Principle of Action and Expression: Guideline 1 Interaction - UDL version 3

 

The second principle of UDL, "providing means for action and expression”, helps promote an inclusive learning environments on many levels.  When developing a course and focusing on this principle, there are three guidelines to follow. They are

1. Interaction <formerly Physical Action>
2. Expression and Communication
3. Strategy Development <formerly Executive Function.>

We are now going to take a deeper look.

The first guideline, Interaction, in many ways overlaps with accessibility requirements. 

Often learners are inadvertently limited in the physical interaction when navigating material.   For example, only offering a textbook, or print format, can impose barriers on those with visual impairments.  Offering a digital option that can work with assistive technology is one step towards ensuring everyone can access the materials needed to learn.

While this guideline at first appears to concern itself with navigating the classroom, there are several lessons to be learned when applying it to online learning as well.  When designing curricular materials, and in particular online materials, they should seamlessly interact with assistive technology. It is important to provide materials with which all learners can interact.  Often, internet tools may offer immersive and interactive environments, but do not offer options for those requiring assistive technology to navigate the tool. While many web tools are becoming more aware of accessibility issues, it is important to be ever vigilant.  Minimally you should offer alternatives that ensure students can effectively interact with material needed to learn. Optimally, you will vet the tools and ensure that they supply options for all learners.

Two criteria for meeting this guideline are:

Criterion 1: Vary the methods for response and navigation. Provide multiple means for students to respond, compose material, or select material. 

 Criterion 2: Optimize access to tools and assistive technologies.A significant number of learners use assistive technologies on a regular bases, and it is important to not overlook this.

By promoting an inclusive strategy with multiple means of physical action for navigation, your learning environment will be more accommodating and promote student success.

Principle of Representation - Guideline 2 Criterion 5

 

When developing a course using the first principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The second, Language and Symbols focuses on maintaining clarity about the content provided.

Criterion 5 of this guideline advocates that we illustrate through multiple media.

Materials are often dominated by text, however textual presentations of content are not optimal for presenting information on the web, or possibly in a classroom. This is compounded with those who have language-related disabilities, such as dyslexia. Providing alternatives, such as illustrations or animations, can make the information more accessible for these learners. It may also help learners who favor visual presentations.  Remember to: 

• Present key concepts in two different forms, such as a symbolic representation of a physics equation and an illustration or animation of its relationship
• Provide explicit connections between information provided textually and other accompanying representations of the information. 

 

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line with the Principle of Representation in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

Principle of Representation - Guideline 1 Criterion 2 (v 3.0)

 

When developing a course using the first principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The first, Perception in many ways overlaps with creating accessible content.

Criterion 2 of this guideline advocates that we provide alternatives to perceive information.

Images, info-graphics, and video can be a superior way to presenting content.  This is particularly true when demonstrating relationships, such as between actions or events. A picture can stay 1000 words, but not if you cannot see it. These presentations can abandon those with visual disabilities. To ensure equitable access, offer non-visual learners alternatives, such as:

• Providing descriptions (text, spoken, or both) for all images, graphics, tables, and other visual content
• Providing auditory cues for key concepts and transitions in visual information
• Providing physical models (when possible) to convey perspective or interaction
• Adding a primacy to supplying textual representations that can easily be converted to text-to-speech.  The malleable nature of text on the web has an advantage of permanence and flexibility. Having Closed Captions, a transcript, or visual description should always be included. Offering a text-to-speech option alongside the text further benefits the learners.  

Text is a special case of visual information. For those with visual impairment, how the text is presented is critical. Be sure to use accessibly standards to the text you employ, such as those provided by NIMAS or WCAG.  There is an advantage to text in that many tools can easily work with it to provide alternative means of communicate.  Minimally, a text-to-speech option should be available for learners.

Sound is a very effective teaching tool, and the addition to sound to video, or text, can accelerate learning. However, information solely conveyed with audio is not equally accessible to all learners.  This is more so with learners with hearing disabilities. Ensure that all learners have access to information by:

• Providing written transcripts of closed captions to video or audio clips
• Provide visual diagrams, charts, and notations to sound (such as music)
• Offer visual analogues, such as symbols or images.
• When no voice is to be transcribed, offer visual/emotional description of audio, such as musical clips.

