaged = Holistic self is involved in the activity and the student is 'doing' something and is displaying interested behaviours (i.e. creating something)

Active= student is listening and participating but not displaying interested behaviours (i.e. going through the motions).

Inclusive Instructional Practice

This is where we look at how our learning materials and assessments are communicated to our students. We need to ensure we are communicating in a way that all students have full and equal access to their learning and assessment activities. An easy and practical way is, turning Ally on in your LearnJCU subject. This will greatly improve the accessibility of your subject to all of your studnets. This new tool will show you where you can improve on your accessibility and how you can do this. Ally will cover written documents and images. For video you will need to employ Closed Captions. By employing Ally and closed captions you are allowing all your students to access your learning and assessments activities in a wide range of environments other than the classroom.

It is important we are mindful of the language we use and the level of background knowledge we are assuming. As you know language is extremely important when teaching your content. Try and use language that is inclusive and unassuming. If you are introducing words or concepts you think may be new to any students (and you are not going to explain it) you can just hyperlink them off to a suitable definition (this is another great reason to design for external and adapt for internal).

Assessment for Learning

Design your assessment in a creative and inclusive manner where the student has opportunity to use this as a learning activity not just a testing mechanism (Assessment for Learning). Assessment can be a very empowering experience for students when it is designed in an inclusive and creative way. Yes, you may be constrained by accrediting and professional bodies but assessment can still be designed in such a manner that it used as a learning activity.

Assessment based learning, all assessment leads straight back to your learning outcomes, all learning activities lead straight back to your assessment. You teach your students how to complete the assessment i.e. if they are to create a video, you teach them how to do that through leading by example, breaking down the task in smaller chunks, providing examples of your expectations and make time in your tutorials (however they may run) for students to work on their up and coming assessment item. This way they are feeling engaged with you in the process of creating their assignment and can ask any questions and you will get better quality assessments.

Authentic assessment allows your students to use their knowledge of your subject in a way that is relevant to the world they will eventually work in. It marries their theoretical skills with practical applications.

Your assessment feedback is provided for learning not as a justification of the mark. This will ensure better student engagement, will allow students to be co-creators of knowledge, and leads us straight back to the other three principles.

Student Autonomy

Student centred learning allows students to be in control of their learning through carefully constructed and scaffolded learning activities. As academics we are so used to being in charge of the students learning progress, through our lectures and tutorials; however, by changing our mindset to becoming facilitators of learning we can empower our students to be critical and creative thinkers by employing Universal Learning Design principles.

By understanding our students are co-creators of knowledge we are engaging them again in their own learning while also paying our respects to their existing knowledge and life experiences.

As we have gone through the principles there may have been times where you could seen that what we have discussed in one principle is actually applicable across multiple. This is because they are all inter-dependant and once implemented they all rely on each other to form great Universal Learning Design.

Now that we have looked at the principles and you have a better understanding of Universal Learning Design, it is important for you to ask yourself the following questions before you start to employ these principles:

  1. What is the goal of my subject site?
  2. What are the barriers of my site and how may my learners experience these barriers?
  3. How can I design/redesign my subject creatively in an inclusive manner to overcome the barriers?
  4. How will I know I have overcome the barriers in my design?

There is NO uniform way that these principles are applied, you and your students are diverse. If you decide to implement Universal Learning Design you will need to do so in a way that works for you and your students. There are thousands of different ways they can be employed in your subjects/courses. We have provided some ideas to get you thinking.

If you wish to take the next step in making your learning materials Universal please attend one of the ALLY workshops running all through February and if you would like LTSE support in implementing ULD just follow this link and fill out the form.

Finally

Universal Learning Design supports my mantra:

Happy Academics = Happy Students = Happy University

Credits:

Created with images by geralt - "inclusion group wheelchair" • abasler - "Let's get started written on tablet lying on desk as flatlay" • ArtemSam - "White conceptual keyboard - Learning Outcomes (green key)" • fizkes - "Smiling professional business leaders and employees group team portrait" • Coloures-Pic - "Don´t forget" • gustavofrazao - "Principles wooden sign with a highway on background" • MarekPhotoDesign.com - "question mark on sticky note" • fizkes - "Mixed race woman sales manager stretch out hand greeting client"