Postsecondary Institutions with UDL Initiatives
What
What is considered a UDL Initiative? This page lists some of the universities and colleges that maintain active, systematic approaches for implementing UDL. Generally, the institutions included here have some sort of history or relationship with CAST, but we welcome recommendations about additional initiatives we may not have been in touch with.
If your campus has a UDL initiative or course, and you would like to include it on this page, please contact us: udloncampus@cast.org.
Why
Why are UDL initiatives important? By sharing practices and experiences of using UDL, postsecondary institutions can contribute to one another's learning. If you are coming to this site and you are new to UDL, some of these postsecondary institutions might provide ideas for where to begin your own work around UDL.
(music)
[Title: UDL On Campus: At the Margins. Sam Johnston, Research Scientist at CAST, appears on the screen.]
SAM JOHNSTON: So some of the most innovative users of UDL are really the institutions or the professors who are serving students that are the ones at the margins. They're serving students that are first generation college students. They're serving students that are low income. They're serving students that are English language learners and students with disabilities.
[Students are seated in a circle around classroom. An instructor holds a book at the front of the class. The next scene shows a close up shot of a poster with the words “Patience, Accessibility, and Diverse Thinking, Empathy, Respect” with students standing in the background. Sam Johnston returns to the screen.]
SAM JOHNSTON: For those institutions and those faculty members, UDL isn't a set of strategies or techniques, it's a value system. It's how you teach and learn. It's foundational.
[Students present projected images to peers in the classroom. The next scene shows an instructor lecturing to a large classroom with students on laptops. Sam Johnston returns to the screen.]
SAM JOHNSTON: And those are the people who are really going to bring this innovation from the margins to the middle because they're going to show that by serving students that are the least well suited to one-size-fits-all everybody benefits, everybody gets something out of it including faculty members, including the institutions themselves.
[End credits: UDL On Campus, CAST: Until learning has no limits.]
Institutions with UDL Initiatives
UDL Initiatives
Boston College has created an institution-wide taskforce designed to promote UDL across the campus. The CTW (Center for Teaching Excellence) at Boston College features the UDL Explainer a video with a concise explanation of UDL.
UDL-Universe (UDL-U) provides
comprehensive faculty development guidance for UDL course
re-design. The site and its content were developed as part
of the Ensuring Access through Collaboration and Technology
(EnACT) Project, a multi-campus initiative that
includes—
- Sonoma State University
- San Francisco State University
- San José State University
- CSU, Monterey Bay
- CSU, Sacramento
- Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Durham College considers UDL a "best practices" approach to curriculum design and provides many resources.
UDL is highlighted as a resource for faculty as they are developing their courses, and courses in UDL have been offered on the campus since 2003.
Goodwin College with support from the Davis Educational Foundation, established a cohort of instructors to re-examine their teaching methods and to stretch themselves creatively in working with students of wide-ranging learning differences and educational experiences using the UDL frameworok.
Grand Rapids Community College has pulled together several resources on UDL for their faculty. The college's webpage also includes a recording of a faculty learning day on UDL.
UDL is one of the three pillars comprising Greensboro College’s strategic plan. The UDL principles are embedded across the institution including all academic, student development, campus infrastructure, and resources programs and units. Grounded in the traditions of the United Methodist Church, Greensboro College aspires to provide all students with a transformative, universally designed educational experience that positively affects their lives so they may realize their full potential.
The Graduate School of Education has long offered a course on UDL and stories about Universal Design for Learning.
Led by the office of the Executive Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, the Hopkins Universal Design for Learning Initiative (HUDL Initiative) supports the use of UDL principles in face-to-face and online courses across the university. UDL provides an opportunity for the Hopkins community to think about teaching and learning methodologies that accommodate and provide opportunities for success for all learners, not just those who request an accommodation. To support UDL integration, A HUDL Ambassador is nominated by each school’s educational head and is available to provide faculty with guidance and feedback.
At Lasell, UDL is used in the undergraduate and graduate Education Department. At the undergraduate level, UDL is used as a unifying framework to help general educators learn how best to support all students. At the graduate level, UDL is incorporated throughout the curriculum to prepare participants for success as classroom teachers.
At Landmark College UDL is seamlessly integrated into all departments, including athletics. Watch the video to hear more about it.
