Incorporating Universal Design for Learning in my Online Science Classroom

One area of UDL I feel I am successful with in my courses is "Providing Multiple Means of Expression and Action". Students are engaged on a daily basis in my Earth and Environment Science course through a variety of assignments and submission choices. Since our courses are built using the UDL design it does make it easier to incorporate this in my daily work with students. Having a solid UDL foundation allows me to really be able to delve into how my students learn best and by what methods.  UDL uses the principles of the “what, why and how of learning” and with each student I have to look at what they are learning, why they need to understand this information and then how it is going to be best portrayed to them for understanding. One major thing I have learned in teaching an online course is that although we are reliant on technology as a method for how the information is portrayed it is important for us to use that technology correctly and in the best way to make sure student understanding is achieved. We cannot use technology for the sake of using it, instead as online teachers we have to look at the UDL model and determine how best to use the technology for student understanding.

For example even in such a technologically advanced world sometimes my students work best with pen and paper. I have an assignment in one of my courses where students need to design a brochure for an alien to come visit earth. I allow my students to submit these assignments in a variety of ways to allow for the most engagement and intrinsic motivation. I have some students that knock it out of the park on a brochure template or Smore while others do a phenomenal job by drawing the information and submitting screenshots of their hand drawn work. Please see the examples below from student submissions: (Note names have been hidden due to FERPA)

I think when using UDL in my courses it is most important to not limit the students learning and expression. I know that if all 90 of my students were only given ONE choice for this assignment I would not have gotten the best results from 100% of them. By allowing them to choose a different method for how they presented the information resulted in more understanding of the material from the student as well as allowed me to see a bit into the students personality. This is an important concept to master when building relationships with the students we don’t see face to face.

Another example of how I incorporate UDL in my courses is by the personalized feedback I give the students. For the above assignment a student may have received the following feedback from me:

“Wow John Doe! I loved your brochure. You really made it appealing to want to visit earth if I was an alien. Very factual and interesting information for the Earth’s History and Facts! You covered all aspects from the rubric! I liked your travel slogan and your hand drawn information. Very creative!

Just like visiting places on vacations you would want to know a little about the place you are planning to visit. Here are URLs to two sites containing fun facts about planet earth which may enhance the information you have already learned in this assignment.  ENJOY!

http://www.planetsforkids.org/planet-earth.html

http://theplanets.org/earth/”

One important part of UDL is giving regular feedback to students to let them know if they met the goals of the assignment. If the goals were not met where do they need to improve and what additional resources are available to them to meet the goals and/or enrich their knowledge of the topic.

One area that I can continue to improve upon in my courses is "Provide Multiple Means of Representation". In our Electronic Learning Community (eLC) we strive to provide information to students in a variety of ways BUT it is so easy to go back to the good ole powerpoint and fill in the blank notes. This form of representation is utilized in several modules in our Earth Science Course however we do incorporate video lessons, slide shares with audio, etc. As part of my yearly teacher improvement plan I am working on creating individualized videos with my voice and information to cover each module students will work on in my course. I think this will add a very personalized touch to my courses while meeting multiple learning needs via visual and audio representation.

I have learned that no matter how long you teach a course or how familiar you are with a design method each semester you have new students with new learning needs. It is important to continually adapt to these needs by personalizing how you represent, engage and allow students to express their work. What works one semester in how I allow students to express their work may not work as well the next. This rings true for how I represent the information to them. I may have a group of students that thrive off PowerPoints instead of video representation and vice versa.

Online teaching is a arena of constant change and adaptation so a teacher must be prepared to always want to change with their courses, students and their learning needs.  This may mean having to incorporate different design methods and/or revamping their current design method to meet their students individual needs.