Review our Monthly Schedule of Teaching & Learning Opportunities

Professional Learning:

Universal Design for Learning

Overview

At St. Lawrence College (SLC) we are dedicated to student success, academic excellence and leadership in our communities (SLC in Five +3). As an organization, we value putting students first. One way that we can honour this commitment is by practicing Universal Design for Learning (UDL). 

Through this webpage and embedded resources, we invite you to learn about the theory and practice of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), iterations of CAST’s UDL Guidelines, our institutional guidelines (recommendations) for practicing UDL at SLC and recommended UDL resources.

SLC in Five +3

What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is “an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences that guides the development of flexible and accessible methods, materials, and environments that embrace variability, minimize barriers, and develop learner agency for all” (CAST, 2024).

Worldwide, across colleges, universities, and K-12 schools, educators are embracing CAST’s UDL Guidelines as a framework to design more inclusive and accessible learning opportunities. UDL practices aim to foster agentic learners who are “purposeful and reflective, resourceful and authentic, and strategic and action-oriented" (CAST, 2024).

According to CAST (2024), UDL calls on all educators to:

Expect and honour variability in whom we teach
Anticipate and identify barriers within the design of learning opportunities and assessments, rather than within the learners themselves
Apply the UDL Guidelines as principles and considerations when designing options for engagement, representation, and action and expression

Please access the video below (Brar, 2022), which provides an overview of UDL and explains the importance of practicing UDL in our postsecondary education context.

Video - Introduction to UDL

CAST’s UDL Guidelines 3.0

Guidelines 3.0 is the fifth iteration and most up-to-date version of CAST’s UDL framework released in July 2024. The three core guiding principles of UDL remain the same, recommending that educators design multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression. However, the language used to communicate the principles and considerations has been enhanced to (CAST, 2024):

Center, affirm, and sustain learners’ interests and identities
Acknowledge individual, institutional, and systemic bias as a barrier to learning
Emphasize the value of interdependence and collective learning
Nurture joy and play in learning
Shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered language and pedagogies

We encourage you to:

visit the Cast.org website to familiarize yourself with the UDL Guidelines 3.0 updates
download and print a copy of the guidelines for your ongoing reference
Access the video Unlocking the Power of UDL 3.0 in Career and Technical Education (CAST, 2024), available on YouTube with Closed Captions

CASTs UDL Guidelines 3.0 updates

Video - Unlocking the Power of UDL 3.0 in Career and Technical Education

Guidelines 3.0 Download

Practicing UDL as part of your Inclusive Pedagogy

As you continue to reflect on your UDL practice(s), we encourage you to consider how UDL overlaps with other equity frameworks that aim to make learning more inclusive for students—particularly students who socially, culturally, and historically have not had their needs met in educational institutions. Pedagogical approaches that center on Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being (IWKB), intercultural teaching, anti-racism/oppression, and other equity-focused strategies, also emphasize the need to design learning experiences grounded in flexibility and student autonomy.

Although students might identify in multiple and unique ways (Positionality and Intersectionality, eCampus Ontario, 2022), it is crucial to perceive your students wholistically with needs that intersect and overlap. It may feel overwhelming when considering the breadth of teaching frameworks needed to support your students. Often adopting one new high-impact teaching strategy can help many students in multiple ways.

To learn more about inclusive pedagogies, visit the Inclusive Strategies page of the SCTL’s TeachatSLC.ca website.

eCampusOntario - Positionality and Intersectionality

Practicing UDL at SLC

At SLC, we have developed guidelines for translating the principles of UDL into actionable recommendations when planning and teaching a course. These Guidelines were developed with educators representing our Schools and reviewed by a working group of support staff, administrators, educators, and the Academic Leadership Team during the 2023-2024 academic year.  

The UDL at SLC Guidelines are intended as a resource and do not supersede any of our college’s Academic Policies.  

When reviewing our guidelines below, you will notice that they have been organized into three sections: 

Guideline 1 encourages you to consider how you design multiple ways for students to engage in learning. 
Guideline 2 encourages you to consider how your Assessment Plan will enable students to express/show their achievement of learning outcomes in multiple ways. 
Guideline 3 encourages you to consider how your delivery schedule (and associated lesson plans) promotes multiple ways for students to perceive and comprehend the course content.

UDL@SLC Checklist

Recommended UDL Resources

Module on UDL

We encourage you to complete our Online (Asynchronous) module on Universal Design for Learning. Please use this link to self-enroll and complete the module, which should take 30-45 to complete.

UDL Library Guide

As a resource to support your UDL practice, the SCL Library team has curated a library guide of Open Educational Resources dedicated to UDL Theory and Practice. We recommend that you bookmark this page for ongoing reference.  Please note that you must be logged in with your SLC credentials to access our library resources online.

ludia chatbot

ludia (UDL + AI) is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Beth Stark and Jérémie Rostan to “reduce learning barriers and discover ways to support all learners in reaching their full potential as expert learners. ludia is available on the Poe.com platform, which allows users to interact with various AI models, including ChatGPT, GPT-4, and others. When talking to ludia, you can ask questions, seek advice, or have conversations about Universal Design for Learning.

UDL on Campus (CAST)

Cast’s website udloncampus.cast.org offers UDL recommendations for postsecondary course design, media and materials, and accessibility and policy.

Canadian Higher Education UDL Collective

The Canadian Higher Education UDL Collective (CanHEUDL) is an online community of practice for postsecondary educators who are looking to learn with and from one another about Universal Design for Learning. To join the listserv, please email CanHEUDLCollective@gmail.com and include your name, institution/organization, and your preferred email address. Once added to the listsev, you will be given access to information about upcoming meetings and how to access the compiled UDL resources.