UDL at ULearn: no accident

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was the subject of the third keynote delivered by Dr Katie Novak (USA) at Ulearn14. Giving UDL such prominence at Ulearn14 was no accident.

Dr Katie Novak

Kia ora Katie

Thank you for making the journey to us from Boston. Thank you too for sharing your passion for learning, and your knowledge and experience of implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to support inclusive practices in the US.

It was really exciting to see awareness of UDL among participants at ULearn increase tenfold. The large show of hands indicating no knowledge of UDL at the beginning of your keynote seemed to indicate that those of us implementing UDL are still running below the radar. The response also highlighted that, although the “Effective Governance Building Inclusive Schools information for school boards of trustees 2013 guidelines identify UDL as a tool to support best practice (p.11), there will need to be a concerted effort across the sector to support a deepening understanding of UDL and how it can be used to support inclusive practices in all learning contexts.

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UDL at the dentist

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“To promote understanding of information, concepts, relationships, and ideas, it is critical to provide multiple ways for learners to approach them”. David Rose.

An unexpected learning experience

Photo taken by Chrissie at dentist
A UDL experience: My dentist simply explained what was happening in my mouth highlighting each tooth with different coloured lines and marks.

A couple of weeks ago, Scott Turner, a Wellington Endodentist described how he was going to clean around and possibly retrieve the broken drill piece lost deep in my root canal by my dentist.

At the end of the consultation, he asked if I had any questions.

“Actually I do”, I said. “Do you think I could take a photo? The way you have explained what is going to happen when you work on my tooth perfectly modelled something called Universal Design for Learning (UDL). You have just modelled the principle of offering multiple representations to support understanding. I’d like to write about it.

A regular part of any trip to the dentist, is the inevitable post procedure chat, the bit where they talk about what they did and what is going to happen next. As fear is my trusty companion in a dental surgery, my ability to listen is significantly inhibited. In fact all my energy and attention is generally consumed by trying to hold myself together until I am out the door.

The chat with Scott, looked like it was going to go the same way. He pulled up a photo of my tooth on his computer screen. I in turn moved into auto-pilot and began singing, “la, la, la” inside my head to block out the expected medicalese and to distract myself from the enlarged image of my filling-filled mouth.

To my surprise, Scott didn’t launch into the technicalities of the procedure. Instead he gave me a walk through of each tooth on the screen, its integrity and said things were in great shape. No-one has ever said anything positive about my teeth and hooked my attention. He also usefully connected his storytelling directly to the examination he had made of my mouth. He linked specifically to the way he had tapped here and prodded there and I could feel myself actually connecting to some kind of shared experience rather than disassociating myself.

The practical and effective use of digital tools

Scott then introduced some x-rays and opened them in a programme that looked like Microsoft Paint. Again rather than launching into details of the medical procedure, he orientated me to my own mouth. It was a bit like being introduced to a new landscape. As Scott introduced each feature, he highlighted it with different coloured lines and marks, as in the photo. He made no assumptions that I knew what anything was. He consistently linked his storytelling back to the photo and my shared experience of the examination. His use of the technology was absolutely fluid and functional. It was actually a joy to watch.

By the time Scott introduced the nitty gritty of the actual procedure, I felt almost confident. He described each stage of the intervention with words and by drawing and where applicable made analogies to ordinary things. At the end of section of the “chat” he would pause and check if I understood and for once I actually felt like I did.

So why the strong UDL connection?

Multiple means of representation: Engagement - Stimulate motivation and sustained enthusiasm for learning; Representation - Present information and content in different ways to support understanding; Action and expression - Offer options and support so everyone can create, learn, and share.
Multiple means of representation

The principle “Multiple means of representation”, one of the three principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is about the need to offer students a range of options and supports to increase their understanding.

In the text, UDL Theory and Practice, David Rose reflects:

"Learners' ability to perceive, interpret, and understand information is dependent upon the media and methods through which it is presented. For learning environments to support varied learners in all of these recognition processes, three broad kinds of options for representation are needed: options for perception; options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols; and options for comprehension. A learning context with these options presents few barriers, regardless of the variations in biology and background of the students."

As the student, in this context, Scott offered me options in each of the three recognition processes. Interestingly, he probably does that for every client. He takes a universal approach, building into his way of working options to support understanding. He plans for the diverse needs of clients at the outset.

As an unknown client and one who brings a swag of negative expectations to the environment, the learning experience was quite honestly inspiring. I couldn’t help but make connections to teaching and learning and to the potential UDL has as framework for the inclusive flexible design of environments and the innovative use of technologies.

Useful links:

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Using digital tools to build literacy skills across the curriculum

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Access to tools that can support literacy across the curriculum are increasingly at student’s fingertips. As part of a Universal Design for Learning approach, choices and supports for all students are built into the learning design at the outset. Consequently, students should have access to tools that personalise learning and match their needs and preferences across the curriculum. Here are three ideas teachers and students can use to support this approach.

