Climbing the UDL Ladder: Conceptualising UDL with the Student Voice

Climbing the UDL Ladder: Conceptualising UDL with the Student Voice Building a Culture of Inclusion in Higher Education

U Teaching & Learning, ATU Sligo

Thursday 26th May 2022 Commencing at 09.30am

D L

Welcome Message

Dr. Niamh Plunkett Head of Teaching & Learning, ATU Sligo

I am delighted to welcome you to our second HE UDL Conference. Last year, our inaugural conference had over 500 participants attend online. This year we are thrilled to host our conference in person at ATU Sligo. This year our conference considers the ‘Student Voice’ and their perspectives of UDL. I am delighted that many of the oral and poster presentations not only consider the student voice but include our students. I have no doubt that you will enjoy the conference and will leave feeling energised and ready to implement UDL into curricula to support all students!

The ATU UDL conference will consider many approaches to UDL. Together with our ATU and St. Angela’s College colleagues, this conference will bring Higher and Further Education Institutes and Networks together to examine and reflect on UDL practices within programmes to ensure the student learning experience provides for the varied learning needs of students in a changing world.

ATU Sligo is currently establishing a Higher Education UDL Centre of Excellence within the Teaching & Learning Office which will have responsibility for centralising UDL progression and work collaboratively to scale operations within ATU and replicate its activities across varied HEIs & FEIs. We are also developing a Level 9 Online Post

Graduate Certificate & Master of Arts in Universal Design for Learning which will be available from September 2022. The programme will facilitate a much deeper analysis of UDL and how this framework will be embedded across modules and programmes.

Conference Themes Engagement: Recruiting and keeping interest Presenters will guide conference participants through an examination of a shift in the teaching dynamic to one of collaboration and interest, giving students the information they need to take control and take ownership of their learning process. Presentations will discuss UDL redesigns that foster approaches by enhancing student engagement.

Delivery: Showcasing UDL teaching approaches to delivery in the face to face and on-line classroom Presentations that showcase UDL delivery approaches to consider real world experience and prompt students to engage as the practitioner.

Redesigns that delve into increasing student motivation through any of the following teaching approaches will be presented; work-based learning, enquiry-based learning, or problembased learning approaches.

Materials: Adopting a UDL classroom with accessible materials for all learner types Teaching through Covid-19 has enhanced the materials we produce for students to engage with, and these materials are now enhancing the classroom experience post-lockdown.

Presentations will provide experiences on improving the student experience through UDL enhancement of materials.

Assessment: Adopting alternative assessment practices through a UDL lens Presentations will address alternative pathways to success which remove potential barriers making learning goals attainable. Alternative representation examples of flexible options available in an assessment which can enhance access, support learner performance, and reduce possible perceived threats are included.

Conference Speakers Welcome & Opening the Conference

Dr. Orla Flynn President, Atlantic Technological University

Minister Simon Harris T.D Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science

Prof. Jacqueline McCormack Vice President for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and Online Development, ATU Sligo

ATU Sligo Presenters Maureen Haran Lecturer, UDL Lead, ATU Sligo

Conceptualising the Student Voice through Communication Pathways How do we know if our UDL improvements are making a difference on the student learning experience? We can keep making curriculum design improvements to improve our practices but without communicating with our students to learn how this is impacting their learning, could all this development be in vain? ATU Sligo lecturers who attained a UDL digital badge were contacted to invite their student cohorts to participate in focus groups to voice their experiences based on changes made to their module, contributing to an overall evaluation of the effectiveness of these curriculum developments. These focus groups explored the students experience and the thematic analysis identifies the overall student experiences with UDL.

Dr. Tamsin Cavaliero Lecturer ATU Sligo

Ms Jennifer Gilligan Instructional Designer, ATU Sligo

Capturing Magic: How graphics can build a culture of inclusion This presentation explores the use of Graphic Facilitation as a tool for teaching and learning across a range of subjects and discipline areas to enhance communication. Aligning with the UDL principle of representation, Graphic Facilitation was introduced as a learning tool at the start of the pandemic to facilitate emergency remote teaching and assessment. The presenters reflect on their experiences of introducing Graphic Facilitation across all 4 themes - engagement (recruiting and keeping interest), delivery, materials and assessment as a means of facilitating diverse learning styles, enriching learning encounters, encouraging work-integrated learning, developing external links through community engagement, and facilitating co-creative learning opportunities for staff across the CUA.

