Universal Design for Learning: UDL Guidelines 3.0 Released

In today’s episode, we'll explore the newly released version 3.0 of the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines from CAST. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Transcript

#327 — Universal Design for Learning: UDL Guidelines 3.0 Released

7 min
AVID Open Access

Keywords

udl, learners, design, students, guidelines, learning, framework, environment, cast, networks, offer, choices, multiple, universal design, explore, accessible, based, expression, action, find

Speakers

Paul (97%), Transition (3%)

Paul Beckermann  0:01  

Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers. I'm your host, Paul Beckermann. 

Transition Music  0:06  

Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What's in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what's in the toolkit? Check it out. 

Paul Beckermann  0:16  

The topic of today's podcast is Universal Design for Learning: UDL Guidelines 3.0 Released. I'm a huge fan of UDL, or Universal Design for Learning, and on July 30, the CAST organization released their newest iteration, UDL 3.0. I'm kind of excited about this. 

Transition Music  0:37  

Here's the, here's the, here's the tool for today. 

Paul Beckermann  0:41  

If you're not familiar with UDL, or Universal Design for Learning, I like to think of it as a framework or a series of guidelines that can help guide educators design lessons that are accessible to all learners. The CAST website states it this way: The guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities. It goes on to say UDL is a framework to guide the design of learning environments and experiences that are accessible, inclusive, equitable, and challenging for every learner. Ultimately, the goal of UDL is to develop learner agency that is purposeful and reflective, resourceful and authentic, strategic and action-directed. Those are really good things. 

It also states UDL aims to change the design of the environment, rather than to situate the problem as the perceived deficit within the learner. When environments are intentionally designed to reduce barriers, every learner can engage in challenging, meaningful learning. I love this emphasis on the environment. It takes the personal piece of the student out of it and doesn't blame the student. Rather, it puts the focus on how can we design an environment where every student in that environment can thrive. That can be empowering. It's a theme that Winston, Rena, and I have repeatedly emphasized on the Unpacking Education podcast. 

If you design for the margins for learners who need a little extra assistance, all learners will benefit. It's like the classic example of adding tapered ramps to the curbing at street corners. The ramps are designed to allow people in wheelchairs to get up onto the sidewalk, but they end up benefiting everyone, including parents with strollers, people on bikes, those who have a hard time stepping up onto raised sidewalks. The list goes on. The UDL framework is based on extensive research and brain science. It offers design strategies based on three brain networks that comprise the vast majority of the human brain, and play a central role in learning. These networks include the affective networks, where learners evaluate the internal and external environment to set priorities, to motivate, and to engage learning and behavior. The recognition networks, where learners sense and perceive information in the environment and transform it into usable knowledge. And the strategic networks, where learners plan, organize, and initiate actions in those environments. With this research in mind, CAST has outlined nine guidelines broken down into 35 smaller parts that they label as considerations. CAST explains that the guidelines are not meant to be a prescription or a checklist, but a tool that offers a set of suggestions that can be applied to reduce barriers, sustain and honor learners' multiple identities, and maximize learning opportunities for every learner. You can mix and match the guidelines in whatever way makes sense in your learning environment with your specific learners. 

To go to the CAST website, you can navigate to UDLguidelines.cast.org, and there you can access a really nice interactive version of the guidelines, or download a graphic organizer. You'll find a really accessible, color-coded table on the page broken down into the three areas of Engagement, Representation, and Action and Expression. I find it really easy to navigate. Then, under each of those headings are suggestions for helping learners access the learning, to helping support the learner through the process, and to help them manage their executive function. So, if I were using this, I might choose to look at ways to Design Multiple Means of Action and Expression in my lesson. So, under the sub-category of Design Options for Expression and Communication, I can learn how to offer learners multiple ways to share what they've learned. Perhaps I offer students multiple choices of expression, such as you can write it, you can speak it, you can draw about it, or you can film it. That gives them many ways to show what they know in a way that works best for them. As another example, I might decide to explore Multiple Means of Engagement, and I'd look at that column, and I'd be reminded to tap into the interests of my students as a way to increase their motivation. Now we all know this as teachers—that we want to tap into students interests—but it's great reminder, and it gives me some actionable ideas for how to do that. It may lead me to offering choices for students wherever appropriate, and giving them some autonomy over how they access and learn about the standards I'm addressing. It might be really open-ended, like I might design a project-based learning approach. Or it might be more targeted, with me allowing students to choose a sub-topic of their choice to research, and that way, I'm kind of jigsawing the content for that lesson. Or maybe it's as simple as offering students four different resources and allowing them choose the one that they want to explore. One might be a video, one might be an article, one might be an interactive website, or maybe even an interactive game. Once they've all had a chance to dig into their choice content, then we can process that learning with engaging class activities. 

Those are just some examples of how I might use the UDL framework when I design learning in my classroom. As with much of the UDL framework, it's really about offering choices and supports in order to empower students, to allow them multiple ways to access, to interact with and express their learning. In a lot of ways, it's a framework for differentiating and scaffolding learning experiences for our students, something I know that we all strive to do. I think it's really exciting that CAST has released this latest update based on the newest research. In fact, over the next several episodes of Tech Talk for Teachers, I'm going to dive deeper into the different sections of the UDL framework and share some specific tools and strategies that you can consider using to support learners in each of these key areas. Until then, I encourage you to go to UDLguidelines.cast.org, and check out the newest version of the UDL framework. I really think you'll like what you find. 

To learn more about today's topic and explore other free resources, visit AvidOpenAccess.org. Specifically, use the search tool on the site and search for UDL. You'll find multiple articles, as well as podcast episodes from UDL experts like Dr. Sam Johnston from CAST, and renowned author and consultant Dr. Katie Novak. And, of course, be sure to join Rena, Winston, and me every Wednesday for that full-length podcast, Unpacking Education, where we're joined by exceptional guests and explore education topics that are important to you. Thanks for listening. Take care, and thanks for all you do. You make a difference. 

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