UDL for online teaching

The UNSW Guidelines for Accessible Blended and Online Courses align well with the principles of UDL, as they state:

• Design the online learning environment to guide and support student learning.
• Ensure online content can be accessed by screen readers.
• Provide text alternatives for media.
• Design for the various ways learners access and engage with online content.
• Make iterative improvements.

Source: UNSW Guidelines for Accessible Blended and Online Courses

• To feel included and connected to others (students and instructors)
• To feel valued (personal contact – having someone check-in)
• To feel prepared (inductions and orientations on how to use the online tools)
• To be responded to (feedback, discussion, instructor and tutor presence)
• To experience flexibility (well-designed instruction)

Source: ADCET (Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training)

• Include a welcoming access statement (Representation)
• Provide simple, consistent navigation throughout your course (Representation)
• Choose tools carefully (Engagement)
• Model and teach good discussion board etiquette (Action and Expression)
• Use colour with care (Representation)
• Make sure text is readable (Representation)
• Provide accessible document formats (Engagement)
• Describe graphics and visual elements (Engagement)
• Caption videos and transcribe audio clips (Engagement)
• Rethink and redesign PowerPoint presentations (Representation)

Source: Prof Terry Cumming (Profiles: Research, Education)

• Post a short informal video introduction
• Encourage students to do the same and post (or write about themselves and upload a picture)
• Find the best way for you to be consistent in your communication (how and when you will respond to posts, provide comments, offer encouragement, suggestions, feedback etc. Clearly outline this to students, including how they can contact you
• The more you engage with them, the more students with engage with you and their classmates

Source: Prof Terry Cumming (Profiles: Research, Education)

• Clear and accessible design of the courses’ web interface
• Provide opportunities for online and in-class discussion
• Provide instruction that is straightforward and predictable- for example, the student should be able to access every aspect of the course in the same way
• Provide students with advance notice of work (i.e. through course schedule) and a week to complete the work, with at least one week’s notice ahead of this
• All online materials should be accessible via tools such as screen readers
• Provide tolerance for error through group work, face to face meeting, peer-tutoring
• Maintain instructional environment with low physical effort
• Encourage students to bring computers to class- provide students without computers with a school computer
• Implement asynchronous online discussions to allow students with limited online access time to participate
• Create learning communities through discussion boards
• If using group-work, place students with good computer literacy with students who struggle
• Demonstrate to students how to access and use the online aspects of the course
• Emphasise the high academic standards to which students will be held
• Avoid cluttered websites
• Reduce the number of web tools used
• Add captions and annotations to multimedia
• Employ different assessment methods
• Provide lectures in text and audio formats
• Consider the compatibility of speech input devices with the web design
• Use consistent web design
• Use small blocks of text with headings
• Enable text to be enlarged
• Avoid using colour as a sole means of delivering information
• Provide sign language interpretation
• Use colours with strong contrast- or have options for students to edit the text to their needs.
• Ensure there are “undo” options for tests and assessments

Source: Coy, 2016; Dell, Dell, & Blackwell, 2015; Dukes III, Koorland, & Scott, 2009; Pittman & Heiselt, 2014; Rogers-Shaw, Carr-Chellman, & Choi, 2018