1. Get familiar with Text-to-Speech

Text-to-speech (TTS) software enables a student to select and listen to text in a document or on a webpage. The software usually highlights a paragraph at a time as it is read aloud and often tracks each word as it is spoken in a second colour.  TTS software is usually free and built into most devices or can be enabled in a web browsers. It is also possible to purchase more sophisticated TTS tools bundled with other features such as word prediction.

Although the synthetic voices in TTS can take a little getting used to, students can use TTS to:

  • listen and read along to unfamiliar texts to develop fluency
  • increase comprehension and access to texts beyond reading level
  • rest tired eyes and access the text via audio
  • listen to the text whilst doing another activity such as exercise, travelling on the bus or walking home from school
  • listen back to written work to assist more accurate editing of text.

To get a sense of the potential impact of making text to speech available to students, take a look at this video of US high school students describing the difference having access to text-to-speech has made to their independence, their confidence as learners and to their increasing achievement.

2. Turn on the closed captions on YouTube videos

When using YouTube as a teaching resource, build in learning supports at the outset by selecting video that has closed captions, identified by the cc icon rather than machine captions “guessed” by YouTube. Using closed captions can boost literacy, reading speed, and vocabulary for readers who need additional support.

By turning on the closed captions, students can choose to:

  • watch the video, and/or
  • read the captions separately or at the same time
  • access the interactive transcript posted below the video.

The transcript is really useful when a student needs to find a quote or wants to scan a video to find a specific piece of information. Visit Media Access Australia for more information.

3. Demonstrate how to declutter web pages to support concentration

Introduce students to tools, such as Readability on the Chrome browser or the Safari Reader function on i-devices that strip away the clutter on web pages, so that students can focus more easily on a particular article.

Dig deeper

For more information on Universal Design for Learning and the tools above, check out the following links:

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Text to speech tools

  • Natural Reader download: Floating toolbar. Selected text will post into toolbar window. Text highlighted in short sections and read aloud. Can sync with Google Docs.
  • Natural Reader Online TTS: Upload document. Text highlighted in short sections and read aloud. Can sync to Google Docs.
  • Mac “Speak selection”: Built-in text to speech program. Speaks selected text in all applications including text on internet pages.
  • Read and Write for Google Docs: Toolbar opens at the top of a Google Docs page. Selected text highlighted yellow, each word tracked in blue as read aloud. NB Trial version has more features. After 30 days you are left with the basic TTS tool
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Universal Design for Learning at CORE

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Stephen and Nicole on Project Runway at CORE staff retreat

Universal Design in an engineering or architectural context is about creating solutions to problems that meet the needs of the most people possible at the outset. It is about avoiding the need for retrofitting. In the context of curriculum, how might the same principles impact on the way in which we design and organise learning environments and resources?

Practical opportunity to apply the principals of UDL

At our recent CORE retreat, focussed on, “Where are we now?” and, “What next?”, 120 staff unknowingly participated in an event that gave us first-hand experience of the potential of underpinning environments with a universal design approach.

A small team of us had been charged with creating a team building “social activity” that would be “fun” for everyone. Although our CORE whānau is predominantly made up of teachers and facilitators, we are also an eclectic bunch of developers, events managers, researchers, learning designers and administrators. So variability in people’s interests was a predictable given and we knew that a one-size-fits-all solution was not going to float.

Creative use of physical materials, goals, and ideas

An idea, all things being considered

In a rapid brainstorm over Skype, we came up with a design challenge based around the fashion show Project Runway. Now, at first glance you may think we might have missed our demographic, but as the photos attest, the punt we took captured the hearts, minds, “and hands” of our colleagues.

For those of you who might initially associate Project Runway with aeroplanes, the show is actually focused on clothing design. Each team is given a design brief and has to interpret it within a given time frame with a range of resources. Our teams were also required to give a commentary that reflected each team’s creative style and CORE’s commitment to Tātai Aho Rau – a concept related to weaving that illustrates our values.

And the outcome—it works

Creative use of physical materials, goals, and ideas on Project RunwayAs the social committee, we had hoped that we had built in enough options to capture people’s diverse interests, and we wanted each person to be able to fully participate and contribute. We thought through the potential barriers to getting stuck in, and tried to create some supports to nudge people along. What we hadn’t bargained on was the way in which everyone threw themselves into the experience with such relish, took full advantage of both hard materials and technology, and created intricate and experimental work both with words and with textiles. The result: a magical and hilarious celebration and a creative demonstration of our shared understanding of what CORE is about.

Revealed to all—why the activity was successful

The following day, the opportunity to highlight that our Project Runway event had been universally designed, was too good to miss. For many at CORE, it was a significant “a-ha” moment, and dispelled a few myths that had aligned “Universal Design” solely with “special education” or accessibility.

The Ministry's Universal Design approach

In a wider context, our shared epiphany also lines up with the Ministry of Education literature review, which identified Universal Design and the framework known as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as an approach that can make a difference for all learners, and can be applied to “all facets of education: from curriculum, assessment and pedagogy to classroom and school design” (Mitchell 2010).