Finally, one should note that there are several new technologies that can convert to text to speech.  However, research reveals that learners prefer and thrive with human audio over computer generated speech (Mayer, 2009). Given the option, you should favor creating or using human audio to both increase learning and for generating a more welcoming learning environment.

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line the Principle of Representation in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

AI and Universal Design for Learning

 

AI-driven tools are increasingly shaping classrooms through adaptive learning platforms, tutoring systems, lesson-planning assistants, and other educational technologies. Their true potential, however, is realized when they are designed and implemented using Universal Design for Learning <UDL> principles. By combining what we know from learning science through Universal Design for Learning with the personalization capabilities of AI, we can intentionally design learning experiences and tools that support all learners from the outset, rather than relying on time-consuming retrofits later.

AI has already enhanced many traditional assistive technologies, such as text-to-speech and voice recognition, making them more accurate and natural-sounding. The next exciting frontier for AI in learning lies in its ability to reduce cognitive load. In this phase, AI functions as assistive instruction by helping individuals more efficiently understand and process information.

When AI is intentionally integrated with Universal Design for Learning, these tools make content more accessible and support deeper, more meaningful engagement for all learners.

 

3 Ways AI & Universal Design for Learning Can Mix:

1.       AI equals Assistive Instruction.

People with disabilities often rely on assistive technologies to learn and navigate the world. AI has already improved many of these tools, such as text-to-speech. The next major opportunity for AI in learning is its ability to reduce cognitive load by helping learners more quickly understand and process information. For individuals with executive functioning or language-processing challenges, tasks like organizing information or reading complex texts can be exhausting barriers to deeper learning. AI tools that adjust reading levels or simplify complex content. such as scientific explanations, can make academic material more accessible and support meaningful engagement.

When combined with Universal Design for Learning, these tools help learners access content more easily and engage more deeply.

2.  Don’t Retro-fit – Co-Design! 

Frequently, educational technology is designed with an “average” student in mind.  Because no learner is truly average, this approach often results in hidden barriers within the technology that excludes many learners. These barriers require educators and institutions to spend additional time and resources modifying or accommodating tools after the fact for those they do not initially serve. Instead of retrofitting solutions, you should account for learner variability from the beginning and actively include learner voices in the design process.

By co-designing with learners and applying Universal Design for Learning principles from the outset, developers and teachers can reduce barriers, improve accessibility, and reach a broader audience. Importantly, involving diverse voices, such as people with disabilities and multilingual learners, early in development often leads to more innovative and effective solutions that benefit all users.

3.  Use Universal Design for Learning to support AI-Tool Development and AI Literacy.

Everyone brings unique perspectives and experiences to learning, so we should not treat them the same. To address this predictable variability, Universal Design for Learning provides a framework for identifying and reducing hidden barriers that limit access.

The theory’s guidelines can assist AI developers in anticipating learner needs, and by building multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression. When educators apply Universal Design for Learning, they create more accessible learning environments, strengthen learner agency, and offer flexible pathways to success. AI can further extend these benefits by providing personalized support tailored to individual learners. Beyond AI-powered tools, the Universal Design for Learning guidelines should also inform the design and implementation of AI literacy education to ensure it is accessible, flexible, and inclusive for all learners.

It is important to understand that AI is a tool and not a solution.  When using this tool with the guidance of the principles of Universal Design for Learning, they can help create more effective learning environments. One should always be cautious with AI applications and use them responsibly. When doing so, they offer several fecund options for education.

UDL - Principle of Action and Expression (version 3.0)

The three principles of UDL each address specific aspects of learning and how we process information.
They are:

1. Representation: which focuses on recognition networks in the mind.
2. Action and Expression: which focuses strategic network in the mind
3. Engagement: which focuses on affective networks in the mind

The second principle pertains to how we present information to learner.  Essentially, it is about how they are learning. To ensure learning is most successful, offer a choice of multiple expression of the material to be learned.

