Multiple Means of UDL with Karrie Morin & Dana Sheehan

Welcome to Episode 29 of the ThinkUDL podcast: Multiple Means of UDL with Karrie Morin & Dana Sheehan. This episode was recorded on the campus of Goodwin College in East Hartford, CT, on the eve of the 2nd annual UDL in Higher Education Conference on November 8, 2019, with the theme +1, Transformation by design.

Karrie Morin is the Coordinator for the Center for Teaching Excellence and Adjunct Professor in Communication. Dana Sheehan is an Assistant Professor of English and Communication. Both are Universal Design for Learning Teaching Fellows at Goodwin College and are the creators of the video series called UDL ERA that highlights the use of UDL practices by faculty on their campus.

This conversation not only describes the impetus for this very innovative showcasing of Universal Design for Learning practices on Goodwin’s campus, but also provides an overview of the episodes and quite a few ideas on how to incorporate meaningful engagement strategies. We bring up a wealth of resources from Improv techniques to Pecha Kucha and Padlets, as well as the use of the “Reacting to the Past” games in classes. You can find links to all of Karrie and Dana’s videos on the resources section of today’s episode at ThinkUDL.org along with links to the resources we mention throughout our conversation. Thank you for joining our conversation about the many ways UDL has improved instruction and student success at Goodwin College and the innovative ways that Karrie and Dana are encouraging and highlighting their colleagues in their Universal Design for Learning endeavors!

Resources:

Here is a link to the UDL ERA vid eos that Karrie and Dana host to showcase the use of UDL at Goodwin College

Learn more about the 2nd Annual UDL in Higher Education Conference held at Goodwin College on November 8, 2019

Goodwin College has had several cohorts of UDL Teaching Fellows. Dana and Karrie are both UDL Teaching Fellows and their video series highlights the work of their colleagues on campus

Pecha Kucha (“Visual Storytelling that celebrates Humanity”): This presentation style is mentioned in today’s episode. Use this link to find out more and see examples of Pecha Kucha presentations.

Padlet: A great way to collaborate with students and share ideas and work. Padlet has free options and also a subscription for more advanced uses. It is very UDL friendly with multiple ways to share many resources.

Reacting to the Past (RTTP): Role-playing Games for Engaged Learning. This innovative and actively engaged pedagogy gets students involved in historical events by giving them a particular role to play at a time in history. The whole class works together to resolve a problem, all the while learning about the intricacies of the issues presented.

Improv in Higher Ed Classrooms: Learn about the use of improv techniques in Higher Ed classrooms for engagement in these articles here, here and here.

Check out the MIT Game Arcade for many options for using games in classes and professional development.

CAST top 10 tips for developing Learning Goals: Check here for some helpful hints mentioned in today’s episode

Allison Posey’s Engage the Brain: How to Design for Learning that taps into the power of Emotion book discusses how emotion is important for learning. Karrie and Dana recommend!

CAST’s Top 10 Tips for an Engaging Learning Environment: More tips from CAST on engagement!
CAST’s Top 10 Tips on Assessment: More tips from CAST on Assessment!

Transcript

[Lillian] Welcome to Think UDL, the Universal Design for Learning podcast. Where we hear from the people who are designing and implementing strategies with learner variability in mind.

[Music]

I’m your host, Lillian Nave, and I’m interested in not just what you’re teaching, learning, guiding, and facilitating, but how you design and implement it, and why it even matters.

[Music]

Welcome to Episode 29 of the ThinkUDL podcast: Multiple Means of UDL with Karrie Morin & Dana Sheehan. This episode was recorded on the campus of Goodwin College in East Hartford, Connecticut, on the eve of the second annual UDL in Higher Education Conference on November 8, 2019, with the theme +1, Transformation by design.

Karrie Morin is the Coordinator for the Center for Teaching Excellence and Adjunct Professor in Communication. Dana Sheehan is an Assistant Professor of English and Communication. Both are Universal Design for Learning Teaching Fellows at Goodwin College and are the creators of the video series called Universal Design for Learning, or UDL ERA that highlights the use of UDL practices by faculty on their campus.

