Principle of Action & Expression - Guideline 1 - Criterion 1 & 2

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Action  & Expression - Guideline 1 - Criterion 1 & 2

When developing a course using the second principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The first, Physical Action, in many ways overlaps with accessibility requirements. A key take home is to not create physical barriers that impede students.

Criterion 1 of this guideline advocates that we vary the methods for response and navigation.

Provide multiple means for students to respond, compose material, or select material.  Since learners vary in how they navigate information, consider providing multiple means of navigation that are accessible so that you provide equal opportunity for interaction.  So things to consider are:

• Having flexible rates, timing, and speed required to interact with instructional materials.  For example, automated presentations that cannot be paused or slowed my not accommodate students with limited vision or motor action.
• Having flexible timing for test taking that accommodates for physical impediment
• Offer alternatives for physically responding.  This could include, marking with a pen, keyboard controls as well as a mouse pointer, or the use of polling in classrooms with mobile technology or clickers.

The second criterion (Criterion 2) of this guideline advocates that we vary the methods for response and navigation.

Supplying a tool is not supplying support for that tool.  Whether it is an online course or a new lab tool, learners often need help navigating the new environment. A significant number of learners use assistive technologies on a regular bases, and it is important to not overlook this.  It is critical that whatever technology we use, it does not impose barriers to those using assistive technologies. Likewise, being physically accessible should not remove the lessons challenge to the learner. A few rules of thumb include:

o   Providing alternatives to mouse actions, such as using tabs.

o   Providing access to alternative keyboards

o   Select software that works seamlessly with keyboard alternatives or assistive technologies

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

Principle of Representation - Guideline 3 - Criterion 3

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Representation - Guideline 3 - Criterion 3

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

Criterion 3 of this guideline advocates that we guide information processing and visualization by encouraging the application of meta-strategies.

Applying these strategies are skills for “processing” information. These assist in better summarizing, prioritizing, and remembering the content. Many learners to not have a developed set of these skills and the knowledge of when to use them, so guiding students both stimulates knowledge acquisition and reinforces the meta-skills needed for learning.  Properly designed materials assist learners who have diverse abilities in using these strategies by providing customized learning environments that scaffolds and offers feedback to assist the learners.  Try to design lessons that:

• Explicitly prompt each step in a sequential process
• Offer options for organizational methods and approaches.
• Provide interactive models that guide exploration and new understandings
• Scaffold the design to support information processing strategies
• Provide multiple entry points to a lesson and optional pathways through content.
• Utilize cognitive load theory and “Chunk” information into smaller elements
• Reduce cognitive load by removing unnecessary distractions
• Progressively release information (for example, sequential highlighting) 

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.

Visual Grade Representation and Assignment Checklist

Two issues often frustrate instructors and contribute to a significant drop in students’ grades.  First, students frequently fail to comprehend the importance an assignment contributes to their final grade and their lack of attention or concern contributes to severely undermining their grade.  Second, students commonly forget to accomplish all of their assignments.  The zero for missing an assignment tanks their grade. 

Instead of being frustrated and accepting that they these are inevitable failings of students, perhaps they are not.  Could the design of our courses be altered to offer scaffolds to assist in reducing the above cases? 

 

Fortunately, there is an OER tool that can provide scaffolds to improve student success.  The Visual Grade Representation and Assignment Checklist is a simple tool that can both better illustrate the ‘weight’ an assignment bears on a final grade as well as assist student planning to ensure they submit all their assignments on time.

 

First, the Visual Grade Representation and Assignment Checklist provides a graphical depiction of the grading. A pie chart shows how much each category contributes to the final grade.  The chart can easily be edited in MS Word and, as an instructor, you can change the type of graph, if it better illustrates the relationship. Simply Right-click and select “edit the data”.  This alternate representation provides another organization method to guide students understanding and their application of meta-strategies.

 

Second, below the pie-chart is a checklist. It reminds students of; which assignments belong to which category, when each assignment is due, the how much it may contribute to the final grade, and a space for students to mark-off completed assignments.  Color coding assists the association of assignments and categories with the above graph while labels ensure color-blind students will not be left behind.  Students can print out the checklist and use it to guide expectations and promote attitudes that help optimize motivation.  This also increases their length on task orientation, which is in line with the Principle of Engagement in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

A tool that helps your students succeed and reduces time you spend on reminding students about missed assignments is something every good instructor wants. How much would your pay for this incredible tool?  It doesn’t matter – it is free.  Feel free to download the tool and let’s start improving our student success rates today - https://tinyurl.com/VGRAC

NOTE: If you edit the file in Word and save it as a PDF, the page will be seen inline for all LMSs. You can also encourage students to print out the page and physically mark off assignments when they are submitted.  This act helps reinforce their memory of the remaining assignments. 

Principle of Representation - Guideline 3 - Criterion 4

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Representation - Guideline 3 - Criterion 4

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

Criterion 4 of this guideline advocates that we maximize transfer and generalization so students can apply learning to new contexts.

