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Share your thoughts in the comments below in response to these spark prompts:
- How might you add multiple means of engagement (the why of learning) in your course?
- How might you apply multiple means of representation (the what of learning) to materials or information you provide your students?
- Brainstorm ways to redesign one of your assignments using multiple means of action and expression (the how of learning).
10 thoughts on “Universal Design for Learning”
To create multiple means of engagement, I would like to create more small group projects for students to understand and clarify musical terms and instruments. I would also like students to keep a journal to jot down their learning impressions from each class.
Have students choose a topic of interest related to the course material- discuss why it has meaning for them, then have them engage in the process of creating their own (series of scaffolded assignments to explore the topic more deeply. Connect each part of the assignment design with the needed learning outcomes. I can provide feedback and suggestions for how their plan could be improved, and then they do the exercise. I would include options for blogs, or papers, or video entries as options.
Adding multiple means of engagement allows students to communicate and connect with other students. Students can set and share their learning goals and try to reach them altogether. Different methods of representations allow students to learn through different method and look at things at different angles and perspectives. Redesigning an assignment to incorporate group work would allow students to share ideas and express themselves. The assignment maybe presented in class to allow students share their journey in how they completed the assignment.
• How might I add multiple means of engagement (the why of learning) in your course?
o for deeper dive opportunities – I would need to prepare and offer a mini ‘course library’ of resources for students to draw from.
o OR alternatively for deeper dive opportunities – I could set up opportunities for students to do a mini ‘library studies 101’ boot camp centered on specific aspects of sales; this way they gain research and library skills while also digging into specific themes of the class.
o I’ve already integrated a way to connect their personal/career goals to the course, though I’m sure I can improve upon this. It involves examining the similarities between the sales process and skills for selling services and products and the skill sets involved in designing, navigating, and striving for job and career goals.
o building a visual/image rich, and audio friendly lecture deck would also be another helpful method for supporting higher engagement
o I use some LOE (level of effort) in terms of Mastery Oriented Feedback already, as a core part of my learning structure where I emphasize professionalism skills timeliness and quality of work submitted (effort) as the key markers of success. These impact the final grade in equal proportion to assessments and projects if not more so. However, I’m now curious if would be tenable and how I might go about opening up the learning objectives to the students themselves rather than what I preconceived and set for the class.
• How might I apply multiple means of representation (the what of learning) to materials or information you provide your students?
o I’ve sparingly added (or intermittently experimented with including) a video or podcast here and there.
o Struggling with time/effective + meaningful ways to evaluate that the students (a) actually engaged with the material and (b) shared take-aways, insights, and connections with me became a challenge. I learned if I’m scrambling to grade voluminous output (by 30+ students) I cease being present
o So revisiting this idea may be an option.
o I might find one video and/or podcast that aligns best with the 10 Sales Principles and Practices themes that I’ve gained from utilizing the textbook for these past semesters + add an additional 5 topics around interviewing (selling their professional skills) and sales/pitch presentations and public speaking skills – and use these 15 media items to center the core lessons and lectures and vocabulary throughout the semester?
o mind mapping is a tool I enjoy using regularly in my own work, coming up with ways to do this as a time effective and meaningful group experience during classes is another potential way to leverage engagement.
o finding or creating info graphics to use
o pre-designing and leveraging salesforce reporting and dashboard tools as classroom tools could be super fun as well!! The challenge here is that we/I have yet to overcome the challenge of working in 30 different separate environments versus one environment with 31 people (but I have a plan for this!!!).
• Brainstorm ways to redesign one of your assignments using multiple means of action and expression (the how of learning).
o Ditching the textbook my first order of business would be: how to introduce my students into the lexicon and concepts of Sales?
I pretty much need a way to provide them with a way to download (or upload into their brains) the Foreign Language 101 key words, concepts, ideas, and phrases that will inform the rest of their semester as they unpack and experiment with parts of the Sales Process, the planning involved in building and managing a Sales Funnel, its relationship to but essential differences from Marketing Processes and the Marketing Funnel, and building their command and confidence in exercising some of (or as many as possible of) the various sales skills I can get them to walk away from my class with.
Perhaps using embedded hyperlinks AND doing some preliminary research via BMCC’s libraries to organize resources for my students might be a way to do this.