This conversation not only describes the impetus for this very innovative showcasing of Universal Design for Learning practices on Goodwin’s campus, but also provides an overview of the episodes and quite a few ideas on how to incorporate meaningful engagement strategies. We bring up a wealth of resources from Improv techniques to Pecha Kucha and Padlets, as well as the use of the “Reacting to the Past” games in classes. You can find links to all of Karrie and Dana’s videos on the resources section of today’s episode at ThinkUDL.org along with links to the resources we mention throughout our conversation. Thank you for joining our podcast today about the many ways UDL has improved instruction and student success at Goodwin College and the innovative ways that Karrie and Dana are encouraging and highlighting their colleagues in their Universal Design for Learning endeavors!

Welcome to the Think UDL podcast. I have two folks here from Goodwin College in East Hartford, Connecticut, and its Karrie Morin and Dana Sheehan, and I am super excited to talk to them today because we have some crossover events that we were able to do. They do a fantastic YouTube UDL series that I was super excited that I got to talk to them about, and now I want them to share about it on our podcast. So, I’d like you both to introduce yourselves. This is also the first time I’m interviewing two people at once, so I’m super excited

[00:03:17]

[Karrie] That’s very exciting

[Lillian] Yes! Let me have, Karrie can you kind of tell us about your position here and what you do?

[00:03:22]

[Karrie] Sure, yes. My name is Karrie Morin. I am the coordinator at the Center for Teaching Excellence here at Goodwin College. I also am adjunct faculty, so I teach in the gen. ed. Department, mostly communication courses. I was a member of the UDL cohort two, because we have a cohort structure here at Goodwin, and I started and completed that in 2018 I think it was. So I am a teaching fellow.

[00:03:45]

[Lillian] Great, and Dana, can you tell us, too, the same thing?

[00:03:48]

[Dana] I–my name’s Dana, I’m so excited to be here. I was just listening to one of your podcasts this morning. I am an assistant professor of English and Communication, so I can teach in both of the departments, and I was a part of cohort one. I can’t remember what the year was, but that was only three years ago, so I’m assuming 2016. Math–I didn’t say I was part of the math department. And–what else did you want me to answer?

[00:04:19]

[Lillian] That was it–that was great, that’s the introduction of what you do here at Goodwin College. And, you also work with Karrie in–

[00:04:28]

[Dana] Karrie and I are both communications teachers, that’s how we kind of–that’s how we met each other. I mean–she runs the Center for Teaching Excellence, so I would meet her in here all the time, but when we started teaching communications together, it was a really fun experience.

[00:04:45]

[Karrie] It was a fun experience and we actually share a lot of the same students because at one point we were teaching CTRA students. There’s a high school affiliated here with Goodwin College, and they take early college credit classes. So, Dana and I shared a lot of the same students and then we shared a lot of the same ideas and different activities. And then being both part of the UDL program, we just shared everything that way and its just worked out so, so well.

[00:05:07]

[Lillian] Yeah, and you guys have a lot of fun on your YouTube shows.

[Dana] We do.

[Karrie] Oh, yes, we do.

[Lillian] Its great.

[00:05:13]

[Dana] We do want to do a bloopers episode at some point.

[Lillian] I would watch it. I highly suggest you do that. So the first question I ask all my guests is what makes you a different kind of learner? And, Dana, would you mind answering that?

[00:05:30]

[Dana] I would love to answer that. I am a very visual learner. So, it was interesting when I started learning about UDL and changing my classes around, I realized that I was more interested in my classes once I started making them more visual with more activities. But it was funny because I was like oh, I guess I wish I had known this when I was in my undergrad and grad, that would’ve been helpful.

[00:05:54]

[Lillian] Yeah, so it sounds like its more fun to teach.

[Dana] I have more fun teaching, but I also wish that I had learned in that way. So, I feel like my students are now getting–you know, its like when you learn to–teach something to your kids and you’re like gosh I wish I had known that when I was ten years old, it would have changed my life.

[00:06:14]

[Lillian] And, same question for you Karrie, what makes you a different kind of learner?

