What is your role at UBC, and how have you applied UDL to your work and approach?
Paulo: My name is Paulo Tchen, and I’m a lecturer and coordinator in the faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. I am the coordinator for Pharmacy (PHRM) 471, which is one of the fourth-year practicum courses. Students in this course will be on a practicum in pharmacy, typically in a community setting, where they will spend eight weeks during their fourth-year term. Additionally, I’m the course co-coordinator for a second-year elective course called PHRM 300F, which is exploring rural pharmacy practice, and I’m also a co-coordinator for PHRM 351, which is a practice management and leadership course.
In terms of UDL, I think my courses are quite different in the sense that two out of three of them are delivered completely remotely or asynchronously, with the practicum course, I have limited face-to-face time with the students, and then they’re typically on rotation in the practicum at the pharmacy. The way that the course is run is unique in that a lot of the content is delivered through some of our orientations, but the majority is delivered through Canvas. We primarily deliver PHRM 300F, a second-year elective course, asynchronously. So, a lot of the didactic content is through modules that the students review and complete on Canvas, and then afterwards we have final presentations where we have a little bit more face-to-face time together. Because the course is so unique, it was really evident that some of the principles that I learned through the UDL fellows program could be applied in different ways with the ultimate goal of presenting materials in a different way and allowing students who may have different needs or preferences to be able to reach the same learning objectives and goals that we had sort of set out for our courses.
Lyon: I’m Lyon Tsang, and I’m part of what we call the OETLD, or the Office of Educational Technology and Learning Designs, here at Pharmaceutical Sciences. We’re involved with all PharmSci courses in terms of how they’re set up on Canvas and what tools and technologies are implemented to enhance both teaching and learning. Our team is always thinking about UDL principles, but the fellowship program gave me a great opportunity to explicitly and intentionally focus on applying them in Paulo’s courses. There’s a lot of static content in 471 for example, and it’s been an ongoing task to figure out how to present all that information in more engaging, accessible, and meaningful ways.
Given that you had the opportunity to design a new elective course, PHRM 300F, how did you use that opportunity to integrate UDL principles? Do you have any advice for others who are designing new courses from scratch?
Paulo: I had two other colleagues involved with the launch of this new elective course, PHRM 300F, and I think we were very fortunate because we were supported by members of Lyon’s team, in this case, Jocelyn Micallef, who was a UDL fellow in the year before me. Our initial goal was to design a course that used UDL principles to help all students learn in their own way through the mediums presented. Jocelyn was able to provide us with a lot of insight into incorporating UDL without me even knowing that’s what we were actually discussing at that time before my program. I think we’re lucky that we started with these principles and realized later that this was UDL.
For advice, I think step one is going in with the learner’s perspective in mind. I think the big takeaway for me as I reflect back on my learning so far is that there doesn’t have to be a lot of major changes.
A single change can initiate significant progress, even if it’s a minor one. And with that change, if it benefits even one student, then it’s a success.
A lot of times Lyon and I are thinking about, okay, what do we need to do? There’s no need to be grand; it just needs to be intentional, and if we’re thinking of one student, we’re on the right track.
What did you learn from running the course, and what changes are you looking forward to making for the next course offering next summer?
Paulo: With our 300F elective course, we are actually increasing enrollment by a little bit because the first time we ran it, there was a lot of interest, but because there’s a project component to it, we wanted to make sure that we had everything in place before offering more seats. We’re pleased and excited to run the course for a second time. In terms of making changes, we conducted an evaluation survey using a UDL-specific lens and sent it to the students for additional feedback. This survey provided us with numerous UDL-related ideas that we hope to incorporate. For example, we tested the option of providing audio feedback for student reflections, which Lyon helped conceptualize, and that audio reflection feedback actually was perceived quite positively by students. So, we’re going to definitely be incorporating that in the future version of the course.
Another thing that comes to mind is that there are a lot of reflective activities in the course, so I think that for next year, we’re going to maybe change the format for them. Instead of having four required reflections, we’re going to offer four reflection topics, but students will only need to complete three of them, empowering students with more choice to focus on the topics that resonate with them. This aligns with the engagement and action and expression principle of UDL.
In what ways did you redesign your PHRM 471 course to optimize for multiple means of representation and engagement?
Lyon: We had to start with a huge foundation of resources and documents, so one of the first things we tried to focus on was how to present all of this information more intuitively for students. Rather than just providing a list of files and links to click through, we felt it was important to give context and highlight key components to help students get the most out of the content. We also leveraged Canvas for more dynamic formatting. In the practicum course for example, students have a list of tasks they must complete and we used the “Mark as done” feature to set up an interactive checklist for students to visualize their progress. 471 is part of a series of practicum courses here, and we’re working on creating a holistic roadmap to help students see the big picture, revisit past themes, and have a better understanding of what’s to come. The goal is scaling all these changes to the other courses at some point, so everything throughout the student journey is consistent.
