The decision was made to use the principles found in the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to ensure that all students can engage with the material in a meaningful way. UDL intends to remove the barriers that are often found in assessment and curriculum to offer equitable opportunities for all students to find success. The goal of such a program is to support learner agency through making choices in learning design that allow all students to actively participate in a way that allows them to meet the learning outcomes (CAST, 2018). Our course is offered through a blended format in hopes of reaching as many learners as possible. Being that this course relies on active participation and reflection, a blended approach leaves the student with numerous ways to engage with the material.

As per the principles of UDL, removing barriers that we find in the curriculum can benefit all learners. The main barriers that we discovered in our course were inaccessibility to resources and difficulty engaging with content

Being that our course is a blended format, students may struggle to access the materials and resources for the course. Not all students may have access to the same technology to allow them to engage equally with multimedia content. To meet the principle of Multiple Means of Representation, it is important to offer multiple formats for engagement to accommodate individuals with different learning preferences, technological capabilities, and personal needs (CAST, 2018). This disparity can create significant barriers to learning the material and completing assignments in the course. To try and break down the technological barrier, we decided to offer the information in multiple formats for the learner such as through readings, video lectures,  and in-person lecture components. The readings we included are offered in PDF form so that the individuals can have offline access to the material if needed and have the option of printing if that aligns better with their needs.  In addition to those with technical issues, students who are hard of hearing and or have English as a second language benefit from multiple formats for learning. This allows them to use varying forms of information to receive the same knowledge as their peers. To meet the needs of those with hearing difficulties and those still learning English, we chose videos that include captioning to aid in their understanding of the material.

In a course focused on self-care and personal growth, student engagement is an integral aspect of the learning experience. A barrier in this course is that it relies on the student’s ability to reflect and find personal relevance in the assignments. A study by Wong (2016) found that students struggle to reflect on themselves in academic writing. We can enhance their ability to reflect on their experience by finding nuanced ways for them to engage with the material by giving them multiple formats of engagement.  The principle of Engagement from the UDL is about offering students multiple ways to engage with the material and learn in unique ways (CAST, 2018). To try and remove this barrier, we gave students multiple ways to engage personally with the material such as guided personal reflection ( structured journal entries), goal-setting tasks tailored to their individual needs, mind-mapping, guided meditation, and stress testing. In addition to students who struggle with personal reflection, offering multiple styles of engagement allows learners of different learning styles to actively engage with the material in a way that aligns with them. For example, kinesthetic learners can engage with meditation exercises whereas visual learners may align closer with the mind-mapping activity. To further tailor each of the activities, students can submit their activities in numerous ways. For example, the Mind-mapping activity allows students to print and submit a handmade one in person or create a digital mind-map that allows them to type and use speech-to-text or audio recordings to make their map. Offering students numerous ways to complete the assignments allows students to complete the assignment in a way that aligns with their interests and strengths.

References

CAST, (2018). The UDL guidelines. The UDL Guidelines. https://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Wong, A. C. (2016). Considering reflection from the student perspective in Higher Education.SAGE Open, 6(1), 215824401663870. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016638706