[00:06:19]

[Karrie] Yeah, I think I have changed over the years. So, I think when I was younger and doing my undergrad I was kind of one way, and now I’ve kind of evolved a little bit. I think now I’m to the point where I’m very visual, just like Dana, but I also–I like to be engaged and do the activities. Like if I’m learning something on the computer, I actually need to take a moment and do it for myself. So, I need that variability, the two different options there for me. So it fit right in there perfectly with UDL and the multiple means of engagement and things like that. So I’ve tried to do the same thing as well, have activities for my students, thinking some may want hands-on, some may want something that’s visual, and kind of including that within the lessons that we’re teaching.

[00:06:58]

[Lillian] Great, fantastic. So, I–learning about how we learn has helped me so much in teaching, and I love hearing the responses because both of you have said how much it improved your own teaching when you figured those things out. So, I appreciate that very much. And the other thing I appreciate about you guys is this very cool YouTube series, and I would love for our listeners to hear about it so they can also find out where they can watch it and I’ll start with where did this idea come from to start a YouTube series on UDL here at Goodwin College?

[00:07:36]

[Dana] Karrie, you have to tell this story because she’s been telling it to every single person.

[Karrie] It is a great story. So, I have to give Lillian credit. So, Lillian Nave is our inspiration. So, a year ago, Goodwin College had their first UDL conference, and Lillian came and she actually presented at the conference last year. Dana and I, as we mentioned before, have been sharing students, sharing ideas and things like that, and we ended up being in the same lecture workshop that you were doing a year ago. And, we were very inspired by you, so it was Lillian that was our inspiration. And what happened was we were turned on by her podcast series, Dana loves podcasts, she had started talking about them in some of her classes, and implementing them with her students, and it was just right up our alley. So, we were so excited about it, and I remember we left that classroom and came down here to the Center for Teaching Excellence, and we walked in and we saw Lisa and we were so excited, we were like, we need to do a video series. We just need to do a video series. We got really excited about getting the faculty members at Goodwin College involved, and just learning about a plus one, changing a lesson, and then for some reason I had it in my head, what are we going to call this? We have to call it something. So, Dana and I had left, gone home, I remember the day it was raining, raining, raining, really

[typical]

fall day here in Connecticut, and I was driving home and I was pulling onto my street, and I was like, ERA! ERA, engagement, representation, action and expression. So I thought, how perfect is this, so I pulled in to my garage, shut off the car, and immediately called Dana because I had come up with this UDL ERA video series. So, yes it was so exciting, and we actually have it housed right now on Goodwin’s website, too so if you go to www.goodwin.edu/gili which is the Goodwin Institute of Learning Innovation, and you can look at all of the video series there, the UDL ERA video series is there!

[00:09:30]

[Dana] Google search it too if you decide that was too many initials.

[Karrie] Yes, you can actually find it on YouTube as well.

[00:09:35]

[Lillian] UDL ERA is what they’ll need to look for.

[Karrie] Yes, they’re called UDL ERA video series.

[00:09:40]

[Lillian] And I found it on a padlet, which is very Goodwin College of you, lots of padlets here. Which was awesome because I was able to scroll through all of the episodes and see also on that padlet lots of articles about why UDL is so important. So, you’ve got all the research here to back you up.

[00:09:59]

[Karrie] Yes, we do

[Lillian] Love it.

[00:10:01]

[Karrie] We’re actually very fortunate because we have a great program in place, and I think one of your other podcasts which was Dr. Danielle Wilken, who is our Provost here, and she has just been a huge supporter of this whole program and so we are very fortunate to be in a very good place here at Goodwin College.

[00:10:16]

[Lillian] Yeah.

[Dana] And we have so much fun, its you know–you can imagine, you’re just a part of the recording. So, if you don’t know, it ends up being maybe 5-7 or 10 minutes, but we just sit there for like 45 minutes and we have the moments of silence so we can get back together, or my microphone falls off, or, you know, things like that. Its just fun.

[00:10:37]

[Lillian] It is a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun.

[Karrie] Thank you, we’re so glad that you came up here. So glad you did. Its so good to see you again.

