Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Principles   

This quick course provides an overview of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and strategies to help you create inclusive classroom lessons.

This teacher professional development course will provide you with a starting point for understanding Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how its principles can help impact student learning. Throughout the course, you will analyze the core principles of UDL and how crafting student learning experiences with each idea in mind can benefit your students and provide them with more choices and opportunities to learn in a way that is right for them.

You will learn how engagement, representation, and action and expression can be utilized at both the elementary and the secondary level so that you have a starting point for integrating these ideas into your lesson planning.

The course comes with a downloadable PDF of the content and a planning resource for you to utilize as you work to integrate these concepts into your future lessons.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 10 or later.
• Mac: macOS 12 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Microsoft Word Online
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.
• Editing of a Microsoft Word document is required in this course. You may use a free version of Microsoft Word Online, or Google Docs if you do not have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Model Teaching can provide support for this.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

1. A Look into Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Content
   1. The video and article will provide you with the content required to understand and implement the UDL framework into your classroom. It also includes some "Reflect or Discuss" prompts to help you connect with the course content and ends with a "Try This Task" to guide you explicitly on how you might implement the ideas into the classroom and craft a UDL lesson plan.
2. Quiz
   1. You will answer questions related to Universal Design for Learning. Quizzes are automatically scored and provide feedback on answer choice rationale.
3. Implementation Reflection
   1. The reflection prompt requires you to plan for use of the "try this task" by either reflecting on the content yourself or discussing them with the colleague. You will then discuss a new concept you can attempt to implement in the future based on something you learned in the course.
4. Considerations for Implementation
   1. This short statement helps you reflect on your ideas and assess whether you might be successful in your implementation.
5. Videos and Further Reading
   1. Additional content suggestions are provided to enhance and expand your learning of Universal Design for Learning.

What you will learn

• Understand the three guidelines of UDL
• Analyze benefits of a UDL education and how it impacts all learning abilities
• Evaluate examples of UDL in the classroom

How you will benefit

• You will be able to regularly evaluate how the UDL guidelines of engagement, representation, and action and expression are integrated into your own lessons to support your students
• Your lessons will improve, and your relationship with your students will grow as a result of your focus on implementing the UDL framework into your classroom
• Your students will thrive in a classroom environment that supports them as individuals with unique needs