However I’d also have to consider how would I go about introducing the first tier language lesson…then the second tier…and third tier? How many tiers total do I want or need to then be able to move onto the deeper sales processes and sales skills lessons? (I would be disappointed if I simply designed a great way for the students to absorb vocabulary and concepts without actually learning skills, tools, and techniques.)
Engagement- Individual Career Strategic Plan, Team Case studies
Representation – Presentation to class their individual career strategic plan, Team presentation of assigned case study
Action & Expression – Team/Group Challenges in topics of leadership and planning. Role-play a team business proposal.
I like the idea of connecting the course topics to post-educational goals, careers, and/or personal interests and experiences. After each module, I can ask students to write a personal reflection where they can connect the new information they’ve obtained to an idea or topic they’ve explored in their major courses, jobs, or personal lives. Continuously circling back to their interests and experiences might be a good way to promote idea synthesis and ensure consistent engagement.
In light of our discussion about developing a Learning-Focused syllabus while remaining within departmental parameters, I think it would be really interesting and appropriate to provide students with the prescribed course learning outcomes and then allow them to decide the ways they want to learn that information and be assessed. This could be an in-class activity that we work on together to finalize the syllabus and course outline. They could use this Alternative to the Lecturing list (https://lauramarch.com/portfolio-item/50-alternatives-to-lecture/) to consider existing Learning & Engaging strategies that can be incorporated into the course.
For one of the assignments in my African-American History (1865-Present) course, I have students use CUNY’s Digital Archives to find and review primary sources on the Black Campus Movement. Students identify a document produced during that time and then they answer a few questions regarding what the primary source reveals about what transpired during that time. I’m thinking about restructuring that assignment to have students identify both primary & secondary sources (text or audiovisual) to tell a story. They could either write, record, or present the historical narrative as though they were telling a story to their friends and family using the information from the primary and secondary sources they’ve reviewed. I need to flesh it out a little more but I think expanding the type of sources and media for this assignment still gets at the heart of the learning objective (Understanding Black Student Activism on colleges campus’ throughout the U.S between 1965-1972) while offering different ways to receive the information. I think storytelling in any format might be a cool way to demonstrate understanding and share information with peers.
Hi All,
Any suggestions for the following. I am teaching a writing intensive class and would like to figure out some alternative means of students demonstrating their learning, but I worry that adding assignments will overwhelm students as they seem to already struggle under the requirements laid out for a WI class.
Thanks.
Hmmm. When you say alternative means, do you mean beyond the writing assignments? Or could you change a few of the writing assignments to include different formats? Some WI courses are using zines, audio, and video for assignments, in place of essays.
Steve
For some of the chapters in Introduction to Psychology, I form small groups of students to explore a topic within a chapter. I make certain that the groups are diverse based upon work experiences, educational backgrounds, hobbies and career paths. I ask each group to select a group leader (please note that the group leader changes during the course of the semester). I give each group a copy of the responsibilities of the group leader so that individuals who want to lead the group can talk to the members of the group about skills and leadership qualities that the individual possesses.
Each group will work on a topic within a chapter and the group leader will assign the work and is responsible for the work being submitted. All members of the group will present their topic to the class. Each group presents two topics during the course of the semester. Every member of the group must participate in the presentation. Creativity is welcome and encouraged.
Additionally, I have had students make videos and create songs about different topics. Learning is not always about assessment (in this instance testing). Many students develop depth of topics via self exploration such as finding articles in magazines like Salon, Vanity Fair, blogs and youtube.
I am always open to providing students with sources that will allow them to learn and engage with material that is not always about testing.
I have found that this activity is great for students in terms of building leadership qualities, working in groups and really using interpersonal and motiva
To apply multiple means of representations to teaching materials for my math students, I would like to present math subjects in different ways of videos, lecture notes, and PowerPoint presentation slides. To create flexible assessment, I will create individual tests and group learning activities to evaluate students’ participation and academic performance. I will also integrate the computerized homework platform during my math course study. Students will receive immediate help and instant feedback when they work on homework by using the computerized homework system. To add multiple means of engagement during my math course study, I will open Discussion Board Forum and build GroupMe Link and use CUNY Collaborate Room to communicate with students. Universal Design for Learning in College Education is necessary to provide all possible different teaching/learning ways to attract different learners.