[00:10:44]

[Dana] So, when we were starting it, we started with just wanting to showcase one thing that somebody does for their–in their classroom to kind of plus one, bring UDL in. But, its turned in to us–we would ask people if they would want to be in it, and then all of a sudden, people started emailing us, they’re like, we have a good one we want to share with you, and so its turned into something bigger than we thought it would be, and we wish that we had enough time to do what you guys do, like four in a row and that would be amazing.

[00:11:18]

[Lillian] Its so fun to do, but then there’s a lot of that production, it takes a while and luckily you’ve got support here, and I’ve got support to create the podcast, its fantastic. So, what has been the–what have you been showcasing? Maybe you could tell our listeners about the things, kind of tantalize them so that they are ready to go look up these episodes of what you have been doing on your UDL ERA?

[00:11:46]

[Karrie] Yes, we actually had faculty members from different disciplines come in too, which has been exciting, so one of the–

[00:11:55]

[Dana] Do you want to start at the beginning?

[Karrie] We could go in order.

[Dana] Because there was a really good one in the beginning.

[Karrie] Ok, go ahead.

[00:12:00]

[Dana] That was me.

[Lillian] Tell us all about it.

[00:12:05]

[Karrie] Dana had a great idea for her class, go ahead.

[Dana] So, I’ve been doing it for a couple of years, and I realized as we were talking about doing the recording, I was like, oh, we can do this because its actually interesting and I’d had some really great responses to the assignment. So, what they’re doing is I’m teaching them–its an English 101 course–and I’m teaching them how to do a persuasive essay. But, instead of having them write a persuasive essay because they have to write something right afterwards, so, its too much time for them to write a bunch of papers within a week, so I had them create a commercial. So, they would create the commercial and it didn’t have to be perfect but they had to follow all of the guidelines that you would follow in a persuasive essay. And, the best part about the one that I was able to put up on this video series was– the students got so into it that instead of just handing it in half done, they took it home and just went all out on it and it looked so professional, it was so fun to watch.

[00:13:07]

[Karrie] It was fun to watch. They were so creative.

[00:13:10]

[Dana] Yes, and Karrie’s been fighting for that one for a year.

[Karrie] I loved it, it was fantastic

[00:13:18]

[Dana] Yes, that was the first one that we did, and that was like our pilot to see if anybody liked our video series, that if they didn’t like it, it was just like oh it’s just you and me, it didn’t matter, its no big deal. But everybody really wanted to–they’re like when are you going to do the next one? Who are you going to do? What’s it going to be about? We haven’t done Karrie’s yet either because she hasn’t wanted to do the switcheroo where we interview her. Maybe this will be the test for her to be interviewed.

[00:13:48]

[Karrie] So, one of the great things that happened once we shared that video–because it kind of got sent out to all the people that were in the UDL cohort and everybody’s bosses got it, and then everybody’s mothers got it (like, my mother), so once we sent that out, everybody got to see, and they saw just how much fun we were having in the process of recording it, they all started sending us “I have a plus one that I would like to do for you guys, let me know if” –because we had sent the initial idea out and said would anybody be interested, and we maybe didn’t get a huge response, but then once the video came out, it became much bigger.

[00:14:24]

[Lillian] That’s when they caught the vision.

[Karrie] They did.

[00:14:27]

[Lillian] They hadn’t caught the vision before.

[Karrie] They did, because we have quite the waiting list now, of faculty members who want to be interviewed on the series, so its really exciting.

[00:14:35]

[Lillian] And you have several cohorts then. So, you’ve had what, three cohorts now? So, fifteen about in each cohort?

[Karrie] Yes, fifteen in each cohort, yes.

[00:14:42]

[Lillian] So, you should have at least 45 faculty that have been imbuing or energizing their courses with these UDL things, assignments, assessments, teaching activities. So, what a great way to showcase that learning of your faculty. That’s one of the coolest things about why I wanted to interview you to, is I don’t often get a chance to talk to the faculty coordinators or the faculty development people who are making this stuff happen for their faculty. I’m usually talking to that faculty member. But you’re really kind of gathering the troops around here and creating this camaraderie of all of those cohorts. So, that’s a skill too and I really appreciate it.

