Surita Jhangiani, Interim Associate Dean, Equity in the Faculty of Education and Associate Professor of Teaching in Human Development, Learning and Culture in the Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology & Special Education (ECPS), discusses how she used UDL to redesign EPSE 308 through a redesigned course syllabus, diverse ways to access materials, assignment variety, and more.
How did you apply UDL to the course EPSE 308?
Within the course, we redesigned the course syllabus so that there is more visualization to represent information so that everything isn’t too text-heavy. We also decided to use a more diverse range of course readings that include traditional journal articles as well as things like blog posts and audiobooks. By utilizing open education resources, or OERs, a lot of the readings also have audio recordings, which allows for more ways to access those articles for different types of learners. We’ve also diversified assignments for the course by having writing tasks as well as active forms of learning. I’ve found that, for example, group discussions have their challenges, especially in large lectures, because of sound and acoustics, so we might use a Mentimeter or some other interactive way to break up the lecture.
Another thing is being conscientious about how we design our PowerPoints, as I’ve realized that while we may think that our PowerPoint has good colour contrast, when you look at the PowerPoint on the overhead through the projector, the colour contrast isn’t great. Being mindful about the size of text we are using and the amount of information on each slide is also important to increase the readability of slides for students. The Faculty of Education has also responded to the need to focus on accessibility by creating an accessibility working group this year, which has garnered a lot of interest. The working group has really focused on how to implement these practices and is leading workshops by going to department meetings and talking about UDL practices and accessibility.
Your project summary says that you and a colleague co-developed a set of UDL-based cards to explore how classroom spaces can be created to foster UDL principles. This sounds fascinating; could you expand on what these cards entail?
Yeah, so we asked colleagues in the K-12 system to take photos of their classrooms, and we put those photos on one side of these cards, and on the other side of the card there’s a description of the classroom and some prompts. We’d look at CAST’s (Center for Applied Special Technology) UDL guidelines page and try to adapt the classroom for X or Y purposes using what’s already there. Sometimes you see classrooms with fancy equipment and furniture, but schools often can’t afford those things. The cards had different kinds of classrooms too, such as a theatre room or a science room, and students had really creative ways of dealing with some of the classrooms that they have and how they can make those rooms more accessible for different types of learners.
How have students benefited from the UDL strategies you implemented?
UDL has aided students in mastering skills; for example, we offer smaller assignments that don’t carry a high mark value, but they serve to build skills in preparation for larger assignments. Students appreciate being able to build skills without having to worry about the learning process impacting their grade. Also, having multiple ways to hand in assignments has been really helpful, as you may know the information well, but different students have different strengths in how they present information, and I have to say, I’ve been really taken aback by the quality of students’ work when they are given multiple ways to submit work. This approach aligns with the UDL principle of providing multiple means of action and expression, which emphasizes offering students diverse ways to demonstrate their learning. It’s really shown us as faculty how important it is to provide learners with agency and choice to engage with materials in multiple ways. The Bachelor of Education program is really intense, and being able to do something like listen to an audio recording while transiting or driving onto campus can help students deal with their intense schedule.
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?
When there are changes to programs or applications that we have access to, that can create a barrier for faculty who need to use particular applications as a part of their job; for example, there was recently a change to our Adobe Acrobat Professional licenses on campus. Microsoft 365 has useful accessibility features such as built-in recording in PowerPoint, but unfortunately this version is currently not available for faculty. Another barrier is that we don’t always make our documents and PDFs accessible enough, and there’s a lot more we can do to make them more accessible by doing things such as increasing font sizes and using clear headings. Adobe also has an accessibility checker, which can be a helpful place to start when creating accessible documents.
Can you share any resources, tools, or practices you found or created that were particularly effective in applying UDL?
There’s a book called Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning: Building Expressways to Success by Andratesha Fritzgerald, which I found really helpful in looking at UDL and its practices from a perspective of equity and anti-racism. I also find the CAST website to be helpful, as it is constantly updating and changing to stay up to date. Two podcasts I found helpful are the Reid Connect-Ed Podcast and Episode 106 of the UDL in 15 Minutes podcast, which discusses UDL approaches in higher education.
What motivated you to initiate this work in your course or practice?
I believe it began in 2017, when I was teaching, and a student required a screen reader to read slides. This experience heightened my awareness of how I formatted slides and ensured the accessibility of the readings I assigned. Having students that require accommodations really makes you appreciate the variability in the ways people learn. This led me to deepen my understanding of UDL and develop a deep appreciation for its philosophy, which focuses on enabling learners to reach their full potential. I learned about how more traditional assignments don’t give students enough options to showcase their knowledge, so I started focusing on learner variability and the importance of giving students more options in how they can demonstrate their understanding.
I’ve also learned about the importance of talking to learners about UDL and making your intentions explicit. When I first started, I think I may have given students too many options, which can feel overwhelming. To address this, I began incorporating smaller assignments that build up to a big final assignment, making the options more manageable and less daunting.
Now, I try to be more aware of each learner’s needs, and I’m not always going to get it right, but I’m always learning from my students and aiming to improve.
Is there anything else we haven’t talked about that you would like to mention?
I just want to mention that I’m away from teaching at the moment, and though I’ll be going back to it next year, we have two other fabulous instructors who have taken over the course and have taken up implementing UDL, which they continue making amazing strides in!