Principle of Engagement - Guideline 3 - Criterion 3

 

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 3 - Criterion 3

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

Criterion 3 of this guideline advocates that we develop self-assessment and reflection

Learners need to monitor their emotions and reactions accurately in order to develop their ability at self-regulation. The propensity and capacity for metacognition will vary greatly among learners.  As an instructor you should not be surprised to have students who may require considerable amounts of explicit instruction and modeling before they can self-assess effectively.  For some, merely recognizing that they are making progress can be highly motivating.  However, others may need more.  The inability to recognize one’s own progress can be a key demotivating factor.  Having multiple models and scaffolds of a variety of self-assessment techniques is important so learners can select the ones that will work best for themselves. This will increase learners’ awareness of their progress and how they may learn from their mistakes. The latter is critical, as recognizing errors as educational opportunities is critical for accelerating growth and success.  

Some strategies to meet this criterion include:

• Providing tools to chart or display data that marks improvement to assist learners to modify strategies that will aid in this success
• Providing ample activities that offer timely feedback that better frames the learners' progress
• Developing assignments that supply feedback and allow learners to reflect on the feedback and adapt new strategies based on their reflection.
• Supplying a developed gradebook, or center, where learners can view their progress relative to the course and have access to detailed feedback.  (When using any learning management system, such as Blackboard or Moodle, this is relatively easy because the feedback areas are already linked to the grade center)

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

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

 

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

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

Criterion 2 of this guideline advocates that we facilitate personal coping skills and strategies.

Most learners will require more than just a model of self-regulatory skills. Scaffolding and sustained apprenticeships, possibly with mentors, contribute to the development of these strategies. Employing reminders, checklists, and process models can assist learners in adopting an adaptive strategy for managing their response to external events, such as social settings that may produce anxiety. This also applies to responses to internal events, such as for decreasing depression from facing the workload.

 
These strategies should offer flexible options to account for the individual variation in learners and accommodate the differences that variation brings. With these strategies, learners will be able to manage healthy responses to the stress of learning and possible setbacks, and eventually overcome these setbacks.

When addressing this, consider developing or providing scaffolds and feedback for:

• Managing frustration in not meeting goals or succeeding in tasks
• Seeking external support (does your campus have external services or could you embed them into your learning environment?)
• Developing coping controls to stress and setbacks
• Implementing exemplars to demonstrate effective coping skills
• Dispelling antiquated tropes about aptitude instead of viewing learning as improving (For example adopting the mindset of “How do I get better at Statistics?” instead of “I am not good at math”)

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

Accessibility Checkers

Creating accessible content is easier now than ever before.  While there are several rules to learn and standards are regularly changing, such as WCAG standards, creating accessible content does not require a specialist. There are plenty of tools to assist you.  Most applications have accessibility checkers build right in.   These make producing accessible content easy.

We commonly make spell checking or grammar checking part of the process in creating a document.  Now it is time to include accessibility checking. 
 

You may notice that with so many accessibility checkers, sometimes they may differ in their analysis. Why should we pay attention to them?  Remember that accessibility standards are changing – they are evolving and regularly improving.  Algorithms can vary between programs and are trying to keep up.  The best course of action is to rely on any and all tools at your disposal.  This way you can work at having the most accessible content as possible.

Schools that take accessibility seriously should have at least three accessibility checkers at your disposal.

Available Accessibility Checkers

MS Word (or MS Office Apps)

Depending on the version, the accessibility checker can be in different locations.  It is most commonly on the “review ribbon”, but earlier versions have it under File.  Be sure to use it whenever you create a word document.

  

Ally

Those gauges next to content indicate the accessibility rating.  

Be sure to click on it and see why it is not dark green (or 100% accessible).  Ally will often direct you on how to improve your content.

Accessibility checker in the LSM HTML Editor

For example:
 Brightspace provide an accessibly checker in their HTML editor in the tools ribbon. The icon looks like an eye with a checkmark next to it. Naturally, if you hover the mouse over the tool buttons, you will see their names pop up. If you select the icon, it will scan the page, identify any issues, and offer advice.

It is important get acquainted with the accessibility checkers and incorporate it in your content creation routine.  It does not take much time to ensure that the content you create is accessible. In fact, the more you use the checkers, you will notice that you will be unconsciously adopting accessible practices when you produce content. This is a skill that will help you and others.