[00:15:28]

[Karrie] Thank you.

[Lillian] So, you started out with clearly the best episode, right,

[00:15:34]

[Dana] Emmy award winning.

[00:15:36]

[Lillian] But, you’ve had several more that have followed. So, what other things have you been showcasing on this?

[Dana] You should talk about Randy’s double episode.

[00:15:44]

[Karrie] Yes, yes. Dr. Randy Leist***, he is a professor of English. And I’ll actually–I’ll let you talk about it because you were so inspired by this one with the book–they wrote the book.

[00:15:55]

[Dana] So, Randy Leist*** is an English professor here and he–Dr. Randy Leist***–and, I can’t remember what we did for the plus one because–so, we recorded Randy’s two episodes in one sitting. And so I felt like we just had a long conversation with Randy for three hours, and then it turned into two episodes. But I know we did a plus one and I can’t remember but maybe Karrie can remember, what his plus one was. And then we did a special edition episode where we talked about this one class. So, he had “UDL-ized” his entire–

[00:16:32]

[Karrie] They were the memoirs, weren’t they?

[Lillian] Peer review, it was the peer review of the–

[Dana] Oh, you saw it?

[Lillian] I did, I watched it on the plane. It was how they were going to do peer reviews.

[00:16:40]

[Dana] Yes, that’s actually how I changed my peer reviews because of it. So, he was doing all positive, kind of like an open mic type setting, and they had to be all positive responses and he found that the students were able to work–that they wanted to work harder because they were getting such positive feedback. And then the special edition was about his–the whole class because he took a memoir writing class and then turned it into publishing a book of memoirs. It was amazing, we all bought the book and then of course I forgot it for the signing and that was a good time.

[00:17:14]

[Karrie] And they did, they all signed the book, it was great. They had a whole workshop with the students and everything, really showcasing the students’ work and it was absolutely fantastic and the book is available on Amazon now too.

[00:17:24]

[Lillian] Wow. Really empowering for those students, and they were sharing their stories, this memoir class. And I watched the double episode and the students were able to really put themselves out there and I’m sure that positive feedback–I remember him saying it was–this is what I like, and then can we go even further, rather than I don’t like this, change this, it’s whoa this is a great idea, let’s take it even further. How empowering, how encouraging for these students.

[00:17:56]

[Dana] Yes, very much so.

[00:17:58]

[Lillian] It deserved the bonus episode.

[00:18:00]

[Karrie] It was a good episode, it really was. And the students really appreciated the time we spent with them and it worked out really nicely.

[00:18:07]

[Lillian] So, the double episode, that was–was that the second one or is that–

[00:18:11]

[Karrie] I don’t remember.

[Lillian] But you had a few others.

[00:18:13]

[Dana] No, we had Jen Fital***, criminal justice,

[Karrie] Oh, she was our second episode.

[00:18:20]

[Dana] She’s a professor in the criminal justice department. We had her. Then, Randy Leist***

[Karrie] She was the one that walked in and sat down, the grand entrance.

[00:18:26]

[Lillian] You guys were trying out new engaging video techniques

[Dana] Yes, we were.

[Lillian] So, our listeners are going to have to look these up and see what you’ve done. Just to see them. Its impressive, that faculty developers can put this together. I am telling you. It’s a wide skill set. Cinematic excellence.

[00:18:47]

[Karrie] Thank you.

[Dana] Thank you.

[Lillian] People are going to love it

[00:18:52]

[Karrie] Yep. And then we had Robin Conoyuer*** with the Pechakucha*** so she did that for her nursing students.

[00:19:00]

[Lillian] Oh, great! So, then that’s a style of presentation if you are bored with powerpoints or overwhelmed with them, and I found–not powerpoints, but Prezi***. Prezi*** makes me dizzy. I cannot handle that. So, Pechakucha***

[00:19:19]

[Karrie] Yes, its like twenty slides, right? And in five minutes. You have to do one slide for twenty seconds or something like that.