Hazel and Mark on Project Runway at CORE staff retreat

A framework for moving culturally responsive concepts into actions

As an educator who has been exploring UDL for the last few years, it is exciting to see conversations gaining momentum online, in workshops, and classrooms. At the international UDL Summer Institute at Harvard Graduate school, and whilst with Dr Sharon Friessen at the University of Calgary last year, discussions frequently revolved around the need for each country/community to take the learning around UDL and shape it for its own unique cultural context. As I, alongside colleagues such as Karen Melhuish Spencer and Janelle Riki, explore ways to underpin our own work with a UDL approach, we particularly see how the principles provide a framework for moving culturally responsive concepts into actions.

Also, hand-in-hand with a tool like the e-Learning Planning Framework, the UDL principles enable us to consider how technology can be used to provide options for the way in which we create resources, provide options for learners to demonstrate their understanding, and design environments to engage and sustain the interest of all learners.

Appeal: please share your UDL stories!

So, if you have dipped your toes in the water in this area of learning design and have a story to share, we’d love to hear from you. The more stories we gather, the more we can shape our own Aotearoa New Zealand UDL narrative.

And, if you are new to UDL, check out the links below, and watch this space—as here at CORE, we are intent on exploring how to design both physical and online learning environments underpinned by a UDL—there will be stories to tell.

And one last thing, huge thanks to Karen Melhuish Spencer for the first and last photos, and to Micheal Lintott for the middle two. Exquisite.

Useful links

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An alternative to retro-fitting learning environments

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Universal design - not retrofit

Making learning spaces and resources work for users is an ongoing challenge. Everyone has different needs and learning styles, and there is definitely no one-size-fits-all.

But one thing we can do, is raise the bar, so that from the outset, our ways of working and the presentation of our resources is the best that it can be.

Universal Design for Learning and Design for All

Two approaches to learning are gaining momentum in education. In the US, Universal Design for Learning is beginning to become a touchstone for education departments looking to underpin ways of working that are more inclusive. In Europe, a similar approach known as Design for All, is cutting a similar path, and which also places an emphasis on the need to collaborate with a cross-section of users in the design of environments, resources and services.

The retro fit

Underpinning both approaches is the belief that, if we consider the needs of all users at the outset, rather than an “illusory” group of homogenous mainstream users, we can avoid a massive effort in retrofitting environments and resources for individuals. This approach doesn’t negate the need to personalise environments for very particular needs, but we may have to make many less adaptations if we have planned for diversity in the beginning.

In education, one obvious example, in a property context, would be the inclusion of wheelchair access to all parts of a new school when it is first built, even if there are no members of the first cohort of learners who use a wheelchair for mobility. The rationale underpinning this design decision would be the understanding that parents, whānau, a staff member or visitor to the school, a new student or a current student following a sporting accident may at some point use a wheelchair.

E-learning and eAccessibility

Avoiding the retro fit is also applicable in the area of e-learning. Our use of ICTs in our classrooms and learning-communities is increasing, and there are great examples of schools using technology to improve outcomes for learners. Also, many teachers are confident in their ability to differentiate learning activities. But the concept of eAccessibility may still be unfamiliar.

Yet, if we are going to avoid having to retrofit resources, we need to collectively get our heads around new ways of thinking about access to learning. Again, it is the planning at the outset that makes a difference.

A tangible example of where we can make a difference and model eAccessibility in teaching and learning is in our use of video. When working alongside students or colleagues who are making a video, initiate a discussion around audience and purpose. If the intention is to share the video publicly, draw into the discussion the need to make a resource that will be meaningful to an audience with a range of access preferences. Some people can see but not hear; some people use only their hearing. Some people read more slowly than others. The video needs to work for everyone.

Use of captions and transcripts to assist users who have a hearing impairment to have access to the same material as sighted learners seems like common sense. But captions and transcripts also provide access to the video content in an alternative visual medium and provide opportunities for increasing understanding for all users. For learners who may have cognitive or second-language needs, a transcript provides an opportunity to access the content at their preferred pace, or pause on unfamiliar words. As a sighted user, I will often scan a transcript for a quote, or re-read something I want to clarify.

Both in and outside education, the awareness and the ability to create more inclusive video is increasing. In New Zealand, the Curriculum Stories on NZ Curriculum Online site provide a sophisticated example of how to provide a range of access options for users. Each video is captioned, and has the transcript placed below the video—the preferred option, so that users don’t have to jump backwards and forwards between pages.

YouTube and Blip TV also now enable video producers to add captions to uploaded movies. Both services are a little clunky, but it is worth honing some captioning skills now, and passing them onto your colleagues and students.

Useful links for further reading

Universal Design for Learning – the website for the National Centre for UDL in the US
UDL examples and resources – link to implementation support page at the National Centre for Universal Design for Learning (CAST).
Design for All – the website for the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network.

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