I have been taking T560: Universal Design for Learning: Theory, Practice, and Innovation this fall semester and I am here to share my experience with the course so far! Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences that guides the development of flexible learning environments and learning spaces that can accommodate individual learning differences. UDL is such a powerful approach that helps ensure that all students can access and engage in learning and not just certain students. I would like to point out a few components of this course that makes this course fun, unique, and engaging.
Readings and sharing reflections were a wonderful to engage my interest and achieve a deeper understanding. Although it can be a bit stressful to meet the weekly deadline at busy times, I always felt it deepened my understanding of the course readings each week by reflecting and reading my classmates’ reflections. The best part is that we have the option of articulating our thoughts in ways we prefer, such as writing, video, audio, or anything! I have been experimenting with different ways of reflecting, such as drawing, charts, and videos, which has been a lot of fun. We have also been having inspirational guest speakers throughout the semester, including David Rose, co-founder of CAST, who helped further highlight the importance of UDL in education.
The semester project has been a great opportunity to apply the theoretical framework we have been learning about to a project of our interest with like-minded peers. The project was well structured, and I appreciate the feedback I received throughout the project. The project has been pushing me to take an innovative approach and apply UDL principles to my work, assessing its real-life applicability and effectiveness. An amazing thing about UDL is that it can be applied to any field that is relevant to you. For example, I am doing a project on using UDL to reduce health literacy barriers and to improve patient understanding, especially those with limited English proficiency, hearing impairment, and low reading comprehension level. While we have the freedom to pursue a topic of our interest, the teaching team is always there to support you to make sure you are not lost in the process.
This course is well-designed in a UDL fashion, where we always have options, from project topics to how we deliver our reflections and project. Besides the reflections, project, and guest speakers, lectures, discussions, sections, workshops, and community engagement all helped enhance my understanding of the UDL framework and gave me a chance to experience and challenge various approaches, tools, and models. Liz and Jose as well as the teaching fellows Ari and Liz have all been extremely effective in fostering a positive classroom environment, that encourages diverse opinions, promotes innovation and supports in-depth engagement with the course material. I am very much looking forward to Sharatorium at the end of the semester, where we all get to share our own project and hear about what our classmates are working on and receive further feedback to refine our projects. I highly recommend this class to everyone, no matter what background you are coming from. More people need to see the world through a UDL lens to give all individuals an equal opportunity to succeed.
Author:
Melina Kim is an Ed.M candidate in Technology, Innovation & Education at HGSE and a Master of Bioethics candidate at Harvard Medical School. Want to know more? Watch a video from Melina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9udxYkeAKxc&t=6s
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