Welcome to Episode 133 of the Think UDL podcast: Online Graduate Education with Tracy Balduzzi. Tracy Balduzzi is the Associate Director of Strategic initiatives for the graduate school at Syracuse University and an adjunct Lecturer at Utica University in upstate New York. Tracy recently wrote an article about how she has implemented UDL strategies in the graduate online course she teaches and I was able to catch up with her to talk about what interventions she used to increase engagement, and added multiple ways to assess students along with providing multiple options for representation. We will also talk about student feedback and where to go from here! Add this to your list of UDL research in higher ed.
Resources
Reach out to Tracy Balduzzi on LinkedIn
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Beyond Access in Graduate Online Education (book chapter by Tracy Balduzzi)
Gallien, T., & Oomen-Early, J. (2008). Personalized versus collective instructor feedback in the online courseroom: Does type of feedback affect student satisfaction, academic performance and perceived connectedness with the instructor? International Journal on E-Learning, 7(3), 463–467.
Fovet, F. (2020). Universal design for learning as a tool for inclusion in the higher education classroom: Tips for the next decade of implementation. Education Journal, 9(6), 163–172. doi:10.11648/j.edu.20200906.13
Transcript
41:28
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
students, learning, UDL, graduate, assignment, assessing, instructor, learner, people, online, rubric, implement, feedback, instructional designer
SPEAKERS
Tracy Balduzzi, Lillian Nave
Lillian Nave 00:00
Lillian Nave, 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. 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. Welcome to Episode 133 of the Think UDL podcast, Online Graduate Education with Tracy balduzzi. Tracy Balduzzi is the Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Graduate School at Syracuse University and an adjunct lecturer at Utica University in upstate New York, Tracy recently wrote an article about how she has implemented UDL strategies in the graduate online course she teaches, and I was able to catch up with her to talk about what interventions she used to increase engagement and added multiple ways to assess students, along with providing multiple options for representation, we will also talk about student feedback and where to go from here. Add this to your list of UDL research in higher ed and thank you for listening to the think UDL podcast. Thank you to our sponsor, Texthelp, a global technology company helping people all over the world to understand and to be understood. It has led the way in creating innovative technology for the workplace and education sectors, including K 12 right through to higher education, for the last three decades, discover their impact at text, dot help. Forward slash, learn more. That’s L, E, A, R, N, M, O, R, E, I wanted to welcome Tracy balduzzi, thank you, Tracy, for joining me on the podcast today.
Tracy Balduzzi 02:16
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.
Lillian Nave 02:19
Yeah, I really love how we got connected, kind of through a webinar, and usually we don’t make big connections, but I’m really glad that I was able to. And so let me start off before we get into the meat of this, with my usual question for all my guests, and what makes you a different kind of learner?
Tracy Balduzzi 02:38
So I’ve been thinking about this question a lot lately, and I, as I know you and I have talked before about how everyone is unique, but within I think what makes me a different kind of learner is that I didn’t think I was going to be unique. Like, I thought I was going to be a traditional learner. And like, go through all the steps and then, like, quote, unquote, like, typical progression. But again, life happens, and so I had to think about things differently, and I had to change my learning if I was going to achieve my goals. And so I’ve tried all different things to just make sure that the information I need is retained in my brain. So however that happens, whether it be kinetic learning or auditory learning. And I think sometimes learning is situational too.
Lillian Nave 03:27
So it changes depending on your situation, a formal or informal setting, etc. Yes, yeah, right. So you’re up for anything depends.
Tracy Balduzzi 03:37
I would definitely say that. And I think my graduate advisor would definitely agree with you, because that was something he always said
Lillian Nave 03:44
about me, an omnivore. I don’t know how you did an omni learner, something like, yes, yeah. I
Tracy Balduzzi 03:50
think you just coined a new term, and I love it. Yes, excellent.
Lillian Nave 03:53
Okay, so, so you’re up for anything, and I I appreciate that, because you really were up for anything in redesigning a graduate course? Yeah, and that’s what I wanted to talk about, because we don’t have a lot of research, and I don’t think I’ve had, I’ve certainly haven’t had a whole episode where I’ve talked to someone about redesigning or using UDL in a graduate course of study. So that was a major draw. And you’ve written an article, and I wanted to talk to you about it. So you’ve systematically revamped an online graduate course using UDL. And can you just tell me about this course and why you thought it needed a revamp? Certainly.
