Learners: Making use of your experience and prompted by the chart below, write notes / ideas about what

learner characteristics will help students flourish in your class. Use space below the chart or your keyboard to record your focused list of learner characteristics.
STUDENTS Relationship with Educators Relationship with other Students Motivation Students are employees, required to obediently follow instructions. Students are competitors Obligation: Students are culturally obliged to work for the teacher & for compensation (below) LEARNERS Learners are citizens with a vested interest in the learning society. Learners are collaborators Responsibility: Learners are motivated by an understood and realized value in their work, especially when it is valuable to others.

Compensation

Institution defined grades and gateways to college (another institution) and a good job (another institution) Compliant, group-disciplined, objectiveoriented, and trainable

A sense of ongoing accomplishment that is not delivered but earned, and not symbolic but tangible and valuable an investment. Persevering, self-disciplined, group-and goaloriented, resourceful, and learning in order to achieve rather than achieving learning Curious

Mode of Operation

Why Equipped

Compelled with packaged knowledge and tools for recording packaged knowledge prescribed and paced learning

with tools for exploring a networked variety of content, experimenting with that content, and discovering, concluding, and construction knowledge invented learning Measuring what the learner can do with what has been learned.

Assessment

Measuring what the student has learned.

What is Universal Course Design?

Adaptation from an Instructors Wiki into which we have added aspects of Integrated Aligned Course Design & of 9 Principles of UDI. Universal Course Design (UCD) is constructing college courses including course curriculum, instruction, assessment and the environment to be usable by all students, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for accommodations. Faculty Goal: What should all students know and be able to do by participating in this learning experience? Faculty Challenge: High standards and greater student diversity. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS Use in conjunction with Integrated Aligned Design Curriculum Determine the specific course content, skills, and strategies to be learned. Ask the question, How will the students access the information? Provide flexible media & materials to ensure information access & learning. Motivate & engage the students based on interest, experience & application. Instruction Provide multiple and flexible methods of presentation. Provide multiple models of correct performance, multiple opportunities to practice with supports & flexible opportunities to demonstrate skill. Provide choices of content and tools, choice of learning context all of which are culturally responsive. Assessment Create two or more assessment choices for students to choose from to coincide with their learning style Provide ongoing evaluation of what is working and what is not. Change methods according to the effectiveness & appropriateness of presentation format, expression methods & level of engagement of all students. Measures a range of student performance across multiple levels. Environment Create a campus-wide climate that is safe, caring, and nurturing. Build a personalized learning environment. Teach respect for all learners. Use physical space to enhance student participation and engagement. Student-teacher social interactions, classroom climate, and peer group relationships enhance student learning. 1. Equitable use 2. Flexibility in use 3. Simple and intuitive UDI PRINCIPLES Primary Starting Points

1. Flexibility in use 4. Perceptible information 9. Instructional climate

1. Equitable use 5. Tolerance for error

6. Low physical effort 7. Size and space 8. Community of learners

EXAMPLES Suggestions from Instructors Wiki Course Curriculum A statistics professor at New Hampshire Community Technical College began his course by asking students name their interests. He then incorporated the interests into the statistical data sets he used in class. Students reported being more interested in the class and better able to understand how information they learned applied to their profession. Instruction A family studies professor at the University of Vermont teaching a large lecture class used to lecture for an hour but noticed that after 20 minutes students eyes look dazed and they stopped taking notes. When the mid-term exam scores were not great he decided to begin providing the class with an outline of session concepts & content. Also, students broke into groups to discuss a particular problem and then report to the entire class. This strategy increased the level of engagement in class. Using an MP3 player to audio, he recorded lectures, and after class put the audio file on the website for students to download. As a result of this technique, students were better prepared to participate in class.

RESOURCES Suggestions from us for Further Information Developing an Inclusive Curric. http://z.umn.edu/ukinclusive Creating an Inclusive Campus: http://z.umn.edu/3h8 Preparing Future Faculty portal: http://z.umn.edu/ida8101 Improving web access for learning: http://webaim.org/ Accessible PowerPoints: http://z.umn.edu/3h9 Connecting: http://z.umn.edu/findingcommonground Merlot on UCD: http://z.umn.edu/udmerlot Accessible Assessments: http://z.umn.edu/assmt Universal Design for Testing: http://z.umn.edu/3ha Universal Design for Assessment: http://z.umn.edu/3hb Writing & Multilingual Students: http://z.umn.edu/multilingual Multicultural Learning/Teaching: http://z.umn.edu/islands Universal Design for Instruction: http://udi.uconn.edu/

Assessment An education professor at Rhode Island College recognized the diverse learning styles in her classroom and decided that a typical final exam would not accurately reflect what students had learned. So, she gave them a choice: take the final exam or develop a website in groups of 3 using wikis to reflect what they had learned in the class. 65% of the students chose to develop a website, which they still refer to that site as a resource and she has used it as a resources in subsequent classes.