We all differ in how we approach a learning environment and how we express our knowledge. Often we approach learning tasks differently depending on our experiences.  We should expect these variations not only from those with significant physiological impairments, but also from cultural differences and those with language barriers.  Simply, we all vary in how we approach learning.  While some may favor writing and not oral presentations, others may prefer oral presentations, such as those with severe dyslexia.  Because our actions and expressions differ in our practices, strategy, and organization, a more inclusive approach is to develop learning environments where learners have options that can accommodate these differences

There are three guidelines to follow when focusing on the action and expression in learning.   They are:

1. Interaction (previously called Physical Action)
2. Expression and Communication
3. Strategic Development (previously called Executive Function) 

Each of these guidelines, each with their own goals to meet, ensure students have the best chance to learn. Meeting the Principle of Action and Expression also contributes to student inclusion, as it offers a variety of ways for students to choose how they will learn. This results in overall student success and is just good practice in teaching

Universal Design for Learning - Version 3.0

Universal Design for Learning v 3.0

The update builds on earlier versions of Universal Design for Learning by focusing more directly on reducing barriers caused by bias and systems of exclusion for learners with and without disabilities. It intentionally includes the voices and perspectives of practitioners and scholars who were underrepresented in previous editions. The goal is to strengthen the Guidelines as a tool for designing learning environments that better support and value every learner.

This updated version of the UDL Guidelines expands them in several important ways. It connects Universal Design for Learning more clearly with other asset-based approaches and frameworks, especially those that center and sustain learners’ cultural identities and experiences. It places stronger emphasis on identity as an important part of learner variability, recognizing not only how students learn but also who they are. This “who” of learning is woven throughout all three Universal Design for Learning principles.

The update acknowledges barriers at individual, institutional, and system levels, highlights the importance of interdependence and collective learning, and shifts the language from being educator-centered to more learner-centered. Together, these changes strengthen Universal Design for Learning as a more inclusive and responsive framework.

Previous versions technically included these inclusive teaching techniques implicitly throughout the guidelines. However, when we include information implicitly, we risk that some will overlook these or infer that these practices are not as valuable. This is why it is best to explicitly state the material.

How Does This Affect Me?

There is some overlap between different versions of the Guidelines, and many of the guidelines and criteria remain the same. However, you may still find older versions online that use slightly different language. To help reduce confusion, include the previous names alongside the updated ones.

As a general rule, it is a good idea to check which version is being referenced in any material you use.

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 2 - Criterion 1

 

When developing a course using the third principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The second, Sustaining Effort and Persistence addresses maintaining focus and determination.

Criterion 1 of this guideline advocates that we focus attention on the salience of goals and objectives

Many sources of interest compete for attention during the course of any long project or practice. For example, some learners will require reminding of their initial goal or what will happen when they obtain that goal. In this case, it is important to regularly offer elements to remind them of the goal and the value of meeting it.  This will assist these learners in sustaining effort or concentration to overcome factors that may distract them from meeting the goal.

When re-enforcing the understanding of goals and objectives, consider:

1. Displaying the goal or objectives in multiple ways or throughout the learning activity
2. Prompting learners to explicitly formulate or restate goals
3. Encouraging division of long-term goals into short-term objectives or demonstrate how this is done
4. Using prompts to visualizing desired outcome
5. Engaging learners in assessment discussions of what constitutes excellence and meeting the goals. Be prepared to accommodate different cultural backgrounds and interests
6. Providing exemplars to demonstrate goal achievement.

 By following these suggestions, your course will assist students communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line with the Principle of Engagement in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

UDL - Principle of Representation - Guideline 1 Perception

The first principle of UDL, ‘provide multiple means of representation”, help promote an inclusive learning environment on many levels.  When developing a course and focusing on this principle, there are three guidelines to follow.  They are:

1. Perception
2. Language and symbols
3. Building Knowledge

We are not going to take a deeper look.

The first guideline, Perception, in many ways overlaps with creating accessible content.  When creating content, be sure that interaction is flexible and does not solely depend on one sense for its delivery.  As you develop the material be sure that you can meet the following criteria:

1. The option to customize the display of information. By providing malleable content options in digital format that is accessible, you will be increasing the clarity and salience of information for a wide range of learners.
2. Alternatives to perceive information. A picture can stay 1000 words, but not if you cannot see it. These presentations can abandon those with visual disabilities. To ensure equitable access, offer non-visual learners alternatives such as closed captioning and transcripts.  Also, consider visual graphics and infographics to assist learners who perform better visually than with text.
3. Represent a diversity of perspectives and identities in authentic ways. Learners need to see themselves, as well as others, represented in what they study. When students recognize their own experiences and cultures in course materials, it builds validation and belonging. 