Tracy Balduzzi 04:33
So one of the things I like to say is it’s not a total revamp. And interestingly, some of the things I was doing in the course already aligned with UDL. I just never actually thought intentionally about it. And so when I did, that’s when I started incorporating other teaching and learning strategies within the course. So the reason it was this course was chosen is because, as any adjunct. Listener or adjunct instructor listening right now knows you don’t always get a lot of courses or you know, so this course is when I consistently teach. So that is why I chose this. But the other thing too is that it’s a course. It’s in a professional program, and a lot of the students are adult learners, as graduate education would indicate, and they’re working professionally, and it’s a project management approach to completing doing a research project. And so one of the things I was trying to do when I incorporated these new things is to give students a transformational experience. Make them like writing, make them like research, even though they may never have to write an academic paper again after they complete the program. And so this actually started to, I’m sorry, I should have mentioned this earlier. This all started from a conversation I actually had with a faculty member who taught online and face to face, and one of the things she said to me was that she never gets to know her online students, and therefore never writes letters of recommendations for online students, which I thought was a disservice. And so that’s what got me thinking about like these transformational experiences, getting students connect to me, connect to other students in the course. And so, yeah, that’s just how this whole thing started. Was just basically an interest to connect to people.
Lillian Nave 06:34
That’s, oh, wow, I love it. What a great motive. And we want to connect. I know I want to connect with my students. And I mean, I’m passionate about the subject, but as a teacher, as so many of us who are instructors here, so passionate about passing that on, and, you know, leading other folks in that direction. So what a great motivator, a great start to the engagement. So what interventions Then did you use to implement with regards to, let’s, let’s talk about engagement. So if you weren’t engaging or didn’t really know or it’s hard to it is maybe more difficult to get to know your students online, it can be. So what were the engagement strategies that you decided to implement to sort of fix that problem, yeah.
Tracy Balduzzi 07:24
So well, one of the first ones is actually appropriated from my master’s advisor, where he always liked to hear people’s favorite quotes, right? He thought that gave you a unique perspective and to the individual. And so we do do an introduction with a quote, and my quote is always weeds. Weeds have mastered every survival instinct except for learning how to grow in a row. So be a weed. And I tell my students that I choose that I chose that because that’s what I want from them. Like I want them to be their unique person. I want them to bring their uniqueness and their authenticity into my course. So that was the first one I may then the other engagement strategy I was trying to use, which actually came out of my dissertation research, was talking about how audio and video comments are really beneficial to students because there is a perceived relationship or bond there when they can hear your voice. So I started to on the first assignment in the course, I do audio comments, and I’m very intentional on telling the students I’m doing this for a specific reason, like I’m giving you audio comments because I want them to hear how constructive I’m being. I want them to hear my tone, because a lot of our learners, especially neurodivergent learners, they tend to read text based comments in a negative tone. And so I’m like, I want to avoid that, so I’m going to do it this way. That’s gotten a lot of good feedback from students. They like it. They say they refer back to the videos all the time when when they’re doing future assignments. I also have incorporated what I call water cooler sessions, and I am very intentional not to use student hours, because I did learn from an instructional designer that that sometimes has a negative connotation, so I wanted to avoid that. And then my water cooler sessions, they’re not mandatory. I usually have them for about an hour and a half, and they’re pop in, pop out. You can come in whenever you’d like. You can leave whenever you like. You can ask me anything about the course, about the program, about the university. I make a joke. I’m like, you can ask me about life. I can’t guarantee I can help you with that one, but I’ll listen. And so I was actually just saying this to a group of people on Monday too. Those have been received nicely as well. In fact, I did have on my teaching evaluations, as soon mentioned, I love that the instructor has these water cooler sessions. Even though I never attended one, it was comforting knowing they were there.
Lillian Nave 09:53
That’s so great. Yeah, it’s very inviting, yeah.
Tracy Balduzzi 09:57
So I was like, Okay, well, now we have a safety net at. Respect to these as well. And then I and I know this is a very long answer, so I apologize. The last thing I do, too is I offer students the ability to pair up to review their work before submitting it. And I do try to pair students up that have like that they can really help each other. For example, I did have a student who was doing reimbursements for alternative therapies, and then there was a person who worked in insurance, so trying to like pair them so they can both learn from each other.