Cathy O’Kelly Lecturer, ATU Sligo

Mairead McCann Lecturer, ATU Sligo

Prof. Janette O’Neill Scott Lecturer, Georgian College, Canada

Operation Brent: Embedding UDL into a Collaborative Online International Learning Experience This presentation will share the experience and insights gained by faculty members who have designed and delivered a UDL-inspired collaborative online international learning (COIL) project, Operation Brent.

The Operation Brent (COIL) Project centered on building 21st Century employability skills such as resiliency, global competence, and intercultural learning, to better prepare students for workplace interactions in a global business world. The faculty team worked together to embed UDL principles into each of the defined stages of the project.

The presentation will illustrate how UDL was rooted in a shared approach: the presentation will showcase a variety of examples of how multiple means of engagement and of expression were integrated into the project to facilitate students’ learning in this collaborative online international experience.

Keynote Speaker Dr Seán Bracken Dr Seán Bracken is a Principal Fellow of the HEA and a Principal Lecturer at the University of Worcester. He is currently the Course Coordinator for the National Award SENCO and he teaches on the PG Cert for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Alongside Associate Professor Richard Jackson from Boston College, Seán is co-founder of the International Collaboratory for Leadership in Universally Designed Education (INCLUDE).

Throughout his career, Seán has been a passionate advocate for marginalised learners. Seán has been a teacher, a teacher educator and an educational project leader in a diversity of contexts and jurisdictions including at schools and universities in; Samoa, Vanuatu, the US, Ireland, Tonga, Morocco and the UK. His research areas of concern include blended learning, educational leadership and the application of Universal Design for Learning to dis/ability and intersectionality.

(Re)imagining the future topographies for UDL. Flipping perspectives from learning; global to local, and local to global.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is gaining significant traction in Higher and Further Education in Ireland and more widely in a global context. This adoption of UDL tends to be perceived very positively, but attributes of UDL adoption may be problematic given that the original Framework was developed with learners from primary (elementary) and secondary education in mind. So, there is a necessity for practitioners and researchers who adopt a Universal Design conceptual perspective to revisit the Framework and consider requirements of HE and FE providers, not least with the incorporation of learner voice. Additionally, while considering the next steps for adopting a whole course and whole organisational UDL approach, there is potential to learn from the experiences of other HE and

Dedicated Conference Webpage: https://www.itsligo.ie/administration/ registrar/udl/udl-conference-2022/

FE organisations at a national and international level. In this context, learning from the global to inform more local practices will be an important feature for (re)imagining future topographies for UDL application. But that learning dynamic is not unidirectional, there is significant scope too for growing transnational communities of practice to learn from the localised socio-cultural factors that influence UDL adoption. These complementary learning streams have implications for UDL Framework sustainability in the longer term. This keynote will explore some of those dynamic interplays so that participants begin (re)imaging their positionings and potential journeys while adopting UDL as an orienteering companion.

Engagement: Recruiting and keeping interest Theme I

Using UDL to Foster Student Engagement

Dr. Trish O’Connell, ATU Galway City Trish is a lecturer in the School of Science & Computing.

Having joined ATU Galway (formerly GMIT) in 2013, she had previously worked for NUI Galway & Regis University, Colorado, USA as an online tutor for the MSc in Software Engineering.

Role models, Road maps and “Real” Recreation: Multiple means of Engaging students in workplace competencies.

Mrs Geraldine Duignan, ATU Sligo Geraldine is a dedicated Teaching and Learning professional in Higher Education with a background in Pharmaceutical Analysis, Drug Development and Science Communication.

Delivery: Showcasing UDL teaching approaches to delivery in the face to face and on-line classroom

Theme II

The iNote Student Journey Framework

Dr. Ellen McCabe Instructional Designer, ATU Sligo Ellen has worked in educational research for 12 years. She is an Instructional Designer with the Centre for Online Learning at the ATU Sligo. Ellen’s research interests include student supports and the dissemination of inclusive pedagogies.

