We are very excited to announce and invite faculty to join our webinar with Dr. Thomas J. Tobin on February 5.
Some of you may recognize Dr. Tobin as the author of our fall 2020 book club pick, Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education, which led to the formation of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) committee at the College.
In our hour-long online session, Dr. Tobin will introduce UDL and share his thoughts on how to implement UDL methods into your course designs.
Sign up now!
About the session:
This webinar will introduce you to Universal Design for Learning, especially as newly revised for higher education (CAST, 2014). You will discover how to implement UDL in the design of your online course and service interactions, creating spaces for best teaching and support practices to take place—in the classroom and beyond. This is best accomplished through an incremental approach, using a “next 20” series of milestones—achievements that can be attained in the next 20 minutes, 20 days, and 20 months (Tobin & Behling, 2018).
You’ll also find out where to look for help at your institution and in your LMS: recent research from CAST and the Center for Universal Design in Education suggests that institutions whose faculty-support staff members use UDL, too, see better adoption rates and deeper penetration of UDL principles across all courses (CAST, 2014; DO-IT, 2015). By attending this webinar presentation, you will be able to
- incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) elements into your courses,
- design/retrofit existing course components using UDL principles,
- expand your institution’s use of UDL through five targeted, use-them-tomorrow techniques.
This webinar uses active-learning techniques and provides use-them-now resources for participants. Especially by relating UDL to broader access benefits for all learners, this webinar’s activities serve as a model for participants to re-frame accessibility and inclusion conversations.
This webinar posits diversity in its most inclusive form: instead of relying solely on providing accommodation services to learners with disabilities—which is most often a last-minute, ad-hoc, reactive process—adopting UDL as part of an institution’s culture of course design, teaching practices, and support services allows all learners to benefit, regardless of their place on the ability spectrum.
References
CAST. (2014). UDL on campus: Universal design for learning in higher education—a guide. http://udloncampus.cast.org.
DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology). (2015). Applications of universal design in postsecondary education. Center for Universal Design in Education. University of Washington. http://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/center-universal-design-education/applications-universal-design-postsecondary-education.
Tobin, T. J. & Behling, K. (2018). Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. West Virginia University Press.
About the facilitator:
Thomas J. Tobin, PhD, MSLS, PMP, MOT, CPACC is the Program Area Director for Distance Teaching & Learning on the Learning Design, Development, & Innovation (LDDI) team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as an internationally recognized speaker and author on technology-mediated education. His books include
- Evaluating Online Teaching: Implementing Best Practices (2015).
- The Copyright Ninja (2017).
- Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education (2018).
- Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers (2020).