Lillian Nave 10:40
So with those peer reviews, is that an opt in kind of thing? And yes, and so do all students participate in that? Or how did that go?
Tracy Balduzzi 10:50
So they didn’t all participate in it initially, but I was kind of like informally, like monitoring the course grades of students that did versus the students that didn’t, and the students that did opt into it tended to score a little higher. And so I, you know, obviously that is, like, very informal. I have not done any formal research or observations on that, but I do tell the students that I’m like, I’ve been tracking this, and so just know that that, but I don’t want to force anybody to like do something that’s not required, obviously.
Lillian Nave 11:27
So great. Okay, so they had a chance to to interact with each other in the peer reviews. And so those very maybe conscientious students who wanted to get another set of eyes right, had that opportunity to talk it out with somebody else before they handed in, and then they always had the chance to come in on the water cooler sessions. Now, and how often did you do those water cooler sessions?
Tracy Balduzzi 11:54
So I scheduled them before any first type of assignment. So again, this is research course, so it’s kind of chunked where things lead into each other. So the first time they have to do an annotated bibliography, I try to host one before that, when they do their rough draft, or when they do their project timeline, just it, just so they can have the opportunity to ask those final questions before they submit. So I typically have about maybe three or four in an online in an eight week online class, three
Lillian Nave 12:25
or four of those sessions, yeah, yes, yeah. And so I’m seeing how that that model is a little bit different than a kind of the professor’s office hours, right? Yeah, because it’s more just in time, it’s sort of, here’s something that’s coming up, or here’s the opportunity to talk about this assignment and and really, it’s more student centered, rather than the typical office hours, or sometimes student hours, as you say, professors hours, whatever you know that comes From a long tradition of kind of being at a at a university where the students are on campus, and they could sort of pop in the office, and the professor was just kind of holed up with all their books around them in their office. And I know as an adjunct that you probably don’t have, you know, an office in that physical space, and this is an online course, and so that kind of weekly. Here’s my office hour. You can pop in on Zoom, but there may not be anything you know necessarily to talk about that week. Yeah, it seems like you’re kind of combining it into a really appropriate use of time, or just conceiving of those office hours a little bit differently. Am I getting that?
Tracy Balduzzi 13:42
Yes, and I do host one on one sessions too. If students want to, they can request a 30 minute one on one session if they’re not comfortable in that group setting.
Lillian Nave 13:53
Gotcha. Okay. And so people could just come in and maybe there’s three people there, or maybe they’re the only person you just don’t know. Yes.
Tracy Balduzzi 14:00
And in fact, I had one student pop in and she said, I don’t have any questions, but I’m going to sit here and I’m going to work on my paper, just in case anyone pops in with a question. I didn’t think of yes smart, because then it’s also defined time that she’s just working on that. Right? That’s
Lillian Nave 14:17
that kind of body doubling that I know I need when I know Okay, let’s sit down. Let’s do this for an hour. Everybody’s gonna write, fantastic. So okay, so that’s a lot of engagement in that. I think curating community, that community of inquiry, is so important, and you’re giving so much more instructor presence, which I know it’s an important part of online learning, and you’ve humanized it an online course, right? And do you are you having regular meetings? Or is this like, does it have a synchronous session? Or is it a completely asynchronous course?
Tracy Balduzzi 14:54
We do have scheduled, synchronous sessions. There are typically three, one. One is right before the course, and then one just kind of a midpoint check in, and then one at the end,
Lillian Nave 15:07
great. Okay, so this really is a chance to to interact with you, because there aren’t, there aren’t, like a every week at, you know, Monday at six, where we’re sitting together. Okay, great. That is providing a lot more interaction. So, all right, you also implemented a few other things, like multiple means of representation. So can you tell me about that? Yes,
Tracy Balduzzi 15:32
and I did kind of allude to start to allude to this before. So I do offer in the article, I break it up to like multiple means of representation for feedback versus other things in the course. So talk about feedback first. But I do do the audio, video comments, and I do use a graded rubric where I assess them. I put I, you know, I assign them numerical value, plus any like comments on the rubric that addresses those specific criteria of the assignment I also do, and this, again, came out of my dissertation, what they call collective feedback. And so I’ll post an announcement with things that I saw multiple times, and then I put a course assignment or the assignment average, so students know where they rank against each other. No one knows what anyone else got, obviously, but they’ll see where they do and then the collective feedback, one of the things I was reading about, and I’m trying to, like still observing this, but I preliminary, I think I’m seeing that students feel a little bit more like they feel more comfort knowing it wasn’t just them, right, yeah? Like, if I made a comment on something in their paper, but then they know it was in everybody’s paper too. Somehow, I think it just oh yeah, eases that
Lillian Nave 16:52
you’re not alone. Yeah, yeah. Everybody was making this mistake, something like that, yeah.
