Strategies for Integrating Diversity Through UDL: Inclusive Classroom Practices and Course Design

Series: CTLT Institute

Event Date & Time

  • December 5, 2018
    1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Event Description

While universities are having important conversations about accessibility, diversity and inclusion, what this means for our classroom practices is not always clear. This workshop will provide hands on strategies to incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into participants’ own course design and teaching practices.

As faculty members, all of us have had the experience of working with students who require accommodations. UDL is an empirically proven educational framework emphasizing that accessibility and inclusivity begin with changes to curriculum that are responsive to students’ needs, rather than requiring individual students to conform to existing and inaccessible curriculum.

The strategies developed in this workshop will create flexible and supportive learning environments that foster inclusion while also addressing the diverse educational needs of all students present. Many educators mistakenly believe that UDL means “disability,” “technology,” or “extra work” rather than inclusive classroom practices and mindsets. This workshop will show how UDL benefits all learners while alleviating barriers for students with visible and invisible disabilities, culturally diverse learners, and students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Implementing UDL in your course design will create the conditions for all students to meet high educational standards. Participants will leave the workshop with the following: – specific, manageable strategies and resources to apply UDL in their own teaching and course design both created by the workshop facilitators as well as through sharing with peers and colleagues.

  • hands on experience with modifying at least one specific UDL aspect of course design (syllabus, discipline specific exams and assignments, lecture materials, classroom technology).
  • sense of agency in the process and awareness that UDL doesn’t need to be done all at once. One modification at a time based on the particular organization of each instructor’s course and classroom composition.

FACILITATORS:

  • Laila Ferreira, Lecturer, Arts Studies in Resaerch and Writing
  • Jennifer Gagnon, Sessional Lecturer, Political Science