McGill University has undertaken, from 2011 to 2015, a system-wide implementation of UDL. Their site offers in-depth explanations of UDL, faculty resources, video resources, information about universal design research, concrete tips for implementing UDL, assistive technology information, and they also offer workshops on request. Also, refer to the UDL Audit paper written by Beck, T., Diaz del Castillo, P., Fovet, F., Mole, H., & Noga, B. (2014). Applying Universal Design to disability service provision: outcome analysis of a UD audit. Journal of Post-secondary Education and Disability, Vol. 27(2), 209-222.
In 2018, Mohawk College completed the Universal Design for Learning for Technology-enabled Post-secondary Courses at Mohawk College research project with funding from eCampusOntario.
The two deliverables of this project were a college-wide UDL Standard for implementation and the UDL Course Assessment; both of which are unique to Mohawk College and its UDL implementation efforts. For more information on these UDL initiatives please visit the Universal Design for Learning Resources page on the Mohawk College website.
To review any of Mohawk College’s other UDL implementation initiatives and resources, please visit the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s Universal Design for Learning page.
The Office of Distance Education and eLearning is dedicated to creating a learning experience that is beneficial for everyone, including those who have learning disabilities using the framework of Universal Design for Learning. Blog posts highlight best practices and they offer UDL in Course Design.
Launched in 2017, the university’s new redesigned Schwab Learning Center includes a UDL Innovation Studio, reflecting current priorities in the fields of Dyslexia, ADHD, UDL and research on the neuroscience of learning. The new vision is intended to propel the Schwab Learning Center to be the foremost center of its kind in postsecondary settings and disrupt existing practices in the field of higher education and workforce development to address the greater neurodiversity among postsecondary students.
The Institute on Disabilities at the College of Education at Temple University has completed a project that included information on the implementation of UDL in higher education.
Towson University has developed a Professional Development Network as a way to understand and develop UDL practices through professional learning communities. Towson has also created informational workshops for faculty interested in learning more about UDL. In the video below Dr. Liz Berquist talks about implementing UDL in higher education.
The Center on Disability Studies, as part of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, developed an online professional development certificate of which UDL was one of four modules.
The Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning at the University of Memphis has adopted Universal Design for Learning as a framework for designing flexible instruction across on-ground, hybrid, and online environments. A part of this initiative includes the launch of a professional development series on UDL, additional web-based UDL resources for faculty, and an online tutorial that explicates the role of accessibility in moving toward more universally-designed instruction.
College STAR (Supporting Transition, Access, and Retention) is an initiative out of the University of North Carolina system that builds models of student and faculty support to address learning differences, specifically learning disabilities and AD/HD. College STAR focuses on UDL as part of a model to make educational environments more welcoming for a wider variety of learners.
In the video below, College STAR faculty and staff discuss their successful tutoring model using UDL and technology.
The School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego offers an online Master of Education in UDL and Inclusive Education.
The University of Vermont's pages on UDL provide several rich examples of UDL in different postsecondary practices and contexts. They also break down the UDL principles and guidelines and offer a suite of UDL teaching resources.
The University of Washington has been a long-time proponent of the universal design message through the Project Do-It Model. These efforts follow the principles of universal design and expand them to instruction and education.
In the School of Education at Vanderbilt, there are several researchers who apply UDL in their work. The IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University, a national center that provides resources about the incorporation of evidence-based practices into pre-service preparation and professional development programs, includes information on UDL.
UDL theory and information is promoted in a variety of traditional and online graduate courses at Virginia Commonwealth University; in some cases it has become the lens for course planning. UDL is also promoted through faculty development efforts guided by the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Walden University offers a graduate teaching certificate in engaging culturally diverse learners that includes a focus on UDL to improve instruction.
The Department of Special Education at West Chester University offers an online post-baccalaureate certificate in UDL and assistive technology.
UDL is an educational approach based on the learning sciences with three primary principles—multiple means of representation of information, multiple means of student action and expression, and multiple means of student engagement.
Video is the recording, reproducing, or broadcasting of moving visual images.
Assessment is the process of gathering information about a learner’s performance using a variety of methods and materials in order to determine learners’ knowledge, skills, and motivation for the purpose of making informed educational decisions.