Tracy Balduzzi 16:57
And so there’s that. And then one of the other things too, I and these are, these are more, I guess, technical, but with regards to due dates, right? We have a course schedule. Then you have your due date on the assignment page. And then, you know, I do have a upcoming section in each module with what’s due and something. So that was initially all there anyway, but then one student actually said to me that it was a little overwhelming to see all the deadlines in different places. Okay, and so I’ve now added a new component that just I just added last year, where I did a tutorial video on how you can export all of your due dates and upload them into your Google Calendar, then you can get notifications too. So if you’re someone who’s like, needs something to tell you that an assignment is due in four days, you can set that up and that is completely like up to you. How you want to have to do your notifications, nice,
Lillian Nave 17:55
flexible way to do that. I was just talking with some colleagues yesterday about that executive functioning part, which is what you’re talking about, setting up notifications. I know that I rely on notifications all the time in everyday things, a Remember to go to the store, I’ll set it up, you know, a note on my phone, or I get the doctor’s office the eye appointment. Remember, you need to come here. You know, it’s in two days. Let us know if you’re going to be here. And here’s, here’s how much you have to pay if you cancel this sort of thing. And that is everywhere. Why shouldn’t it also be in education? Right? Yes.
Tracy Balduzzi 18:39
And it’s funny, as I was writing the answer, like, as I was looking at the questions and answering that, when I was thinking about that too, like it kind of gives a more modern feel, right? Yeah, because even, like, outside of things you have to do, our social media notifies us when someone posts or comments or whatever. So I think students are just naturally used to that kind of thing. Yes,
Lillian Nave 18:58
yeah, and it used to be, and still is, for in some people’s minds, I think that an instructor is like, well, they have to do that on their own. That’s part of what you have to do. Be an adult, that sort of thing. And, and I keep thinking of, well, what do I really want them to learn? Do I want them to learn the actual material and and do the things I want them to do or do I really need them to be working on this, this executive functioning thing that may or may not even be fully developed in the brain until 25 years old, right? And if you’re neurodivergent a little bit later, right, right? So if I can help with that, then I know my classroom is, you know, my my interactions with the students are going to be better, like if I send a reminder about the reading to be done or this to be done beforehand, then it’s a whole lot better than people showing up and not having done it right. If that little thing can be helpful, it’s just those. Small that’s a little barrier that we can take away. And I don’t think it’s holding their hand necessarily. And you know what? Some students won’t need it, and some students will right, yes,
Tracy Balduzzi 20:10
100% and I do love that you mentioned executive functioning, because that’s what I was thinking of too, when I did that, like the cognitively offloading things that aren’t, yeah, yeah, really pertinent to the student, like they don’t. I mean, they don’t need to know how to look for a deadline. Yeah,
Lillian Nave 20:27
exactly. And certainly we shouldn’t be making it hard, right for them to try to find where the deadlines are. Oh, my goodness, yeah. So I appreciate that one of the things when I kind of did a deep dive into online learning after 2020 but also is doing even more of it, not just the pandemic, but looking at that kind of quality matters and and what constitutes excellence in online learning, that idea about organization, that’s what students crave. The fact that they’re not going to be meeting with you like in person every Monday means that having everything really well laid out on whatever the learning management system is, right canvas or Moodle or Blackboard or DTL or whatever it is that that being clear is kind, that’s my new favorite thing. Clear is kind, yeah, well organized, good communication. Those are the things that really help students feel cared for, rather than I am so confused, what do I need to click? What I can’t find, or untoggle or untoggle, you know, whatever, to show me the dates or not, and, yeah, and especially if students have not just your class, but for others that may be organized differently. Think of all of the organization, you know, challenges that might have to happen anyway. Let’s just get to the stuff, right? Let’s get to the actual material,
Tracy Balduzzi 22:02
100% and that is such an easy fix. That’s such an easy implementation, too. I created a tutorial. I don’t have to actually do anything,
Lillian Nave 22:09
yeah, after that, yeah. So, and that’s what I also appreciate, is you’re giving them the tools to do this, just like, you know, maybe not everybody needs a screen reader, right for an accessible document. But if you make it accessible, and you say, here are these, you know, here are the ways that you can listen to it if you want. Then they, then students can, and then a lot of folks that didn’t think they were going to I found like, Oh, this is a whole lot better if I can listen to it.