The impact of the implementation of the UDL principles on a Nursing Practice Skills Module

Dr. Dympna Walsh-Gallagher, Lecturer, St. Angela’s College Sligo Dympna lectures on the undergraduate and postgraduate Programmes in Nursing, Arts and Disability Studies; in addition, she supports PhD students with independent analysis of transcripts. She is currently employed as a lecturer, Disability Liaison Officer and researcher within the Department of Nursing, Health Sciences and Disability Studies, St Angela’s College.

Materials: Adopting a UDL classroom with accessible materials for all learner types

Theme III

Transforming the Virtual Learning Environment in the context of UDL

Mr. Ulrich Hoeche, ATU Galway City Ulrich is a lecturer in the Department of Culinary Arts, ATU Galway. He has teaching and learning expertise in the areas of Food Product Development, Culinary Innovation, Food Labelling Design and Packaging, Food Marketing, Digitalisation in Education, Blended Learning, and VLE transformation.

Attuning Library Services to Student Needs with UDL: re-focusing social media platforms as a channel for teaching

Ms Jennifer Flynn, Librarian, ATU Sligo Jennifer is an academic librarian who has worked across a range of library services, from specialist research to public library services.

Assessment: Adopting alternative assessment practices through a UDL lens

Theme IV

Assessing the impact of providing a choice in presenting a review paper under the UDL framework

Dr. Liam Morris, Lecturer, ATU Galway City Liam is a Lecturer in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department at ATU Galway for over 16 years and is the programme chair for Biomedical Engineering (Level 8). He is a principal investigator and academic direction within the MET Gateway.

Using ‘Ladybird’ Assessment Activity to develop understanding and communication skills

Ms Anne Tynan, Lecturer, ATU Galway City Anne has been lecturing in taxation and accounting at third level institutes for over ten years. Anne has also been involved with professional accounting and taxation education for fifteen years, as examiner on professional programmes, authoring educational textbooks and delivering both in-person and online seminars and workshops for professional students.

Agenda for the Day 9.30am

Registration with Tea/Coffee

10.00am

Opening of Conference Dr. Niamh Plunkett - Head of Teaching & Learning, ATU Sligo Dr. Orla Flynn - ATU President Minister Simon Harris T.D - Minister for Further & Higher Education, Research & Science Prof. Jacqueline McCormack – Vice President for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and Online Development, ATU Sligo - Launch of HE Centre of Excellence in UDL - Launch of new PG Cert/MA in UDL

10.20am

Keynote Speaker Dr. Sean Bracken, Principal Lecturer, PFHEA (Department of Education and Inclusion, Worcester University)

11.10am

Conceptualising the Student Voice through Communication Pathways – National Forum Project Maureen Haran, Lecturer, ATU Sligo

11:.30am

Coffee Break & View Posters

12.00pm

12.20pm

Capturing Magic: How graphics can build a culture of inclusion Dr. Tamsin Cavaliero, Lecturer ATU Sligo & Jennifer Gilligan, Instructional Designer ATU Sligo Operation Brent: Navigating a Collaborative Online International Learning Project Cathy O’Kelly, Lecturer ATU Sligo Mairead McCann, Lecturer ATU Sligo Prof. Janette O’Neill-Scott, Lecturer, Georgian College Ontario Canada

12:40pm

Theme 1 - Engagement: Recruiting and keeping interest Chair: Dr. Shelley Brady, Disability Officer ATU Sligo

1.10pm

Lunch (main canteen)

2.15pm

Theme 2 – Delivery: Showcasing UDL Teaching Approaches to delivery in the face to face and on-line classroom Chair: Colin Tierney, Development Coordinator for UDL, ATU Galway

2:45pm

Theme 3 – Materials: Adopting a UDL classroom with accessible materials for all learner types Chair: Laura Hegarty, Lecturer, ATU Mayo

3.15pm

Theme 4 – Assessment: Adopting alternative assessment practices through a UDL lens Chair: Dr. Geraldine Dowling, Lecturer, ATU Sligo

3.45pm

Graphic Facilitation Conclusion Close of Conference

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