[00:19:24]

[Lillian] And it automatically changes and I found that students have to really know their stuff. Like, in powerpoint, you can kind of read your text or your slide, and its super boring, but with the Pechakucha*** you have to know exactly what you’re going to say and you’re not supposed to have any text on the slides. Maybe you can have a word or something, but you’re not supposed to have anything and then you tell this story, and I thought, this is really engaging, and the students really have to know their stuff, so I feel like they work super hard in order to make a Pechakucha*** and they learn the stuff a lot more

[00:20:01]

[Karrie] And Robin works in the nursing–in the–pediatrics–so, these students are memorizing so many things and they just, their time constraints are real, they have just a lot of time constraints and most of them have jobs and everything, so she said that she found, not to–spoiler alert–but she said that she found that the students were actually retaining more and learning more when they had to do it and they were making their own. So, now that we’ve told you all about that video, you don’t have to watch it.

[00:20:29]

[Dana] No, watch it! It’s a good one.

[Lillian] Oh, its good stuff. Well, a lot of people have heard about it, but haven’t seen a good demonstration. Or, actually a lot of people haven’t even heard of Pechakucha*** but this would be a good way to understand or demonstrate it. Maybe people want to use it instead of a powerpoint or as an assignment for students. So, watching that video will be helpful.

[00:20:51]

[Karrie] Definitely. And then we have episode five, not yet aired or edited. With the wonderful Lillian Nave.

[Dana] And we’re not going to tell you anything about that, you have to watch it. Crossover.

[00:21:04]

[Lillian] Yeah, exactly. Its coming out–I don’t know–we don’t know if the podcast or the YouTube will come out first. We’ll see. Either one. We’ll have a link from one to the other.

[00:21:17]

[Karrie] Yes, definitely.

[Dana] That’s a great idea.

[00:21:19]

[Lillian] And you said there’s–is it Jen Fital***? And what was her episode about. That was–she’s criminal justice, is that right?

[00:21:26]

[Karrie] Yes, she’s criminal justice and she was–she had the QR code and so when students actually came into the classroom, they would scan the QR code and there would be a series of questions that they would need to answer. So, it kind of like got them thinking about the lesson for the day, and they’d have the information they’d be putting in almost immediately. So she had access to it right away, so she can kind of gauge the lesson at that point in time and then foster the discussion that way.

[00:21:50]

[Lillian] That’s brilliant. Just in time, that’s just in time teaching, right when they come in and then, you know,

[00:21:56]

[Karrie] As you know, the class is getting settled, right, if the students start coming in and they don’t all come in at the same time. So, she took advantage of that–those moments there and basically had the students engaged right from the get-go as soon as they walked in the door.

[00:22:06]

[Lillian] So, from the QR code, then she–they were answering questions to something like a Google forum or–

[00:22:12]

[Dana] Or padlet.

[Lillian] Ok, so something like that. People might be learning about padlet for the first time as they’re listening to this.

[00:22:19]

[Dana] That’s true.

[Lillian] We are dropping instructional tools like M&M’s, right?

[Karrie] That’s another one I have used in my class, M&M’s, most memorable moments.

[00:22:30]

[Lillian] Nice. This is a treasure trove of things.

[Dana] It is. I’m more into–I created board games that I use a lot for APA format, which is the format we use here at Goodwin, and I like to create–I do a lot of charades and pictionary and things. I travel with my own dry erase boards in my backpack so we have those options. I’m a lot more of a 1982 person.

[00:22:58]

[Lillian] Super, very engaging and fun. One of the things I’ve been following lately is the role playing game “Reacting to the Past.” As long as we’re just dropping off stuff, let’s just bring it. All these instructional–if you get a bunch of faculty developers together, you know, its like if you give a mouse a cookie. You’re going to have Pechakuta*** and you’re going to have RTTP which is “Reacting to the Past.” And, apparently, I haven’t done this yet, but I’m fascinated by it, its used in history and general education classes, that take a–something that happened in real life in history, it could be the forming of the state of India, you know, in 1940’s, and it could be the American Revolution, any number of things, the–anything that’s happened in history, and then all the students get a particular role and a role sheet, I think its kind of like Dungeons & Dragons.

[00:23:51]

[Dana] I think it is too. Are there cards as well?

