Universal Design for Learning - Relevance to EET

I messed up on the timing around this message about the relevance of the Universal Design workshops that many of us attended last week.  The relevance was clear in my mind, but I didn’t communicate it, so my apologies.

It’s important that all of us in EET have at least a foundational knowledge of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for a couple of reasons:

• We are anticipating that UDL will be part of the Academic Transformation Strategy that will be developed in follow up to the spring college-wide strategic planning we participated in.  Accessibility Services has plans for increasing awareness of UDL across campus, but most specifically with instructors in course design (LMS, website, assignment design, handouts, etc.) and course delivery.
• EET staff provide a lot of front line support for both new and experienced instructors.   We should be modeling UDL in our language when we are talking with instructors, demonstrating it in materials we develop (for the LMS, websites, handouts (digital and print), integrating it into course and program redesigns, and encouraging instructors to follow UDL principles as well.

Please take the time to ensure you have at least a foundational knowledge of UDL because it’s something we’ll need to be current on as we support the development of the Academic Transformation Strategy.