You may be familiar with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, a set of principles designed to give all students an equal opportunity to learn and develop learner agency. However, many of us have not had the opportunity to engage in a deeper exploration of how this framework might inform our teaching and what it could look like to design a course from the start with UDL principles in mind.

This workshop offers participants an opportunity to review the basic UDL framework with other educators, but it also aims to go beyond an introductory level and provide a space for participants to have more advanced conversations about accessibility and learner agency. Many pedagogy workshops (especially within higher ed, but across many different levels of instruction) are necessarily aimed at educators with all levels of familiarity with best pedagogical practices, meaning that there is not always room to move beyond the 101-level conversations and this is meant to be a space for 200- and 300-level conversations. For that reason, participants are asked to familiarize themselves with the basic principles of UDL (there’s a great module from the WCC’s Reflective Pedagogy materials that covers UDL and more!) in advance of the workshop so we can spend the majority of this workshop in interactive engagement with one another’s course design. 

This workshop is scheduled for 90 minutes, but – as always! – the content will have a natural stopping point at one hour and those who can stay are invited to an additional 30 minutes of discussion and workshopping. Participants are encouraged to bring any sorts of works-in-progress (courses, assignments, etc.) for workshopping purposes, but everyone is welcome to attend, whether or not you have something in particular you would like to workshop.

Facilitated by Dr. Ellen Cole Lee and Dr. Amy Pistone