How to implement universal design for learning

Classrooms are more diverse than ever, increasing the pressure on teachers to design lessons that meet the needs of all students. 

That's where Universal Design for Learning (UDL) comes in. It’s an educational framework designed to combat the one-size-fits-all learning approach. UDL encourages teachers to provide multiple means of representation, action, and engagement to meet all students' needs within one lesson. 

Universal Design for Learning 

Whether you have heard of UDL or not, you have already been exposed to the framework. UDL is grounded in the concept of Universal Design, which focuses on making daily tasks and things more accessible for people with disabilities and without. You would have experienced Universal Design if you ever used close captions, accessibility ramps, wide doorways, and even moveable shower heads.

UDL takes those principles and applies them to help all learners excel in the classroom. This means that educators can help every child reach their full potential by ensuring equal access to the curriculum. While other differentiated approaches focus on singular students, incorporating UDL helps aid all learners, regardless of their ability, diagnosis, or level of engagement.

UDL’s core principles provide teachers with a structure to develop instructions that meet the necessary criteria, including:

• Multiple means of representation give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge
• Multiple means of expression provide learners with alternatives for demonstrating what they know
• Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners' interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to seek out new knowledge and skills. 

And with technology, adapting content and designing personalized learning experiences is more manageable at scale. 

The Ontario Ministry guide to effective assessment shares UDL as an approach to help every student reach their full potential, so we’ve outlined how you can adapt your classroom to meet those core principles using technology. 

Representation 

Eating the same meal every day doesn’t sound very appealing. Neither does learning new content and skills in the same way every lesson, across every subject area. UDL encourages educators to provide students with multiple ways of accessing and processing content, classroom activities and even assessment tasks. And by encouraging students to be self-reflective on how they best acquire information and knowledge, it is easier for educators to unlock their learning potential.

However, as any chef would tell you, providing multiple options is exhausting and time-consuming. By leaning on technology, teachers can guide students to the best outcomes without sacrificing their time. 

Accessing information 

Technology can help students access information in a variety of forms. It can help if teachers present learners with options advocating for student autonomy and voice in the classroom. For example, students can access videos, podcasts, textbooks, and journal articles when learning a new topic. This allows students to choose the format best suited to their learning needs. 

Atomi tip: Atomi videos are designed to reduce cognitive overload by being short, sharp and visually engaging. They are also grounded in research-backed principles like chunking and accessible colour design, reducing cognitive load and allowing a range of learners to meaningfully engage with the same material. Get started for free. 

Understanding areas of strength and weaknesses

It is often only after assessment tasks that students understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Often, at this point, it is too late to close learning gaps and strengthen content connections as they move onto new topics. Technology allows students to identify and correct misconceptions. Atomi provides students with strengths scores directly linked to how well they know the content and how often they revise. Better still, the AI within the platform will send student recommendations on where to spend their time based on their data. 

Reflective learning 

Developing students' capacity for reflection is a vital component of the learning process. This skill not only equips students for life beyond school but also fosters an understanding of their learning styles, strengths, and areas for improvement. Additionally, it helps students cultivate effective study habits that will benefit them in their future pursuits. 

Atomi tip: Atomi study skill resources help teachers foster reflective practice in students. To get you started, take a look at our SMART goals worksheet.

Means of expression 

While moving through topics, educators often focus on what content and skills students have mastered and where learning gaps exist. However, in traditional classroom settings, students are required to showcase that information in one format. By incorporating a UDL, educators allow students to showcase their learning in various ways. For example, teachers can enable students to express their understanding in different formats—for example, dot points, speeches or visual representations.  

While this sounds ideal in theory, implementing UDL can be challenging. However, when paired with the right tools, not only do students benefit, but teachers can also avoid additional administrative work.

Offering options 

Technology allows educators to provide students with alternative means of demonstrating their understanding without modifying existing resources. Teachers can empower students to choose how they demonstrate their learning by providing a technology tool as an additional resource. This could encompass both online methods and traditional approaches, such as in-class activities, worksheets, and learning platforms. The Atomi platform provides short quizzes directly aligned to curriculum expectations, meaning students can demonstrate what they have understood while allowing teachers to capture helpful, actionable data. 

Atomi tip: When revising assessment tasks, students and teachers can curate revision sessions that address individual student needs. 

Pivoting

Many teachers know the feeling of spending hours planning a lesson only to find students disengaged and lacking motivation. This can result in poor classroom behavior, which can frustrate teachers and cause students to leave without achieving the desired learning outcomes. Thankfully, with the right technological tools, teachers can pivot lessons on the go without adding additional time or effort. The Atomi platform has many short, sharp, engaging lessons with corresponding quizzes for students to understand new content and express their understanding. By leaning on these pre-designed lessons, teachers can change the direction of their lessons quickly and seamlessly. 

Engagement

In the age of TikTok, capturing and retaining student attention can be difficult. While it may pose a challenge, educators must tap into students' interests to help them get excited about learning. Thankfully, technology can offer teachers various tools to not only hook students but keep them on the line for longer than 2 minutes. 

Student autonomy 

Technology can play a big role in giving students a voice and more autonomy in the classroom. Tech tools like voice-to-text can make expression more accessible, and search engines allow students to find case studies and news articles that align with their unique needs and interests. This validates students and empowers them to share their thoughts and opinions. An online learning platform like Atomi, allows students the freedom to explore topics at their own pace, pausing and digging deeper into areas of interest. This can also lead to more meaningful in-class discussions as students can come to lessons armed with context and prior knowledge. 

Offering challenge 

Meeting student needs is becoming increasingly challenging. Teachers often find their classrooms split into two or three levels, which can change immediately. This makes it difficult for educators to plan and deliver content pitched to the correct depth. Implementing tech can help educators differentiate lessons to ensure students are challenged and engaged. Atomi allows educators to create different work paths for individual students in a few clicks of a button. This is seamless and discrete and allows educators to track progress and celebrate student wins. 

UDL and your classroom 

Implementing a new pedagogical approach can seem daunting and time-consuming. 

We covered a lot of UDL pillars, but if you’re just taking your first steps with UDL in your classroom, it might be best to start small! Selecting one pillar of UDL is a great place to begin experimenting with what works for you and your students. If we learned anything from this approach, no one size fits, and the same can be said for educators. And your confidence grows, you can expand to the other components of UDL and across all of your classes. 

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