STRATEGIES – UNIVERSAL DESIGN IN E-LEARNING

ENVIRONMENTSBTC DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES

UNIVERSAL DESIGN:

The design of all products and environments to be usable by all people to the greatest extent possible.

~Ronald Mace, Center for UDNorth Carolina State University

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING

Representation: Give learners a variety of ways to acquire information and knowledge

Expression: Tap into a person’s interest, offer appropriate challenges and motivate students to learn

Engagement: Provide learners with alternatives for demonstrating what they know

BENEFITS OF UDL:

Makes teaching methods available to all students

Helps students identify the way they learn best

Makes students feel successful and want to learn

When instructors learn about UDL, their teaching improves

BEFORE CLASS BEGINS…

Schedule an in-person meeting with class

‘Buddy up’ students

Demonstrate log-on procedures

Identify note-taker or closed-captioner

UDL STRATEGIES ON-LINE…Information should be

multi-sensory (visual, auditory, graphics, color)

Smaller, chunked sessions for increased attention

Use captions on all visuals and graphics

UDL STRATEGIES ON-LINE…continued

Choose simple fonts

Choose web pages with narrow columns and font to the left of the page

ELLUMINATEFEATURES:

Increase/decrease font size

Increase/decrease volume

Closed-captioningPrintable

transcript

MODERATOR TIPS…Post lecture

material prior to Elluminate session

Repeat (reword) class questions before giving answers

Assume nothing!

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to

change and the REALIST adjusts his sails."