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A department within Student Affairs

Resources for Universal Design in Higher Education

Contents

Electronic Resources

Online tutorials

This online module was produced by Ohio State University’s FAME (Faculty and Administrator Modules in Higher Education) project.  It includes brief and easily navigated sections of text supplemented by video clips of students, disabilities specialists, and faculty. The module concludes with several short case scenarios that invite viewers to select the most appropriate response among the options given; the quality of each answer is then assessed in detail. 

The University of Northern Colorado offers an excellent online tutorial in UDL. There are many sidetracks to pursue if you have the time and inclination.

“Universally Designing a Syllabus” is a tutorial on the Equity and Excellence in Higher Education Universal Course Design website.

Tutorials on a great number of topics regarding universal course design, from creating accessible documents and Excel files to captioning, podcasting, and concept maps.

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Multimedia Resources

EnACT (Ensuring Access through Collaboration and Technology) Accessible Instructional Media Library: Contains links to a number of high-quality, accessible (closed captioning, transcripts) multimedia presentations about the implementation of UDL principles in a variety of disciplines.

Merlot Elixir Initiative offers eight informative video case stories by faculty in a range of disciplines who incorporate specific universally designed features in their courses. Case stories are closed-captioned and have accompanying transcripts.

A 13-minute video presents the rationale for UDL and a variety of ways to create universally designed educational experiences in higher education. The accompanying publication provides details and resources. The presentation is open-captioned and audio-described.

Colorado State University has a worthwhile video that introduces the basics of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) very clearly in 13 minutes.

Slideshow (24 min.) with synchronized audio introducing the principles of UDL and examples of UDL in postsecondary practice.

Slide presentation (14.5 min.) with accompanying audio provides examples of universal course design from instructors at the five Boston-area colleges that participated in the Equity and Excellence in Higher Education Universal Course Design project. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

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Websites

DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology). This University of Washington program offers probably the single most useful site you will find for Universal Design in Education resources. It gives you access to the following relevant sites:

EnACT (Ensuring Access through Collaboration and Technology) UDL resources.

CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology): Although it is not specifically directed to the postsecondary context, much of what this site offers is relevant to our design of courses at Temple. Among the very helpful resources available here are:

  • An interactive list of UDL guidelines, examples, and resources: CAST. Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Wakefield, MA, 2001.
  • UDL examples and resources.
  • UDL Technology toolkit. This kit includes many (free) tools that K-12 educators might use, but many of them are also useful in post-secondary educational contexts.

University of Guelph Teaching Support Services. This page has links to two very useful handbooks, one for classroom-based course, and one for distance learning. These contain detailed checklists for a wide range of issues in course design, teaching, and assessment. You may also subscribe to a listserv for discussion of Universal Instructional Design from this webpage.

UDI Online, a project of Universal Design for Instruction in Postsecondary Education at the University of Connecticut. This site offers no-cost/low-cost e-tools (teaching techniques, resources, and materials) that individual instructors can use to create learning environments that are responsive to the diversity of students in their courses. The emphasis is on tools that don’t require specialized technical knowledge or IT support.

“Diverse Learners”: The e-toolbox sections also contain realistic scenarios in which diverse student needs and challenges call for variations on conventional teaching, communication, and assessment strategies. Each scenario is followed by suggestions for e-tools that could address the challenge in question.

Inclusive Teaching website: Center for Instructional Development and Research, University of Washington). Sections devoted to a range of questions connected with teaching for inclusion.

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Tools for Faculty

Tools for the Universal Design of Instruction from the University of Connecticut. Offers strategies, documents, and software submitted by faculty and evaluated for their universal design features. Click on Instructional Freeware.

UDL Technology Toolkit. This kit includes many free tools that K-12 educators might use, but many of them are also useful in post-secondary educational contexts.

UDI Online, a project of Universal Design for Instruction in Postsecondary Education at the University of Connecticut. This site offers no-cost/low-cost e-tools (teaching techniques, resources, and materials) that individual instructors can use to create learning environments that are responsive to the diversity of students in their courses. The emphasis is on tools that don’t require specialized technical knowledge or IT support.

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Resources for the STEM disciplines

AccessSTEM at DO-IT.

STEM resources.

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Books available online

Steve Acker & Catherine Gynn. Learning Objects: Context and Connections. (PDF) Ohio State University. This book has an interesting chapter on UD and technology (beginning on p. 29).

Jeanne L. Higbee, ed. Curriculum Transformation and Disability: Implementing Universal Design in Higher Education. Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, 2003.

Rose, D. and A. Meyer. Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2002).

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Print Books and articles

Burgstahler, Sheryl. “Lessons Learned in the Faculty Room,” Journal on Excellence in College Teaching 18.3 (2007).

Burgstahler, Sheryl and Rebecca Corey. Universal Design in Higher Education: From Principles to Practice. Harvard Education Press, 2008.  TU library call number: LC4820 .B874 2008. 

Campbell, D. “Assistive Technology and Universal Instructional Design: A postsecondary perspective,” Equity and Excellence in Education 37.2 (2004): 167-73.

Johnson, Julie R. “Universal Instructional Design and Critical (Communication) Pedagogy: Strategies for Voice, Inclusion, and Social Justice/Change,” Equity and Excellence in Education 37.2 (2004): 145-53.

Kame’enui, E.J., et al. Effective Teaching Strategies that Accommodate Diverse Learners. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2002. TU library call number: LB1025.3.E36.

McGuire, J.M., Sally Scott, and Stan Shaw. “Universal Design for Instruction: The paradigm, its principles, and products for enhancing instructional access,” Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability 17.1 (2003): 11-21.

Mino, J. “Planning for Inclusion: using universal instructional design to create a learner-centered community college classroom,” Equity and Excellence in Education 37.2 (2004): 154-60.

Ouellett, M.L. “Faculty development and universal instructional design,” Equity and Excellence in Education 37 (2004): 135-44.

Rose, D., et al. “Universal design for learning in post-secondary education: Reflections and Principles and their applications,” Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability 19.2 (2006): 135-51.

Rose, David H., Meyer, Anne, and Hitchcock, Chuck, eds. The Universally Designed Classroom: Accessible Curriculum and Digital Technologies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2005. TU library call number:  LC4024 .U658x 2005.

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