Tracy Balduzzi 22:43
You know, that is how I did my dissertation. I was on the treadmill, like letting things read articles to me, and it was super helpful.
Lillian Nave 22:52
Yes, absolutely, yeah. So oftentimes, when we implement something that we think might work for one segment of our students, it ends up helping more than just the people we thought we were designing for. Happens all the time. Okay, so that was multiple means of representation, right? Yes, okay, so what about assessment? What changed? Or how did you structure things? Or how have you changed about how you’re assessing students in the course?
Tracy Balduzzi 23:25
Absolutely, this is my favorite thing to talk about, because I think it’s such and you you actually mentioned something too earlier about what are you actually assessing, and that my view of assessment changed a great deal after meeting Karen Costa, who I also now follow on social media because she gives amazing tips. So any listener out there who has not heard of her yet follow her, but she asked that same question. She’s like, when we give a deadline, what are we assessing? Are we assessing their ability to meet the deadline, or are we assessing their ability to retain the content. And so before, I feel like I was a little more rigid, before really thinking about UDL and accessibility in online courses. And now I actually, I think I’ve become more compassionate, and I’m hoping that that’s yeah, the case in assessing the progress versus also the final content, right? So I tell the students in our first meeting, I always say this course is like running a marathon. Your first mile is going to be your slowest, just like your first assignment, and this is going to be is likely going to be your worst because you’re just starting, yeah, you don’t know. And right? This might be the first time you’re doing it. You might not even fully know what I expect yet, right? And so I’m very clear in saying no student will fail my class if you’re putting in the work and you’re submitting the work, yeah, yeah. You just you can’t fail. And interestingly, when I was actually thinking about this question, I was reminded of my undergrad, and I just this such a great learning lesson, but my instructor, we had to do we were presenting something, and you could choose how you wanted to present it. And one student, who was very shy, decided to do a speech, okay? And she got up and she was doing it. In the middle of it, she just broke down and started crying and like, was like, I’m gonna fail. I’m gonna fail. And our professor just looked her and she said, You’re not gonna fail for going out of your comfort zone and trying something Yeah, it’s like, I’m not gonna fail you for that. Like you tried something new now, you know, like, maybe we need to modify it, yeah,
Lillian Nave 25:43
yeah, and you can. And that wasn’t the The professor also had to know that that wasn’t what was being assessed. Like that wasn’t part of the rubric. Was being able to verbally explain, like, the the your topic, you know, as as long as it wasn’t a public speaking class, right, then that wasn’t what the outcome was supposed to be. So it could have been delivered online. She could do a video or write it down, write a paper, hand it in, right? Just to get that information out. But again, it’s like you really it helps me to refine as a professor, what is it that I really want from the student? Right? Yes, not just, oh, well, everybody does a presentation. That’s the way it’s always been done. Well, let’s think about that,
Tracy Balduzzi 26:33
right, right? And I think too some of the things that I’ve been very intentional about is, I have students who English isn’t their first language, so their final paper is might not be at the level of someone whose native language is English, and it’s not fair to assess them against that same paper. Yeah. The two against each other, yeah. So I do try to just make sure like that there was progression, yes, as long as like, like you started here you Well, I know you people can’t see me, but my hand is lower. I’m grazing it, yes. So I think that’s really what’s changed in my assessment, is really looking at the Student Development, like did the student develop?
