Each learner holds different experiences, knowledge, and abilities. For years, instructors tried to do right by all students by following the adage of "teaching to the middle." Universal Design for Learning (also known as UDL) provided a fresh way of thinking about their pedagogy.
Teaching to the middle is a well-intentioned mindset. One educator can only do so much, so creating a curriculum and instruction based on the "average learner" and casting the widest net possible seems to make sense. When you dig deeper, though, there’s a big gap. Teaching to the middle actually excludes tons of learners. Enter UDL.
Universal Design for Learning is a holistic, mindset-driven approach providing accessible, flexible, and rigorous learning opportunities for all learners. We'll look further into UDL, including what it is, how course designers benefit from its approaches, and the role of video within UDL.
Universal Design for Learning is an instructional approach that uses principles and guidelines to create flexible and personalized learning environments. It's about adapting to the needs of individual learners, not the other way around.
This approach allows educators to be responsive and adaptable. It maximizes the learning experience for every learner.
Universal Design for Learning bloomed in the late 1990s through the work done by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), a nonprofit research and development organization. Its development was grounded in extensive research, giving educators the confidence that this approach is effective and beneficial for all learners.
Universal Design for Learning takes its cues from approaches used in architecture and engineering. American architect Ron Mace created the concept of Univeral Design in the 1980s. The goal was to develop environments everyone could use without additional accommodations.
Sliding doors, for example, benefit those who might struggle to enter through a door on hinges, but we've all benefited from their use.
UDL helps course designers adopt a similar approach.
Universal Design for Learning creates a curriculum flexible enough for each learner. Content is delivered in accessible ways; these efforts help all learners master and retain knowledge.
The foundational principles of UDL are based on the premise that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to learning.
Variability is the norm.
The overall goal of Universal Design for Learning is to create motivated, resourceful, strategic, and goal-oriented learners. UDL is based on three categories and presents multiple ways for instructors to use each to teach all students:
Video bolsters each part of the UDL guidelines. Let's learn how:
At its core, Universal Design for Learning focuses on engagement and sparking interest. It gives educators the mindset needed to help students sustain their efforts.
Giving students choices about topics, assignments, and learning activities that engage them in what they care about is a foundational part of Universal Design for Learning.
Video learning helps instructors provide students with choice and autonomy. Software like WeVideo and PlayPosit allow instructors to immerse students in the lesson, provide clear goals and objectives, and provide mastery-oriented feedback and insights from peers.
Unlike lectures, videos don't have to be a real-time resource. UDL encourages instructors to consider how to serve all students by eliminating distractions and stressors.
Video is a highly effective tool in higher education. It provides learners with on-demand access to new knowledge. Learners find relief knowing they can rewind, pause, or fast-forward at their own pace. What they might miss in a lecture, a video quickly reinforces.
A lecture hall rarely connects learning to students' external realities. It's disjointed.
Universal Design for Learning asks: how do we make learning more relevant?
Relating subject content to student's everyday lives and real-world issues increases effectiveness and equity by fostering meaning and relevance for learners. Video brings the lecture hall into the context of the real world.
But engagement is not just about interest – it is about holding that interest over time and promoting persistence in the face of difficulty. Educators must set clear learning goals and expectations. This fact is even more important in distance learning environments.
Universal Design for Learning also champions feedback for all students. Does that seem impossible? Well, we've previously provided three ways to use interactive video for exam review — making the process genuinely beneficial for students and easy to carry out for instructors.
The most powerful platforms allow for peer feedback.
UDL values collaboration. Peer feedback fits within that process. Even though students are not subject-matter experts, there is a strong case for the effectiveness of peer review as a process of collaboration and reflection — providing multiple means of engagement.
Researchers found that revision initiated by peer feedback was more successful than revision given by the teacher in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. When a teacher provides feedback, students often accept it, make corrections, and don't think further to assess the feedback's accuracy or the gaps in their knowledge. They take it at face value. Peer feedback provides a challenge. Learners usually appreciate it, but they also (rightfully) question it. This lack of trust can lead to more critical thinking and improvements.
Instructors further maximize engagement in their lessons by using 360-degree videos, allowing learners to drag the screen within a video frame to see in all directions. This function helps students interact with dynamic content and take their learning beyond the lecture hall by doing things like taking a virtual tour of a historic site.
Instructors can also use branched pathways that allow users to choose different paths when watching a video.
Video naturally provides multiple means of engagement for all learners.
Instructors explain topics in many ways. They lecture. They employ active learning techniques. They use storyboards, videos, diagrams, graphs, images, and audiobooks. By using multiple means of representation, educators can cater to all students' learning styles and preferences, ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to engage in learning activities no matter where they are or the tools at their disposal.
For example, providing video transcripts accommodates students with hearing difficulties and those who prefer text-based materials.
An instructor using WeVideo's subtitle generator meets the needs of multiple learners. An English Language Learner (ELL) with minor gaps in English language proficiency may find the subtitles helpful, especially when watching a video with slang or varying English dialects.
At the same time, a student with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) might stress that they missed a vital part of a video. Subtitles often help students with neurodivergent conditions feel more confident that they heard correctly and did not miss essential information.
Interactive videos expand a learner's options within a lesson. Instructors accomplish much by using some of the following interactive video tools:
As we mentioned earlier, UDL is built on the concepts of Universal Design. Consider an elevator. It helps those who cannot take the stairs reach different building levels. But everyone uses them. That's the goal of UDL.
Interactive videos done well naturally scaffold instruction. WeVideo's Enhanced Assignments allow instructors to provide structured guidance and additional sources of inspiration for assignments.
These Enhanced Assignments may target a specific group, but all benefit from further clarity.
Empowering students with choice and autonomy is a crucial principle of Universal Design for Learning. Allowing students to select topics, formats, and tools for their assignments fosters ownership of learning and promotes creativity and self-expression. Choice encourages ownership of learning. This leads to deeper, more personalized learning experiences.
Instructors can provide multiple ways for learners to demonstrate their knowledge in a report:
To account for students' varied knowledge and experience, UDL calls for culturally responsive assessment practices. Using culturally relevant examples, instructors engage all students and help them succeed.
This inclusion of diversity validates each student's identity and voice. Again, video stands out.
WeVideo seamlessly integrates with many institution's learning management systems — Canvas, Moodle, and Google Classroom, as well as a variety of video hosts.
Course designers and instructors can utilize videos that address learning topics from multiple points of view and use them within their current workflows. One of the best ways for instructors to provide this cultural relevance is through digital storytelling.
Digital storytelling appeals to students with diverse learning styles and enriches the educational journey by fostering a sense of personal investment and self-directed learning. It also allows students to share their stories. It's inclusive. What better way to include diverse viewpoints in a course than to have students share their stories with their peers?
Universal Design taught us how to create infrastructure for everyone. Universal Design for Learning shows instructors ways to educate all students.
Where instructors once taught from the middle, considering the class's mode as the best point to inform pedagogical approaches, UDL created new ways to design courses and lectures. Interactive video further enhances UDL's core components.
That’s why video helps all learners access success.