Meeting these criteria will reduce barriers to learning. Key information will be equally perceptible to all learners by: 

1. providing the same information through different modalities, and
2. providing information in a format that will allow for adjustability by the user 

Multiple representations not only ensure that information is accessible to learners with disabilities, but also easier to access for other learners from varying backgrounds.

Intelligent Agents in Brightspace

Intelligent agents in Brightspace are not really “intelligent” or GenAI.  Instead, they are rule-based automation tools that monitor learner activity and trigger targeted actions, such as: personalized feedback, or reminders. There are two key actions intelligent agents can do:

1. Change user roles (permissions) and (un)enroll users (Administrator level access required)
2. Instructors can email students alerts based on a triggered rule (Instructor level access)

Intelligent Agents as Instructional Agents

Intelligent agents can help put teaching plans into action automatically so they can immediately reach students, keep them engaged, reduce repetitive tasks, and use course data to guide your teaching in online or hybrid classes. This seems like a lot, but essentially in Brightspace they offer actions that can be automated by conditional statements.

Create and Employ an Agent

You can create an Intelligent Agent by:

1. Going to Course Tools on the NavBar and selecting Course Admin
2. Scroll Down to the Communication tools and select “Intelligent Agents” 
3. Select “New Agent”
4. The New Agent will have 4 features:
1. General: The Basics
1. Give the Agent a Name (Required)
2. Give the Agent a Description
3. Select a Category (Optional – you may need to make one using “Add Category”)
4. DO NOT Select “Agent is enabled.  Only do this once the agent is ready to be deployed. You may want to test your agent first.
2. Scheduling: Do you want this to be something done daily or once?
1. NOTE:  Student patience is fragile. Be careful not to overdo it!
3. Criteria: What triggers the action?
1. Who is affected by their roles:
1. It is best to choose all in the Classlist.
2. Using specific roles requires care.  You could email other course instructors or librarians (folks with roles other than students).
2. Take Action or Activity
1. Select warnings for late log in activity by either:
1. Brightspace Log-on
2. Course log-in (this is best)
3. Release Conditions: This is a vast list of options.  Some include:
1. Not posting in a discussion section
2. No Quiz Attempts
3. Scoring Below or above a number on a Quiz
4. Not visiting a content page
4. Action: 
1. Occur only once or (caution) repeatedly
2. Send Email” select the box 
1. Be sure to make the email informative.
2. OPTIONAL: Replacement Strings can personalize your message.
5. Save and Close

If you enabled the agent, it will run when scheduled. In addition, you can enable the agent from the list.

If you want to run it right now, select the agent’s chevron and select “Run now”.

What are Replacement Strings?

“Replacement strings” are bits of code entered into automated emails for personalization.

Use the following replacement string in the “To” address field to send the agent email to specific recipients: {InitiatingUser} – The user (student) who performs the actions necessary to satisfy the agent's criteria.

 

What replacement strings can I use in the subject and message? 

Here are several recommended replacement strings to consider using:

• {InitiatingUserFirstName} - The first name of the initiating user.
• {InitiatingUserLastName} - The last name of the initiating user.
  
  
• {LastCourseAccessDate} - The date the initiating user last accessed the course.
• {LastLoginDate} - The date the initiating user last logged in.
  
  
• {OrgUnitStartDate} - The start date of the course. (Access to the Brightspace course)
• {OrgUnitEndDate} -The end date of the course. (Access to the Brightspace course)

*Replacement strings are case sensitive!  Be sure to use them exactly as they are shown, else you could look like uncaring automaton or an idiot to the recipient. *

Example of a Message with Replacement Strings

The following text with replacement strings:

Dear {InitiatingUserFirstName},

I see that you did not log into the you course, {OrgUnitName}, last week. I hope everything is okay.  If there is an issue, do not hesitate to contact me to see what we can do. Please remember that regular participation in course activities is essential for success in this course. You can get back on track by first logging in to the course as soon as possible.