Lillian Nave 27:23
Yeah, right. And were they able to present that information, right? Were they able to do the things you wanted them to do? So you haven’t changed your standards. You haven’t changed what you want them to produce, but you’ve what you have done, I think, is given laser focus to what is really important, right? Yeah, so that they’re still producing what you want them to produce, and you’re very clear about what needs to be done. And then the other things that are less important you’re not or not important to you at this point, right? We don’t, we’re not grading that. We’re not saying that it has to be one way or the other. So let it fall off to the side. Yeah. And that has been, I must say, in my kind of progression in learning about Universal Design for Learning. And I’m always learning that it’s been shaping me more like to be able to know what is it I really want, and then be able to more clearly tell my students, and that’s a big, a big part of it,
Tracy Balduzzi 28:33
I 100% agree with that, and that has been coming out clearly in my teaching evaluations. Like, if you look at my teaching evaluations when I first started, they’re like, I didn’t know what was expected. They’re like, it wasn’t very clear. And, you know, like, also, I did take the Quality Matters training too. So like, having a rubric for every assignment, even if you think it might not need one, just give those expectations. Yeah,
Lillian Nave 29:00
yeah, because students don’t know that’s that’s another part. I’m going to bring in Marian wilkemus and her Transparency in Learning and Teaching, or tilt right here. Yeah, that is. She’s the one that explained to me, and I have a whole episode where I interviewed her about how we need to tell the students what the purpose of the assignment is, what the actual task is, and really list those out very clearly, and then the criteria, which is either a rubric or an example of what excellence looks like. Because if I’m going to go into your graduate class, and I haven’t been in graduate school ever before, and I am taking your class, I would be very intimidated about what is the level of work that’s expected? What? How is it that I’m supposed to produce a graduate level, whatever, but also in this particular field, and so being able to see an example of, oh, okay, this. I don’t have to imagine what it looks like I have an example, or I have a clear outline. Because I think often in my experience as an undergrad, this is what happened and and when I started teaching, this is what I did to my poor students, which was kind of say, well, I’ll know it when I see it, but not give them anything really helpful to have them know if they would know it, if they saw it or if they produced it. Yeah,
Tracy Balduzzi 30:30
and that might be the artists have an
Lillian Nave 30:34
art background.
Tracy Balduzzi 30:38
But yeah, I completely agree. And again, that also goes back what we’re talking about, the executive functioning skills too, right? If you tell students why they’re doing something, like what the purpose is and how it helps, like, later on, I think it’s, again, it’s cognitively offloading something that will now allow their brain to retain more of what you actually need them to know and understand. Yeah,
Lillian Nave 31:00
right. Okay, so you’ve already talked a little bit about the student feedback, but overall, what can you tell me about, you know, your evolution, how, how you think it’s made you a more effective instructor. You’ve kind of halfway given this to me already, but what? What do you think? Yeah.
Tracy Balduzzi 31:21
So I think one of the things that I’ve definitely tried to do is let students know, based on the feedback I’ve gotten in the past, and what I’m getting now is that I do listen to them, right? Like, if you tell me something’s not working, I’m going to really think about that, and like, whether or not that needs to be changed in the course. And so I think it’s definitely made me a more active listener, and I’ve definitely made more of an intentional effort to let this to make sure the students know that I do hear them, I do listen. And I also think just by default, trying to really connect with the students also makes one a more effective instructor, too, and I think that they have a level of comfort knowing that they can tell me that maybe I didn’t explain something well, and I am okay with that. And I tell them, I’m like, I’m a facilitator of this course, and this is your money, right? It’s this course, like you want to get something out of it. And if you’re not getting that, let me know, because we need to think of a way that you can get that. And so I think all of that together. And then also, like, just when you think of UDL, and you’re like, surrounding yourself with people like you, like Karen, like Tom Tobin, like Megan Kohler from Penn State, these people like, they just like, they help you become a better instructor, too. So feedback from them, feedback from students, but you specifically asked for student feedback, so I apologize, yeah, on a tangent. No, I
Lillian Nave 32:58
love it. It’s great.
