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.

Guiding Students with College Writing

Sometimes non-traditional students who are not familiar with the demands of college writing. This can impede the success in both tradition classrooms and online environments. This can discourage them and impinge the overall effectiveness of the class and they no longer want to participate.

Like most aspects on teaching and learning, a little preparation before the lesson can save the instructor a lot of work after student falter. Offering tips to students in advance can provide scaffolds that will increase the student success.  Alternatively, setting up an adaptive learning system, these tips can be set to assist students who first demonstrate that they may need writing assistance.  Of course, these tips are help everyone as well.

Below is an set of tips (included in the video above) that can be us to assist students. Feel free to use these to assist any students you have that could benefit from better discussion participation.

Guiding Students with Online Discussion Tips

Many times teachers are challenged with new or non-traditional students who are not familiar with how online discussion work in education, as well as, some students who struggle within the online environments. Naturally, when some students do not make the most of the discussion sections, and this can impinge the overall effectiveness of the forum for the class.

Like most aspects on teaching and learning, a little preparation before the lesson can save the instructor a lot of work after student falter.  By offering tips to students in advance, you can assist them in better contributing in class discussions.  Alternatively, setting up an adaptive learning system, these tips can be set to assist students who first demonstrate that they may not understand how to maximize the discussion forums.

Below is an open set of tips (included in the video playlist above). Feel free to use these to assist any students you have that could benefit from better discussion participation.