From the Department of Occupational Therapy, professors Laura Bulk, Elly Park, and Michael Lee teamed up to redesign OSOT513, Health, Illness and Occupation, with universal design in mind. Here, they discuss the benefits and challenges of UDL and finding balance in an asynchronous learning environment.
How have you applied UDL to your course?
Laura: A big piece of UDL that we integrated was having multiple means of engagement as well as representation. We created online asynchronous modules with which students could engage at any time. The modules had a mixture of text, video, audio and little quizzes or postings, and we tried to incorporate some motivation by having completion marks go toward the students’ final grade. There was also incentive for completing the modules because we had some sessions with patient education leaders – we wanted students to do the relevant module before they met whichever patient educator was coming in that week so they could be better prepared for the conversation. Another component we incorporated was weekly announcements sent through Canvas to provide updates and encourage students to check in regularly.
Elly: We also carefully considered the topics being delivered and were intentional about selecting which ones to offer as online asynchronous modules. These modules focused more on pathophysiology and epidemiology—subjects that require less immediate application of content and materials.
What motivated you to participate in the UDL Fellows program and start incorporating UDL principles in your courses?
Michael: Adopting UDL is one of the core values and beliefs of occupational therapy. As healthcare professionals we’re always talking about how to we can ensure equal access, so in order to live out what we believe and to practice what we preach, adopting UDL is almost a no brainer. Back in 2017 we started wrestling with the idea of how to incorporate UDL into our curriculum but were interrupted by COVID. Afterwards, we decided to go back to the drawing board, so when the opportunity came up to join the UDL Fellows Program in 2024, we jumped on it!
Laura: Like Michael said, ethically as occupational therapists, we need to incorporate UDL to enact our values. I was also a student in this program 10 years ago so I had some experience from the learner end of things and recognize the importance of increased accessibility and a wide range of options. I wanted students to be able to learn things in a way that wouldn’t trap them in medical model pathologizing ways of thinking. That’s why we incorporated the patient educators to increase the diversity of voices in terms of who’s delivering content.
Did you experience any challenges with implementing UDL and how did you overcome them?
Laura: It definitely does take a lot of work to overhaul your course as an educator. Going off what I was just saying, it was challenging to incorporate a multiplicity of voices. It was hard to coordinate and connect with other clinical educators and guide them in the cocreation of the modules. Then there were all the practical elements, such as writing captions for everything and troubleshooting technical issues in Canvas—tasks the CTLT was always very helpful with. Sometimes it feels like it would be easier to just do something yourself, easier to just lecture. There are a lot of things that don’t incorporate UDL that feel easier from an educator’s standpoint, but they’re not as good. So then my question is, if people aren’t learning, are you really teaching?
Elly: A personal challenge I faced is that I really need reciprocity in teaching, which made the asynchronous portion quite difficult. Not being able to connect with the students in person all the time made me feel like #1, I wasn’t providing them and Laura the support they needed and #2, I was experiencing tension with my own teaching philosophy. We tried to promote the use of discussion boards and told students to email us so there was more communication. I think it’s a matter of understanding that it will work and leaning into it instead of being afraid and shying away from the process. The positives definitely outweigh the not-so-positives.
How have students benefited from the UDL strategies you implemented?
Elly: I received feedback anecdotally from students saying that the flexibility of the modules was wonderful, and they really appreciated having protected time within our schedule, especially the students in Prince George. I also heard that a lot of students were really impressed with the quality of the modules. Laura did an amazing job at making sure there was consistency, which also supports the UDL principles to make them more accessible and improving readability, accessibility, and flexibility.
Laura: We only got 5 responses on our official UBC survey, but we got a lot of feedback responses for the individual modules, which I think is also a chance for students to feel like they’re part of the process and are cocreating something. We were very transparent in the beginning that “we are revamping this course and integrating universal design for learning, and so we will be making it better based on your input,” and I think students seemed to really take that to heart.
Do you have any tips or resources you’d like to share with anyone implementing UDL for the first time?
Laura: Don’t do it all at once. Just find one thing that feels doable to you and do that. I think what we did felt doable to me because we were taking it step by step and giving ourselves enough space as we were planning things. I’d say the most important thing is to work within your own capacity as an educator.
Michael: UBC Studios has been one of the major supports for us as well in terms of doing all the video production for the modules. I imagine it would have been a very demanding and daunting task if we had to do all the videos by ourselves without the equipment from the studio. It’s important to ensure future participants are aware that DIY media development is a valuable resource they can access at no cost.
Thank you to Laura, Elly, and Michael for sharing their story