ThinkUDL is a podcast about Universal Design for Learning where we hear from the people who are designing and implementing strategies in post-secondary settings with learner variability in mind.
Join host, Lillian Nave, as she discovers not just WHAT her guests are teaching, learning, guiding and facilitating, but HOW they design and implement it, and WHY it even matters!
In today’s podcast, Kirsten and I discuss the research project she has undertaken since the pandemic began when university classes switched to a predominantly online format. Kirsten has been looking for and has found many examples of instructors implementing Universal Design for Learning principles in their rapid switch to online, and she has asked instructors to reflect on their teaching during this time.
In today’s episode, I have the absolute pleasure to talk with Brett Christie. Brett is the Director of Learning Design at O’Donnell Learn and formerly introduced UDL to the entire California State University system. Brett and I discuss what he is doing to create purposeful, humanizing, inclusive instruction.
Lindsay Masland joins me today to have a frank discussion about the evolution of UDL. Not only will we talk about how UDL is discussed in academia, but how it is often introduced and how it can be viewed today. We will get to see her perspective as a social scientist and as an educational psychologist to talk about what UDL is now and how we can frame it in our conversations in Higher Education today.
In today’s episode we talk about the PR makeover that neurodiversity needs and is getting with UDL and the continued shift we need to make in higher education and in the workforce to better serve all of our students, clients, and our world. I met Jess serendipitously on social media when we both were offering a colleague some ideas to help neurodiverse students in the classroom and I was immediately impressed by her generous and thoughtful answer.
In today’s conversation, Flower and I first talk about her concept of “Roundabout Design,” and how it differs from backwards design. And then we talk about her forthcoming book The Spark of Online Learning: How Technology and Emotion Science Invigorates Every Class where we will discuss many aspects of emotion and online learning, including how we can establish teacher presence and help students persist in their courses.