Tracy Balduzzi 33:01
But I do so I did actually wanted to mention, I wanted to mention that I do think these strategies are working, because in the beginning, I did mention how one of the things I wanted students to know is that I’m available for letters of recommendation. And I do now write. I have written, I think so I started really being intentional, probably 2018 and I think I’ve written like, six letters of recommendation, oh, wow, since then. Yeah, very good. Yeah. So I think that’s an indication that it’s
Lillian Nave 33:30
working. Yes, yeah, yeah. They’re they’re getting to know you as an actual human, and they’re feeling known like it’s not just you as an evaluator of their work, but you’re helping with their personal and educational development. Educational Development. Wow. And I should
Tracy Balduzzi 33:44
disclose, like, the letters of recommendation aren’t just for, like, other graduate programs, or I’ve had a few students. Two students went on to other graduate programs, but one student asked me to write a recommendation for a leadership development program. His work was doing great, yeah. One was going for a fellowship at her work to look at gaps in service at a nursing home. And I was like, they’re asking for letters of recommendations of some really
Lillian Nave 34:10
cool stuff. That is great, yeah. Oh, and we love to see our students succeed, yeah, and go past where we had them. I certainly do. So, okay, so you also mentioned in your article some of the pros and cons kind of limitations to the process, and had some suggestions for like, Where can we go from here? So what? What were those?
Tracy Balduzzi 34:39
So, yeah, so the limitations for me specifically were the fact that I’m an adjunct, right? I don’t have, I’m not I’m not overly like, I’m not at the institution all the time. I don’t know who to go to for certain things. And, you know, so there’s that limitation there. The other limitation is that I do this because I enjoy it. It, right? I don’t get paid to do this extra work, and so somebody else who might not have the time to do it, you know? So that’s definitely a limitation. And for institutions overall, I think too, especially when it comes to grad work, is we think students know how to be grad students, because they went through right something they went through an undergrad program. It’s not always necessarily the case, right? And so I think for institutions, I think we need to recognize that sometimes, and especially post covid, like we’ve seen this, students do need more even at the graduate level, and I think we need to give our faculty the resources to be able to provide those experiences for students, yeah. Or those resources
Lillian Nave 35:51
need need more direction and yeah. And I think that clarity, it’s not just that we expect, or we can’t really just expect, you’re going to know how to do this, and so therefore I don’t have to work that hard. But teaching is very much about that designing and organizing and communicating, all of not just knowing your subject matter, all of those things are so important. Yes, yeah, and that seems to be what you focused on, was the designing and the organizing and the communicating, where your three big changes all related to the universal design for learning guidelines
Tracy Balduzzi 36:35
and also helps. I’m a relationship oriented person, so yeah, it kind of just fits in my personality.
Lillian Nave 36:42
Yeah. So any suggestions for where we go from here after this? So
Tracy Balduzzi 36:49
I wrote out two things, one for institutions as a whole and one for me. Personally, I think for institutions as a whole, we really need to invest time and resources for our graduate faculty. And anyone who’s ever heard me speak or has interacted with me knows that I will always advocate for instructional designers. They are amazing. Oh, and I forgot to mention another instructional designer, Dorothy Lofton, again, and someone else, everyone should follow, does a great stuff with accessibility. But so I think institutionally, we need to have the supports for faculty and for course development, and for me, personally, I you know, this research, this project, was a passion project for me. So for me personally, I think for future, I’d like to be in a role where I can actually invest more time and effort into these types of projects. Yeah.
Lillian Nave 37:54
Great, yeah. I appreciate that. We now have an article that’s specifically in the graduate course space or in applying UDL principles to graduate school, because a lot of the folks I interview, it’s about undergrad. In fact, most all of them, it’s undergrad or workforce development. And so I I’m hoping, too, that others might be interested in doing a similar type of project, if they have the time and the, you know, the ability and maybe the support and work with an instructional designer, that we can get some more research. I know Frederick fauvey said we don’t have very much research on the UDL and graduate schools and so, yeah, this is kind of a call like a mustering up. Let’s see what we can do. Yeah, what are you doing out there, all of our listenings, listeners, in your graduate work, or in teaching and in implementing UDL in the in graduate studies. I’d love to know Me too. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Tracy, it’s been such a lovely conversation, and I really appreciate the important work you did as a passion project in your free time, on top of your full time job and your adjuncting responsibilities. That’s really amazing.
Tracy Balduzzi 39:22
Thank you. After I defended my dissertation, someone’s like you’re going to need to fill it with
Lillian Nave 39:27
something. Well, I guess you have. Thank you so much for being with me today.
Tracy Balduzzi 39:33
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
Lillian Nave 39:38
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