Each learner varies in the amount of scaffolding necessary for memory and information transfer in order to access prior learning. Offering assistance in how to transfer the information to new situations, accelerates the learning process. Without this ability, the learned information may become inaccessible in new situations. Supports for memory, generalization, and transfer include techniques designed to heighten the memorability of the information can be assisted by:

• Providing checklists, organizers, notes, electronic reminders
• Prompting the use of mnemonic strategies and devices
• Incorporating explicit opportunities for review and practice
• Providing templates, graphic organizers, concept maps to support organizing the information learned
• Scaffolding the content to connect new information to prior knowledge
• Embedding new ideas in familiar ideas and contexts
• Providing explicit, supported opportunities to generalize learning to new situations
• Offer opportunities over time to revisit key ideas and linkages between ideas

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.

Fall 2021 Teaching and Learning Webinars

 

This Fall, SUNY Schenectady has coordinated a set of webinars to help you improve your teaching, both online and in the classroom.  Topics will include:

• Accessibility is Not Optional
• 5 Easy Pieces: Tips for Improving Online Student Engagement
• Online Labs! Successfully Implementing Science Labs
• Diversity Awareness in the Curriculum and Inclusive Teaching: What can I do as a faculty?
• Making the Most from PowerPoint

The webinars will have a short presentation period and ample time for discussion.  Besides featuring Teaching and Learning Specialist, Dave Wolf, several guest speakers share their expertise. 

The webinars will occur every other Monday, from noon to 1:00PM, starting October 4th. You can download a schedule with more details as well as the links to each webinar.  

The series is open to all educators. 

Why are Synchronous Online Classes Dull?

When asked, students generally feel that they learn most from Asynchronous courses, followed by traditional face-to-face courses, and least by synchronous online courses.  How can this be?

This is in-part because many asynchronous courses rigorously apply instructional design best practices based on years of research.  It is not clear that most traditional course are and probably less likely for synchronous courses given the emergency adoption during the pandemic. We must remember that teaching online involves significantly more than simply dropping a face-to-face course, or Zoom meetings, into the campus learning-management system. Designing effective online courses is hard work and differs significantly from in-person teaching. HyFlex courses essentially braid the two together, which means it is even harder.

 

Before working on an HyFlex course, it is important that you are comfortable teaching asynchronously online. If not, you may underestimate the amount of effort and interaction necessary for engaging students.

With this in mind, why are synchronous online classes dull?

The issue is not that they are intrinsically worse than traditional classes. Instead students are perceiving that they are not learning from them.  It is vital to ask another question:

Are we using the technology correctly?

The online medium is dynamic and listening passively for an hour may not be the best way to promote learning. In fact, the average time a student will watch an instructional video is 6 minutes – regardless if its length is six or sixty minutes.  Clearly, the take home message for the medium is that video alone needs to be in small chunks if we want to foster learner engagement.

 

The traditional sage on the stage model has been abandoned by a significant number of teachers. For example, many teachers flip their classroom. The content is available on online, while the classes meet for a quick review, discussion, learning activities and assignments.

 

This strategy has also been successful in implementing HyFlex.  It is better suited for brief exposition (lessons, review, or instructions) that is recorded followed by breakout sessions for groups.  The class then returns for students to present or follow up information with the instructor.

During the breakout sessions, the instructor can offer more personalized assistance by visiting all groups, virtual or within the classroom.

 

The flipped classroom has a long history of success.  It is not surprising that it also works for HyFlex.  It probably works equally as well for online synchronous courses because this strategy better aligns with the mode of educational delivery.

Modules are Not Folders of Weekly Content

 You are developing an online course and are looking at a syllabus for your fifteen-week traditional version.  You just reviewed Cognitive Load Theory, that states that students learn more effectively when content is ‘chunked’ into smaller parts.  But that is hard and you have a 15-week schedule already made.

Can’t each week be a module? This is generally not the best practice. 

1. Students should associate the module with specific content and a module titled, “Week 1,” is not very informative about the content and to anything other than the temporal relation in the course.
2. Modules that are longer than week allow for much needed time for students to be more successful with learning activities. Discussion sections and other collaborative exercises are more successful when they allow for reflection and when that affords time for communication.
3. This many divisions of concepts exceeds a person’s cognitive load limits. The students will struggle at connecting vital concepts of the course and their success will be impeded.
4. The course cannot be easily be re-purposed for anything other than a fifteen-week session.

Remember: If you are going to spend the time making a great course, you might as well make the most of your effort.

Principle of Representation - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Representation - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

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

Criterion 2 of this guideline advocates that we highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships.

These distinguish what is vital information from noise or unimportant information.  This is one of the key skills that experts display over laypeople.  Highlighting key patterns allows the learner to efficiently allocate their time and identify what is important.  Thus the most effective way to make information more accessible is to offer explicit cues to identify what features of the information matter most.  Try to:

§  Highlight or emphasize key elements in text, graphics, diagrams, formulas

§  Use outlines, graphic organizers, concept organizer routines, and concept mastery routines to for focus on key relationships

§  Use multiple examples to emphasize critical features and some non-examples to illustrate them

§  Use prompts to draw attention to critical features

§  Highlight previously learned skills and how they can be used to solve unfamiliar problems 

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.