[00:23:54]

[Lillian] Yeah, they have like a–everybody–every role has particular goals. They’re trying to get a movement pass, and they’re trying to get votes on their side, there’s one for ancient Athens, there’s so many of these. So, that might be a whole ‘nother podcast. But its engaging those students, so they come in and some of them have to give speeches and move the game forward, and you could just be for one class period, or it could be for like twelve.

[00:24:21]

[Karrie] And I imagine you could do this on ground or online, right? So, no matter–

[Lillian] Yes. Some people are trying to do it online

[00:24:25]

[Karrie] In online classes. They have a lot of online classes here offered at Goodwin, so I bet you can do something like that with the online classes as well.

[00:24:32]

[Lillian] Yeah, this amazing engagement factor, and another–when you said charades and pictionary and dry erase boards, one of my favorites is improv.

[00:24:46]

[Karrie] Yes.

[Dana] Oh, that’s a good one

[00:24:46]

[Lillian] And having students just use a simple game like “Yes, and” is a great way to find out what did you learn from the reading? I learned this, and this. And in a small class, you can do it with everybody, in a large class it can just be like a small sampling or something like that.

[00:25:02]

[Dana] So much fun. There’s so much fun to be had with the activities that we are now allowed to have, you know, whereas in the old, lecture-based, you’d be like no, you can’t do something that’s that fun because that’s not college-worthy.

[00:25:15]

[Lillian] Right. And UDL is telling us how important that engagement, that active learning part is for the effective parts of our brain. If we weren’t doing that, we’re not reaching everybody. And, you know, some people love a lecture, but you can only take so much of it, too. So, just being able to switch from one thing to the other, that’s what’s one of those big things about UDL is options and having the chance to listen to a lecture, or the chance to kind of engage your students on this part, or have some time for reflection, all these different kinds of things , that’s what I appreciate about your YouTube series is you’re showcasing all of these different areas of UDL.

[00:25:57]

[Karrie] Yeah, thank you.

[Dana] Thanks, I guess we’ll keep doing it.

[00:26:01]

[Lillian] I hope so, you better. Its such an encouragement to so many. And its an encouragement to me. I’m glad that the podcast or the presentation I guess last year at this Goodwin College UDL symposium on higher ed, this was the first higher ed UDL symposium that I was aware of. Like, there are UDL conferences

[00:26:26]

[Karrie] I think it was the only one that was for higher ed, and they’ve tried to–they’re trying to hone it in and make it something that happens forever.

[00:26:33]

[Lillian] Yeah, and that’s super exciting. That’s really great because a lot of the UDL has been spanning from k12 or pre-k all the way through post-secondary, and its great to have this focus, especially for somebody like me who are working out of higher ed and beyond, to see this focus and pushing it forward. So, way to go, Goodwin College, its so fun to be here.

[00:26:56]

[Dana] Thank you.

[Karrie] Thank you, we’re so glad that you’re here. We are so glad. Thank you so much for coming.

[00:27:01]

[Lillian] So, we’ve talked about–you guys have had so many really good ideas, and the ones you showcase on your YouTube channel or YouTube videos, what are you interested in now or what great idea are you working on now?

[00:27:15]

[Dana] One of the recent things that Karrie and I have been working on together is, staying with the idea of a plus one, but we’re fascinated with the idea of games in the classroom and how important games are for learning. So, we’ve been doing so much research about the reason why games are essential and how they just change the world of student learning.

[00:27:41]

[Karrie] Yeah, we were actually researching some–MIT has the education arcade, its called, so, there’s a whole–journal articles and things like that–and we found one that was talking about the different freedoms that students can have with gaming and like the freedom to fail for example. So, you know, if they could try things out in a safe environment, they can try and be a different character, freedom with their identity, play a different role like you were talking about before the RTTP. And so, basically, these types of freedom allow students to kind of like expand their horizons and sometimes the freedom to fail is almost just as important to succeed, right? So then you have–you learn a lot from those failures, as you were talking about what your students learned from your–when you were doing our video series, you were talking about the assignment that you had and how beneficial it was that if they started off how much more they would learn moving forward. So, yeah I think it was kind of a lot of research we had done and its going to be a great presentation tomorrow that we’re going to give, I think we’re talking about all of that. We also touched upon the–CAST has the top ten tips for designing a UDL, engaging learning environment, right, so we included some of those in there as well.

