Robert Russo is a faculty member at the Allard School of Law and participated in the 2023 UDL Fellows Program. He shares the ways that he incorporated the UDL principles into his practice, breaking down barriers in traditional law education.
Please describe how you have applied UDL principles in your course.
I modified the syllabi in all of my courses to incorporate UDL principles. For example, I have included accessibility statements, hyperlinks to different sections of the syllabus, and rewritten and reorganized my syllabi to make them more accessible and clearer for students. I have modified my Ethics course to incorporate the 3 principles of UDL: multiple means of engagement, representation & action/expression.
In regard to engagement, I have incorporated more opportunities for discussion and Q&A’s in different formats (i.e. in-class and online). For means of representation, I have included videos/audio and podcasts for various topics in the course. My lectures are delivered in PowerPoint format, and I have included more visual representations of legal topics (i.e. diagrams, pictures representing various weekly topics along with alt-text descriptions of all images).
Perhaps the most useful change has been a simple one: not only recording video lectures but making transcripts of lectures available to students. Some extensive changes in my course include means of action/expression. In law courses, the typical means of assessment include a final exam, often worth 100% (or close to it) of the course mark. I have reduced the value of my final exam to 50 or 60% and included alternative methods for students to demonstrate course knowledge. Following the UDL suggestions, I have included a reflection essay, timed quizzes, and legal analysis problems as part of the final course mark. The legal analysis problems also incorporate UDL principles of engagement with material and help to prepare students for the final exam.
What challenges did you face when implementing UDL, and how did you overcome them?
Developing the course changes was not difficult. The tools and concepts I learned through the UDL Fellows Program gave me an immense amount of information and resources. I also found the experience of speaking with fellow faculty in the program very useful in developing the changes. I enjoyed modifying my courses to provide a more accessible experience and found it to be a very creative exercise in developing new means of engagement and assessment. Implementing the changes was a bit more challenging. Course delivery to the students (i.e. class lectures, discussions, etc.) remained excellent. I did notice a drop in student attendance throughout the term that may have correlated with the availability of online class recordings, but the percentage did not vary from previous terms, and I am not sure if there is a correlation with recordings being available to all students. However, the new means of assessment did require more instructor time in evaluation, providing individualized student feedback, and in-class discussions. This does require more instructor time, and in larger class sizes a considerable amount of time would have to be devoted during the term. This could be solved through the use of group feedback when appropriate and perhaps having TAs available to help provide student feedback on assignments for very large class sizes.
How have students benefited from the UDL strategies you implemented?
I have received generally positive feedback on the course changes. The UDL strategies seems to have benefitted students most in two ways:
- Students have very much appreciated the availability of class recordings, captions and transcripts for class lectures. Several students have personally thanked me for making these changes and noted that it avoids having to make accommodation requests to the CfA.
- There was also positive feedback on the move away from 100% exams to more varied assessments. Several students noted that the varied course assessments not only made learning the material easier throughout the term but also lessened their anxiety during the exam period.