Thank you to Dr. Laura Gonzalez with Integrative Community Studies for authoring this week’s teaching tips!
Happy end of the semester, and congratulations on wrapping up your classes.
While it is fresh in your mind, we encourage you think back about what worked well and what you might like to revise the next time you teach. Take a look at the teaching tips in the April 22 newsletter for a basic outline of UDL and consider whether those concepts might help you. For example, here are some groups of students who might benefit from UDL teaching strategies (providing for multiple means of engaging, representing content, and expressing what has been learned).
- Students with a variety of learning style preferences and intellectual gifts benefit from UDL. Did you have any students in your class who were more comfortable with visual learning, and connected less with written/spoken content? Any students who had a hard time organizing their writing on the page but could talk about their ideas with ease and fluency? Did you notice students who grasped concepts better when they could interact with classmates or do something active with the ideas? UDL has strategies to support all of those learners.
- Students who do not resemble the old image of “traditional students” benefit from UDL (e.g., students who are returning adults, who are parents, who have jobs, who experience financial stress, who speak more than one language, who are first generation college students). UDL can help you consider how to generate relevance and motivation for all students by allowing for some voice/choice.
- Students who are not currently earning A’s in all of their classes benefit from UDL. Universal Design reduces barriers to learning with an atmosphere that lets learners show what they have learned in ways that are aligned to their strengths. This can also reduce their desire to skip class or generate disruptions, as their investment in the learning environment is greater.
Why consider updating some of your teaching practices? Per our website, “UNC Greensboro provides students from all walks of life an excellent education in a welcoming community where all belong, all are supported, and all are challenged to achieve.” We need to stay responsive to our students.
The cost to the instructor does not have to be much at all – faculty can use UDL to reorganize what is on the “plate” in their classes, rather than having to create a whole new course. There are “low effort” ways to start incorporating UDL into your existing classes, as well as “medium” or “high effort” strategies, so everyone can find a good place to start. For example, as you revise your syllabus for next semester, consider inserting one extra choice that you didn’t give students before (in their assignments, in content, in the ways they can engage with each other). Next week’s Teaching Tips will share more low/medium/high effort strategies for implementation.
Remember: UDL is also great for graduate students who are being trained as new instructors (through an orientation or a teaching seminar)! Please contact the UTLC if you are interested in putting your department or program on the list for a UDL training in the fall!