Connections Seminar: 10 ideas from Universal Design for Learning to improve educational equity

10 ideas from Universal Design for Learning to improve educational equity

Presented by Dr Sue O'Neill, Senior Lecturer, Special Education, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is not new, yet many educators in higher education have yet to explore how this approach could improve student learning outcomes and equity. The aim of UDL in higher education is to build courses that consider the needs of all your learners from the start, rather than having to modify materials and tasks afterwards.

In this seminar, Dr Sue O’Neill will provide a brief overview of UDL and share 10 ideas that course instructors can do now to improve the accessibility of their course materials. Sue will demonstrate how to improve your Moodle site and course materials including text-based materials, audio-visual, and visual/graphics. Ideas for allowing flexibility of student demonstration of learning will also be discussed and the use of rubrics to assess student products.

These techniques have been built into courses Sue teaches, including her postgraduate course in Inclusive Education where students learn about UDL and how to design lessons that meet the needs of all learners.

Please bring a device with you to the session (laptop/tablet/smartphone).

About Sue

Sue has been teaching in higher education for 15 years in the area of special education. Sue is committed to ensuring her courses are as accessible as possible for all her learners, whether they have special education needs or are English language learners. The principles of Universal Design for Learning underpin her approach and promote equity of access and participation.

Can't make the session in person?

All Connections Seminars are livestreamed and recorded using UNSW Lecture Recordings+. Access to the livestreamed and recorded session is via our Connections Moodle site (self-enrolment key: unswconnections). Make sure you have Adobe Flash Player installed in order to access the livestreaming session.