Environment A nursing professor at the UMassachusetts-Boston assigned a small classroom with rows of chairs does not like the arrangement because it does not permit her to freely interact with all students. So, she arrives in the classroom a half an hour early to rearrange the chairs into a large circle, equalizing the learning environment for all. Students not only take a more active role in the conversation during the class, but also arrive early to help her with the chairs & speak to her about their work.

Universal Design for Instruction / Integrated Aligned Design

Universal Design is not new. It encompasses a range of design considerations with a goal to create learning environments that minimize barriers to teaching and learning. Universal Design is not easy, but a universally designed course will minimize the need to change or modify the design, delivery, and assessment of course material while improving learning for all students. Integrated and Aligned Design incorporates the principles of Universal Design into well-established tenants of good curricular design. This is a summary of essential design considerations: 1. What level of intellectual behavior are you attempting to reach (Blooms Taxonomy, e.g. knowledge/remembering, understanding, applying)? Does the course begin with remembering basic information and end with application to novel situations, or is this a survey course where remembering is the expected level of mastery? Determining the desired level Intellectual behavior leads to the question, how will I achieve this? This leads to the next design tool, Backward Design. 2. Backward Design Summary Points a) Establish Intended Learning Outcomes (Curriculum) b) Determine various modes of feedback and assessment (Assessment) c) Develop teaching and learning activities (Instruction) a) Learning Outcomes (Curriculum) Begin at the end o What should students know at the end of the: course, topic, lecture What is essential; what prepares students for follow on learning What do you desire for them to leave with when your course ends Write clear and measurable Outcomes move beyond understand and remember. Make objectives Concrete and Tangible. Essentially, you will define to understand with specific terms. o Notto understand the steps of the research process. Insteadstudents will demonstrate mastery of the research process through creation of a research outline, passing a test on the tenants of good research design, and completion of a research paper. Well-constructed objectives provide direct links to how you should assess teaching and learning. Reflect Who are my learners? In what ways do they learn? What can I do to reach this diverse range of learners (Universal Design)? Do my learning outcomes result in excluding different learners? b) Feedback & Assessment Procedures (Assessment) What will the students have to do to demonstrate that they have achieved the learning outcomes? Go beyond the basis for issuing a course grade and determine if the assessment plan meets your objectives for student learning.

Include multiple modes of assessment to both gauge their learning and effectiveness of teaching. Reflect Are there artificial constraints contained my assessment plan, i.e. is time truly essential? Is my wording clear, concise, and unambiguous? Are my graphic elements clear, readable, scalable in size? Do my assessment and feedback strategies include a rubric? Is my assessment plan flexible to allow for adjustments without difficulty?

c) Teaching/Learning Activities (Instruction) Identify a range of teaching and learning activities (lecture, discussion, project, etc.) that supports the objectives and relates to the assessment plan. Identify enabling resources (to achieve learning outcomes/Universal Design) o Time, tools, personnel, materials and money o Learning activities (in and out of class) o Course materials (books, lab manuals, etc.) Reflect Will these activities achieve my objectives? Do they minimize the need for later adjustment? Do these activities support my assessment plan or are they a good idea or activity Im trying to make fit? 3. Review you plan Check to ensure that the three components of Backwards Design are all consistent with, and supportive of, each other. Review your strategy for teaching and learning o Multiple, flexible modes of engaging learners o Multiple, flexible modes of presenting information o Multiple, flexible modes of expressing learner knowledge, skills, ability, etc. Review the learning environment to reduce barriers to teaching and learning, both physical and cognitive. Anticipate barriers and adjust for them. Plot the term on a calendar, create a timeline o If I need to create a new teaching strategy, how long will it take? o When can I implement a new assessment tool and do I have the resources to do it? o What if a discussion does not reach my learning objective, do I have time to implement a different activity? Adapted from Designing Courses for Significant Learning. L. Dee Fink, PhD (2003) Teaching for Quality Learning at University. John Biggs & Catherine Tang (2007, 3rd ed.) Universal Design of Instruction, UConnecticut: www.facultyware.uconn.edu/home.cfm Being Concrete as a Teacher: From Course Outcomes Through Practical Activities. David Langley, UMinnesota, Center for Teaching and Learning

UNIVERSAL DESIGN RESOURCES

University of Minnesota: Center for Teaching & Learning http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/ Disability Services http://ds.umn.edu/ Accessibility in Learning http://accessibility.umn.edu/ Office of Information Technology http://www.oit.umn.edu/index.php

Additional information on Universal Design, Instruction, Course Syllabus, Technology, and more:
Center for University Design http://www.ncsu.edu/project/design-projects/udi/ The Faculty Room http://www.washington.edu/doit/Faculty/Strategies/Universal/ Technology http://www.washington.edu/doit/Resources/technology.html Course Design http://www.eeonline.org/ How to Rethink Your Syllabus http://www.portals.emory.edu/sylideas.html Course Syllabus http://uditeach.r2d2.uwm.edu/?p=67 Syllabus Development http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/universaldesign/syllabus.html Merlot http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm (search universal design) UDI for Moodle http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/869/1575