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UDL Module Redesign Project

The University for All project team and Faculty Partnership Programme are leading a Universal Design for Learning module redesign project. All faculty are invited to participate. It will appeal to those colleagues who are looking for new ways to reinvigorate their modules and teaching or are looking to tackle some of the issues presented by AI and authentic assessments. This project seeks to be high impact and a demonstration project for additional colleagues in UCD and beyond to follow. We anticipate this project will have a workload of 25 hours in total. 

Those interested in participating should contact their local Faculty Partner or contact (opens in a new window)universityforall@ucd.ie - a project kick-off meeting will be hosted on Wednesday 7 February at 11 am in UCD Access & Lifelong Learning.

Overview

  1. UCD Faculty Partners are recruiting colleagues who will commit to redeveloping a module to be featured in the UDL Module Redesign Project.
  2. Participants can select a module they teach either in Spring trimester 2024 or Autumn trimester 2024 which will be the subject of the redesign. 
  3. The modules will need to run twice before this project is completed. 
  4. Explicit feedback questions will be asked of students in one of the last classes offered as part of the selected module. 
  5. This will be done in person to maximise student participation and will be carried out by someone other than the module coordinator, ideally a Faculty Partner. 
  6. Participants will redevelop their module based on this feedback before the next iteration and students will be asked the same set of questions to evaluate the impact of the redesign.
  7. Participants will then write up the process of redesign to be featured as a case study. The format of this is yet to be decided but guidelines will be provided.
  8. Participants should have previously completed the Digital Badge for Universal Design in Teaching & Learning or be committed to doing it during the course of the project.

Pre and Post Student Feedback

Feedback is gathered before redesign to ascertain student experience and after redesign to establish the impact of changes implemented. Students completing the module will be asked explicit questions formulated based on the principles of inclusive teaching and learning in the Universal Design for Learning Framework (CAST, 2018). 

Suggested Feedback Questions

  1. Clear communication: Were the learning outcomes and rationale for the learning modes (projects, presentations, discussions, labs, etc) and assessments made clear?
  2. Engaging students: Did you feel able to participate in class and other learning activities, or were there barriers to engagement?

Flexibility:

  1. Was the teaching materials and its delivery (lectures, online material, in-class discussions, etc.) sufficiently diverse to support your learning?
  2. Was learning supported by a variety of learning modes (projects, presentations, discussions, labs, etc), or do you feel there were other ways to enable your learning that could be offered as alternatives?
  3. Did the assessment strategy build in flexibility and variety to address different ways of learning?

These questions can be adapted based on specific goals or focus that module coordinators would like to address. Focus groups will be held as part of class time towards the end of the module and will be facilitated by the Faculty Partners to ensure students understand the confidentiality of the process and to encourage full and frank provision of feedback. Faculty Partners will explain why feedback is being sought and the purpose of this redesign exercise. Feedback will be collated and shared with the relevant module coordinator planning to make the UDL changes. Identifiable information will be removed. 

Redesign of Modules

Feedback gathered will be used as the basis for the redesign of the modules.

This feedback will be provided to module coordinators in advance of a meeting with the Faculty Partners to discuss this and explore ideas for redesigns which will address any identified areas for improvement. module coordinators may wish to incorporate broader student feedback into their redesigns and their own observations and learning. Module coordinators will be tasked with coming up with specific ideas for changes to the next iteration of their modules. 

Example redesigns using this process are documented in the Inclusive Teaching & Learning case studies.

Case studies 

Module coordinators will write up case studies describing the key changes made

to teaching, learning and assessment in nominated modules as a result of the redesign. These case studies will demonstrate real world evidence-based examples of inclusion. Case study authors will provide numerous practical and replicable approaches which other educators could easily embed in their own teaching to embed inclusion. Providing rubrics, activities, assessment briefs and other resources is encouraged which can be adapted and used by others. 

University for All

University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
E: UniversityforAll@ucd.ie