Read the following resources and make notes on the implications of taking this approach in your organisation or context. Consider how far you would be able to follow the guidelines. How easy would it be to apply the guidelines to redesign an online learning system that is already in use?
Also consider how this approach relates to learning styles in Activity 25.4 (forum link) and to the guidelines in Topic 19 and Topic 20.
Universal Design of Instruction (Burgstahler, undated)
This introduces the concepts and shows how seven principles of universal design can be interpreted in a learning context. Read the first page and, if you have time, follow any of the links under 'Specific Academic Applications' that are important in your context.
- How far you would be able to follow the guidelines?
It will not be very easy to follow these guidelines as again there is a clear need for the appropriate technicians and learning technologists to help in the field of information resources and technology.
- How easy would it be to apply the guidelines to redesign an online learning system that is already in use?
It is not a matter of redesigning as everything has to be done from the beginning in order to design the course. They have to take into consideration the different steps and guidelines that could be applied as students will surely have different learning styles as mentioned in the previous activity 25.4 and the various guidelines mentioned in the previous units could be used in order to "borrow" some guides from there.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines - Version 1.0 (CAST, 2007)
Read Part i Introduction, which provides a rationale for universal design for learning and proposes three principles for an educational context.
- How far you would be able to follow the guidelines?
As mentioned in the article, many teachers already use these guidelines on their own without even knowing that they serve a specific practice. They are not difficult to follow but there is a need again to be able to distinguish between the three principles provided in the article as to who, what and how questions should be answered in order to be successful with developing a good curriculum.
- How easy would it be to apply the guidelines to redesign an online learning system that is already in use?
Not at all easy...I think as I had mentioned above too, that everything has to be done from the beginning and if not, and then there is an extra worry, so that whatever you will change to make it more accessible and available to a broad range of students as it should have been from the beginning that is really hard.