What motivated you to engage with the UDL Fellows program and start incorporating UDL principles in your practice? Why do you think UDL and accessibility are important in your work?
Paulo: There was definitely a knowledge gap for me in not fully understanding why we do some of the things we do in the classroom. I questioned what outcomes we are trying to achieve from a student’s or learner’s perspective. When I learned more about UDL, I wondered how it affected student learning, and after talking to some of my colleagues who were involved in the program or practiced UDL, I realized how critical it is to reflect and have these conversations. While acknowledging that students learn differently is crucial, I believe that as higher education professionals, we must ensure that our output is meaningful, applicable, and accessible to all. Seeing the large impact that UDL has through small changes reinforced my desire to continue implementing it and also evolve my teaching style and practice as an educator.
Lyon: UDL is always a priority for the OETLD, especially with Jocelyn on the team — who went through the Fellows program herself last year and is currently a member of the planning team. For me, a lot of my work involves time-sensitive requests that have to be fulfilled on a day-to-day or shorter-term basis. Going through the UDL Fellows program, I wanted to become better informed and equipped to deal with the micro-decisions I get to be involved with for better student experiences.
Did you experience any challenges with implementing UDL, and how did you overcome them?
Paulo: In a lot of the conversations Lyon and I have, we have to ask ourselves, Is this enough? Is this meaningful? Will students care? Are we doing the right thing? So, a big challenge has been grappling with doubt. The course we are working on already exists, and it’s reusable in that we can kind of just clone it and keep doing the same thing, so why change something if it’s not broken? However, I came to the realization that such a mindset hinders progress. Reflecting on that made me realize that just because something works, doesn’t mean it’s working well for everyone. Another thing I have to remember is that small changes do matter, and if we don’t pay attention to making small improvements, nothing changes, so I have to challenge myself to challenge our output and look for ways to improve our courses in the best interest of students.
Lyon: From a practical perspective, time is definitely a constraint. PharmSci doesn’t offer many courses during the summer, so when we initially began this process we felt like we had more than enough time. As the summer came to an end and the fall term approached though, we realized we’d have to focus on other tasks and that’s why we’re still working on and tweaking things now. UDL efforts can also be more front-loaded than we’re used to, and the impacts and benefits might not be seen right away. I think about others in roles like mine at the university who might have even less time to allocate, and I think the message Paulo and I have is: don’t be discouraged! Work on things incrementally, and results will follow at some point if your intentions are good.
How have students and your colleagues benefited from the UDL strategies you implemented?
Paulo: I think applying UDL has sparked great conversations with my colleagues. For example, I was getting Lyon to show me how to provide audio feedback for assignments, and as a low-tech person, it was much easier than I expected to implement. I was then able to speak to another colleague who teaches a larger class about it, where I could speak to my firsthand experience of how easy it actually is. Some people have never considered feedback in multiple formats, but having a faculty member do it and vouch for it can be a good starting point.
Lyon: To add to that, we’re doing things that won’t necessarily be limited to just one course. Instead, these should be scalable and useful in a variety of course contexts. Instructors can take inspiration from a growing yet flexible UDL framework over time, and students will be able to benefit.
What accessibility and inclusion barriers have you noticed in your own experience or in the experiences of your UBC colleagues? How does UDL help address these barriers?
Paulo: In our year, there are 220 students, so it’s a rather large class, and when I think about the students going through our difficult and intensive program, I wonder how one navigates meeting the program’s rigorous expectations while also managing learning challenges or impairments that are specific and peculiar to them. In this large-scale operation, it can feel difficult to accommodate each individual student’s diverse learning needs. I think UDL helps us to refocus and ground these conversations so we have a starting point for change.
Lyon: Many of our programs are cohort-based, and with that comes a certain structure and routine. There are benefits to that, such as students becoming more familiar with and knowing what to expect throughout their program over time. Like Paulo mentioned though, it’s not always easy to tackle individual learner needs or even implement changes in this large-scale operation. That’s why we like to see UDL as an ongoing process, one that is both incremental and iterative.
Can you share any resources you found that were particularly effective in applying UDL?
Paulo: Talking to your colleagues and staff, as well as using instructional support units and departments like CTLT, can be a valuable resource. I serve on the EDI advisory committee for our faculty, and my colleague Ginette Vallée and I contributed to the development of an EDI Self-Assessment Tool. This tool serves as a self-check, allowing you to review each section of your work to determine if it addresses the EDI considerations that should be accounted for when creating any formal lesson or activity for students. A lot of the EDI principles in inclusion that this accounts for overlaps with UDL principles and can be leveraged to advance accessibility.
Is there anything else we haven’t talked about that you would like to mention?
Paulo: One thing essential for me is that through the UDL Fellows program, I was actually able to work really closely with Lyon, someone who’s like-minded and who has a lot of knowledge that he can bring to the table when we have these conversations, which has been a really wonderful experience.
Lyon: What Paulo said, but about him as well!