BCcampus, the Gold Sponsor of the Conference, discuss the overlap between Open Educational practices and UDL, and explain the ways UDL is intimately woven into their work.

At BCcampus, we support the adaptation and evolution of teaching and learning practices to improve the learning experiences of students across British Columbia. One of our major initiatives is around open education, where we support B.C. faculty in adopting, adapting, and creating open educational resources (OER) and adopting open pedagogical practices in the classroom. Our work aligns with the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in many ways, but in particular, we would like to highlight how open textbooks can increase access to education and improve the learning experiences for students all around the world. (To read more, please visit the original BCcampus blog)

Do you believe that UDL and DI are incompatible frameworks? Or can these approaches to instruction complement one another in a marriage of sorts?  I believe that UDL and DI represent different approaches to instruction, but they have some core similarities that support curriculum design in distance learning environments that strive to enhance access to higher education. In fact, I think it makes sense to include both in the distance-learning context.

The most notable similarity between the two approaches is that that they share a common end goal:  to account for student variability in the classroom. However, the two approaches differ a bit in the ways in which they go about achieving this (just like spouses in a marriage). While DI is based on retrofitting and modifying instruction on the back-end, UDL anticipates student’s diversity and builds in multiple forms of representation, engagement and expression from the outset. A clash in pedagogical approach?  Or just a bump in the road? Neither, if you work on the strengths of each approach in a way that complements the core goal that both frameworks support: student variability. If we continue focusing of the differences between the two approaches, we will be unable to turn adversaries into allies.

Join my session at the upcoming conference where I will showcase how the flexibility of the online classroom can be monopolized to create a customized learning experience for each student by incorporating elements of both approaches. I will also present a working prototype of how UDL applications of DI have been applied to a Business Communications course in a distance learning setting by altering the three elements of DI (product, process and content) in the provision of the three UDL principles (multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement), which I will demonstrate to the audience.

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Author Bio

Ashiya Abdool Satar is an academic in the Department of Communication Science at the University of South Africa (Unisa). She has diverse research interests that mirror her educational pursuits in the areas of organizational communication, media studies, inclusive education, and Open Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) in the Higher Education sector. Ashiya is currently involved in projects focusing on active youth citizenship, social justice, media identity and representation, public sector communication, and inclusive education, with a particular focus on the universal design of learning (UDL) approach. Ashiya is also co-editor of an upcoming book related to social media theory and research.

What does a tall man in a compact car have to do with UDL research in higher education? Come see Darla Benton Kearney, from Mohawk College, to find out!

On Thursday, October 3^rd at 11:00 a.m. A Case for Institution Specific UDL Research will use Mohawk College’s Universal Design for Learning (UDL) research experience to make a quick argument for why others should embark on their own, context specific UDL research journey.

For some years now, Canadian universities have been encouraged by national education bodies like Universities Canada and the CBIE to integrate intercultural learning in classroom, research, and community activities in order to promote valuing of diverse worldviews, empathy for ‘others,’ and respect for Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

So, how can we do that? What are we actually putting into action? What might we do better?

Unsurprisingly, the research shows that variety in course materials, methods, and learning activities as described in the UDL framework is an important support. But UDL on its own is not enough. Other key supports include critical and holistic pedagogies, intentional design of experiential learning with ‘others,’ and facilitators with intercultural teaching competencies.

This experiential workshop will introduce you to weaving UDL with critical and holistic pedagogies and provide you with opportunities to practice intercultural teaching competencies – including designing an introductory learning activity that can support relationship building in culturally diverse groups. We will provide sample course scenarios for participants to work with, but please do feel free to bring a course outline if you’d like to develop or revise an opening activity in your own course.  

This workshop is facilitated by Donna DesBiens, Eric Bigrigg, Jason Keddie, and Valeria Cortes of Royal Roads University.  Donna, Eric and Jason are learning designers with the Centre for Teaching with Educational Technologies and Val is an instructor teaching intercultural communication and leadership theory.  

As our campuses are becoming increasingly more diverse, it has become imperative for post-secondary educators and staff to think beyond the ‘typical tried ways’ in which we learn and teach. In this session, we will explore the intersects of Universal Design for Learning, broadly, and inclusive post-secondary education practices. We invite participants to imagine the benefits of a commitment to equitable inclusion and the impact this can have on instructors, peers and the broader community. Through interactive activities, participants will be encouraged to think about tools and strategies to facilitate inclusive and equitable communities within and beyond the post-secondary education.

