COTE NOTE
The Center for Online Teaching Excellence What I know about Universal Design for All Learners I would like to share what I know about Universal Design for All Learners
Thomas Rosati Thomas Rosati has been an educator for 33 years, working as a speech teacher, special educator, and school administrator. His doctoral work was in comparing school districts as part of a technology educational leadership program. He is one of only a few certified Assistive Technology evaluators in the tri-state area and has been nationally recognized through RESNA as an assistive technology provider. Thom is currently an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University in the engineering department, facilitating original engineering concept design projects, and is a national evaluator for programs and competitions for RESNA and for the JETS annual engineering competition. Thom is a life long learner. He is involved in theater production, directing, or acting whenever possible and raised two children who are successfully engaged in theater careers. He is eclectic, been told he is opinionated, and often will do whatever it takes to help a student learn. Thom sings every week in Barbershop and has recently taken over running the FIRST robotics kick off at Stony Brook.
Universal Design looks at ways that any online course can be designed to be accessed more easily by everyone. As you design your online course, consider the 3 primary principles that guide the Universal Design for Learning (UDL): 1. Provide multiple means of representation. 2. Provide multiple means of action and expression. 3. Provide multiple means of engagement. If you employ these principles in your online course design, your course will not only be “friendly” to those with disabilities, but will also be learner-centered. In addition, there are many tools and methods that individuals with specific disabilities now have available that can be used for real world and online classrooms. Working with special needs students in educational environments often requires the use of assistive technologies as well as employing universal design for course materials and student submissions.
What is it The use of an online format can be a blessing or a curse for students with special needs. Incorporating Universal Design principles into online courses, through methods that can be used to access and participate in an online course for example, help support the disabled community and can also help any online student be successful. It is important to consider the following: 1. Understanding what needs to be done with students who are entering college from an K-12 environment with an individualized education plan (IEP). 2. Using speech to text, text to speech aids, translation, writing aids, and developing multimedia and self-paced lessons and supplements. 3. Allowing for alternate types of assessments and/or electronic portfolios.
How it works
“Universal Design helps to develop better students; students who are better able to compensate and minimize their weak points, and accentuate their strengths.
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Student success relies heavily on a supportive network. College Assistance Offices teaming with academic areas for student success help prepare students for life. Within the online course, an instructor can look at hardware accessibility options and consider capturing a lecture electronically. Developing multimedia for teaching and content is a good way to support visual and audio learners. Students can create authentic learning reviews for peers and result in opportunities for deeper learning. Instructors should always be considering how to develop materials that are accessible and easily available. Live class capture (reviewed before sharing) and teamed tasks are also helpful to students.
What I did There are many successful approaches to incorporating universal design principles. I was conscious to provide long lead times and hard deadlines. I tried to incorporate real life learning simulations when possible. Here are a few other ideas to make learning more accessible to all students: 1. Create FAQs from student questions. 2. Students submit multimedia and test questions for a chapter.
The Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence
January 28, 2016 • Volume 4 • Issue 4
COTE NOTE Staff The COTE Community Team: Alexandra M. Pickett, Associate Director, Open SUNY; Patricia Aceves, Director of the Faculty Center in Teaching, Learning & Technology, Stony Brook University; Lisa Dubuc, Coordinator of Electronic Learning, Niagara County Community College; Christine Kroll, Assistant Dean for Online Education, Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo; Deborah Spiro, Assistant Vice President for Distance Education, Nassau Community College; Vicky Sloan, Distance Learning Coordinator, Clinton Community College; Erin Maney, Senior Instructional Designer, Open SUNY; Lisa Raposo, Assistant Director, SUNY Center for Professional Development This publication is produced by the Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence under the SUNY Office of the Provost.
3. Find good support resources on campus. 4. Be open to and encourage student feedback. 5. Try new things even if it is not always successful.
How I did it With 30 years of eclectic learning driven by student needs, I developed performance-based outcomes for work over memory-based recall of information. Being hands-on and listening to students, to see how what they are being asked to learn, can be tailored to what the already know, and what they ultimately need has helped me be a better advocate and instructor. I have found great value in making students feel special, and helping them know they can submit work for review before it “counts.”
Why I did it Assistive Technology is an area that can be transformative for a person when they have good tools to do jobs that they could not do easily without aid. The more I advocated for students, I found less understanding of the components and factors that had to be applied were multidisciplinary, as well as trans-disciplinary. Through experience, training, and life, I have tried to learn the factors that each discipline can bring to the process, and develop a network of help for issues that still are not easily understood.
What happened when I did it Universal Design helps to develop better students; students who are better able to compensate and minimize their weak points, and accentuate their strengths.
What I learned Contact/Questions State University Plaza Albany, New York 12246 ContactCOTE@suny.edu
How to Submit Material This publication is produced in conjunction with the COTE “Fellow Chat” speaker series. Please submit a proposal at http://bit.ly/COTEproposal for consideration. Visit http://commons.suny.edu/cote for more information. To join COTE, visit http://bit.ly/joinCOTE
There are fortuitous incidents that shape how you proceed in the future. There are times you need to say what others can’t, even if it means the focus is on yourself. I’ve learned that there are those with expertise, and those who are really experts. There are times that you need a team to put their heads together to get a consensus, and there are other times when an individual has to lead with a specific and hopefully shared vision.
How others can use it • • • •
Talk to your iPhone to write something. Watch a movie with your eyes closed or the sound off to see how the experience is different. Take the lesson you are teaching and see if a sensory issue might make it harder to understand. Give your students alternative options to make their thinking and learning visible, such as to submit a multimedia video to answer a test question, create a PowerPoint presentation, or write an essay.
Links To learn more about Universal Design and about guidelines to help you make sure the materials you create within your online course and any additional web resources you may be using are accessible, visit the National Center on UDL: UDL at a Glance, Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). Accessibility Resources http://www.specialteaching.com/index.html http://specialteaching.com/images/Special%20Needs%20for%20Special%20Educationfinal.pdf
This publication is disseminated under the creative commons license AttributionNoncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
The Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence
January 28, 2016 • Volume 4 • Issue 4