Looking forward to your return to the course,

Professor Wolf

This will look like:

Dear John,

I see that you did not log into the you course, PSY222-73 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, last week. I hope everything is okay.  If there is an issue, do not hesitate to contact me to see what we can do. Please remember that regular participation in course activities is essential for success in this course. You can get back on track by first logging in to the course as soon as possible.

Looking forward to your return to the course,

               Professor Wolf

Strategically Employed Intelligent Agents are Powerful

Using Intelligent Agents in conjunction with Conditional Releases can create powerful rule-based tools that can engage students, provide immediate feedback, and otherwise help add a more personal touch to your class.

For example, Intelligent Agents can:

• Send reminders to students who have not logged in recently,
• Congratulate learners who perform well on assignments, or
• Provide additional resources when students struggle with course material (via email link).

These automated messages help maintain communication, encourage engagement, and support student success without requiring instructors to manually monitor every course interaction.

See the D2L Community Resource for more on setting up Intelligent Agents

Video Note in Brightspace

 

You know that short video increases student engagement, however you do not have the finances or time to purchase complex video creation software.  Getting a video production crew on a teacher’s salary is just not possible.  How can one take advantage of video in their online courses?

What if I told you that there is a tool that can easily create short video clips for your online course, embed the clips, and automatically generate closed captions?  Ensuring that the experience is accessible, the tool generates transcripts automatically.

How to use Video Note

Video Note can be accessed by using the “Insert Stuff” icon.

When selected you have to option to:

• Record live using your web camera or
• Upload a premade video.

Remember to keep the video short, or you will lose the attention of the viewers.

Remember to give the video:

• a name,
•  description,
• select the video’s language and
• select “Automatically generate captions from audio”.

Select next to review and insert (or re-record).  The video will be in embedding into the web page. Video Note will even keep your video in your course – so there is no commercial access or issues with social media!

 

There are so many uses! Video Note can be used in any editor in Brightspace and is excellent for giving feedback when grading.  Use it in the feedback section so students will then be able to easily click on the video with one click when viewing their grades – increasing their likeliness to review the feedback!

 

Other video editing tools and transcript tools can cost you thousands of dollars.  Video Note cost nothing – and can be paid in four small payments of $0.

I only want Audio

What if you do not want video, but only want audio, can you embed that with Video Note?  Yes.

Whatever your reason, be it being an international spy or that you just want to remain faceless, you can use Video Note to upload audio.  Simply select the audio only feature or upload the audio file, and Video Note can create an interactive player that proves captioning and transcripts.

UDL - Principle of Representation (version 3.0)

 

The three principles of Universal Design for Learning (version 3.0) each address specific aspects of learning and how we process information.

They are:

1. Representation: which focuses on recognition networks in the mind
2. Action and Expression: which focuses strategic network in the mind
3. Engagement: which focuses on affective networks in the mind

The first principle pertains to how we present information to learner.  Essentially, it is about what they are learning. To ensure learning is most successful, offer a choice of multiple presentations of the information.

 

People differ in the ways that they perceive and comprehend information. How we present it to them matters. Besides sensory disabilities, such as blindness or deafness, and various learning disabilities, there are several varying factors that are associated with standard accessibility that significantly affect individual learning. A few of these factors include:

• Language differences
• Cultural differences
• Economic differences

Each of these may require different strategies to presenting content to ensure student success. In this way a more inclusive approach would accommodate all of these factors to offer an equal opportunity for understanding.  

 

Disregarding all of these factors, other learners may simply acquire information faster through one means of presentation instead of another, such as excelling at visual presentations instead of textual information. For this reason having multiple representations of content improves student success at learning. This allows students to make connections between, and within, the content that improves learning and the transfer of concepts. Thus the use of multiple representations of content is vital for everyone to learn because there is not one optimal representation for learning and the use of multiple representations allows the students to better comprehend the material during the learning process.  

 

There are three guidelines to follow when focusing on the representation as of content.  They are:

1. Perception
2. Language and Symbols 
3. Building Knowledge (version 3.0)

 

Each of these guidelines, each with their own goals to meet, ensure students have the best chance to recognize what they need to learn.  Meeting the Principle of Representation also contributes to student inclusion, as it does not bar access to the content for any group. This results in overall student success and is just good practice in teaching.