This session will be facilitated by Lauren Matthews and Carmen Lee from STEPS Forward, the BC Initiative for Inclusive Post-Secondary Education (BC-IPSE). BC-IPSE is a family founded and guided organization with a vision to support equitable access to mainstream academics and campus life on university campuses across the province for adults with developmental disabilities and has been an active provincial initiative since 2001. BC-IPSE currently works in partnership with SFU, UBC, NVIT, ECUAD, UVIC, TWU, and UBC-O to support students with developmental disabilities to be included in the same courses and programs of study, and in the same ways, as any other student on campus.

Marie-Elaine Desmarais partage avec nous un aperçu du contenu de sa deuxième présentation au programme de la conférence.

Les milieux postsecondaires québécois constatent une diversification de leur population étudiante (CREPUQ, 2012) qui provoque plusieurs défis. Par exemple, pour avoir accès à des services spécialisés, les étudiants doivent présenter une preuve d’un diagnostic (Wolforth et Roberts, 2010). Ces milieux doivent chercher des solutions répondant mieux à la diversité des besoins éducatifs de tous les étudiants en maintenant des exigences élevées. La mise en œuvre de pratiques plus inclusives valorisant la mise en action des étudiants, comme la pédagogie universelle, pourrait accompagner cette recherche de solution. Cette communication présenter les résultats d’une étude répondant à la question suivante : comment des professeurs ou chargés de cours en contexte universitaire mettent-ils en action leurs apprenants par la mise en œuvre des principes de flexibilité de la pédagogie universelle ? La pédagogie universelle permettrait une planification de l’enseignement tenant compte des besoins d’apprentissage d’une diversité d’étudiants (Ducharme et Montminy, 2015) tout en diminuant l’attention portée aux handicaps, pour se centrer sur les conditions favorables à l’apprentissage de tous. Cette étude de cas a pour objectif de comprendre comment des professeurs ou chargés de cours mettent en œuvre les principes de la pédagogie universelle en portant un regard plus précis sur le troisième principe, soit favoriser les moyens d’action et d’expression. C’est auprès 17 professeurs ou chargés de cours que cette étude québécoise s’est déroulée. Les résultats qui seront présentés mettent en évidence que la mise en action et l’expression des apprenants, associés plus spécifiquement au troisième principe, sont une préoccupation importante chez les participants. Ils permettent aussi de constater que les participants utilisent différentes modalités pédagogiques pour favoriser la mise en action et l’expression de leurs étudiants. Ces modalités pédagogiques seront explicitées dans le cadre de cette communication.

Cette présentation, offerte par Marie-Élaine Desmarais, sera l’occasion de vous présenter le fruit des travaux de chercheurs québécois concernant la conception universelle de l’apprentissage en contexte postsecondaire. Ces travaux remontent en 2015-2016 lorsqu’un répertoire de pratiques inspirées des principes de flexibilité de la conception universelle de l’apprentissage a été créé. Ce répertoire a été coconstruit par des chercheurs, des professeurs et des chargés de cours de l’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières dans une démarche de recherche participative. Par la suite, il nous est apparu important de transformer ce répertoire (format papier) en un produit plus accessible à l’ensemble de la communauté universitaire. Nous avons alors pensé qu’un produit numérique, dynamique et convivial, serait plus adapté pour qu’il y ait un transfert des connaissances issues de la recherche. Afin d’en arriver à la transformation du répertoire initial en produit numérique, nous nous sommes inspirés des principes de la recherche-développement. Au fil de notre présentation, nous pourrons vous faire part des défis et des enjeux vécus tout au long du processus.

The Edcamp recipe has created much interest in the last few years because it turns the traditional conference format on its head. Edcamps, indeed, involve no speakers per se and instead invite everyone to contribute in a round table set up. It also allows participants the flexibility to determine on the day what they wish to discuss and focus on. It creates exceptional opportunities for dialogue and cross sector/ cross institution pollination. It also addresses head on the “sage on a stage” power dynamics that plague traditional conferences. As such, the Edcamp recipe is particularly well aligned with UDL in several ways, and provides significant opportunities to reflect on the ways UDL affects thedesign of professional development. The AHEAD Ireland Conference was the first, in 2018, to explore the possibilities of the Edcamp format within an academic conference on UDL, and it did so with great success by integrating parallel round table discussions. The Third Pan-Canadian Conference on UDL wishes to follow this lead, and seeks to integrate free flowing conversations, alongside the more formal break-out sessions. If you are attending the conference in Victoria and wish to facilitate a round table discussion, please contact the Organizing Committee at udlconference2019@gmail.com. There will be a room set up for spontaneous round tables on UDL in K-12, HE, accessibility services and instructional design respectively.