[00:28:54]

[Dana] We’ve just become a little bit obsessed about everything we can do to incorporate games or activities that are game-like and the idea of how creating specific classrooms or–its just like the new thing that we’re–so, when we saw–went to your workshop, we became obsessed with the idea of this video series, in homage to you, but as we’ve been moving on with this video series, we’ve now kind of taken this plus one and its our–this new obsession that we have every week when we get together we talk about that.

[00:29:29]

[Karrie] And this new book that we’re reading, should we–we could plug the new book we’re reading?

[Lillian] Yes, please!

[00:29:33]

[Karrie] Its Allison Posey’s Engage your Brain. I just–my mind is blown with every section. I can’t stop reading it.

[Lillian] Right. And you–our listeners can hear about her talking about that book on one of our other podcast episodes.

[00:29:48]

[Dana] I listened to that podcast, it was very good.

[00:29:50]

[Lillian] Yeah, she’s great and she’ll be also at this tomorrow.

[00:29:54]

[Karrie] Yeah, she’ll be here tomorrow.

[00:24:32]

[Dana] Her workshop will be the same time as our workshop.

[Lillian] Oh, right. Somebody’s got to do it.

[00:30:05]

[Karrie] So, the one thing that I can just add too at the end of all this discussion, you just said it one last time as well, was the plus one, the idea of a plus one, right. So when you think about UDL and you think about your courses or your curriculum, you’re learning outcomes, and we didn’t want faculty to be so overwhelmed, like, oh my gosh I have to change everything. No, you don’t have to change everything, you can start with one little piece, like one lesson that you want to give, or one activity that you want to do or one assignment or one anything. Just make it simple. And so that’s why what we focused on in the UDL ERA video series was that plus one. So we have faculty come and talk about one thing that they changed, and how simple it was, and then its like a chain reaction, it kind of just, you know, explodes and moves forward. Because once they change one, they see how well it works, oh let me do this, and the sharing of ideas is just tremendous at that point. So I think its important to note that as well.

[00:30:57]

[Lillian] You are ushering in an era of UDL greatness at Goodwin College. That is what you are doing in this video series, yeah, I think so. So, our listeners can find all of these YouTube episodes at www.goodwin.edu/gili right?

[00:31:24]

[Karrie] Correct.

[Lillian] Alright. So then they could find all that and some of these other great ideas at Goodwin and maybe by next year, they can come up to the Goodwin College symposium, too.

[00:31:35]

[Dana] Yeah, that would be fantastic.

[Lillian] I know. I always–I’ve learned a lot last year, and I am super excited and looked over what everybody’s presenting, so I’m really excited to talk to some of our presenters and get some more podcast episodes so those of you who can’t be here can learn about what’s happening at Goodwin and find out how maybe they can bring that back to their campuses, too, so, yeah. I really appreciate both of your time, so that you very much for sitting down with me to talk on the Think UDL podcast and I’m looking forward to watching more of your YouTube videos, so thanks for sharing them.

[00:32:14]

[Dana] Thank you so much.

[Karrie] Thank you very much for having us here, Lillian, thank you.

[Music]

[00:32:29]

[Lillian] You can follow the Think UDL podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to find out when new episodes will be released, and also see transcripts and additional materials at the ThinkUDL.org website. The Think UDL podcast is made possible by College STAR, the STAR stands for supporting transition, access and retention in post-secondary settings, and the website provides free resources and instructional aids based on UDL principles. If you’d like to know more, go to the CollegeSTAR.org website. Additional support for the podcast is made possible by Appalachian State University, where, if you call it Appalachian, I’ll throw an apple at you! The music on the podcast was performed by the Odyssey Quartet, comprised of Rex Shepherd, David Pate, Bill Folwell, and Jose Cochez. Our sound engineer is Tanner Jones, and I am your host, Lillian Nave, thank you for joining us on the Think UDL podcast. [Music]