UDL in the LMS

The diversity inherent in post-secondary education combined with increased class sizes has contributed to a rise in unique learner needs and accommodation requests. In addition, post-secondary faculty are often content experts and not necessarily experts in higher education pedagogy, inclusive teaching, and/or technology mediated learning making teaching particularly challenging when the learning environment is blended, as it is at Mohawk College. In Mohawk College’s context, faculty are responsible for creating engaging, inclusive, and accessible learning environments regardless of the teaching and learning environment. In an effort to better support the teaching and learning needs at Mohawk College, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) elements were embedded into the institution’s learning management system (LMS). A Course Master Template, based on faculty and student feedback, was developed to support Mohawk College faculty with UDL implementation to support access and inclusion, and ensure all students are on a path to becoming expert learners.

The presentation "UDL in the LMS" was originally delivered, in person on October 3, 2019, at the Third Pan-Canadian Conference held at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. This chapter offers the content from the session, including additional context and participant contributions.

Context

Student Population

Mohawk College is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It educates approximately 30000 students a year through full-time, part-time, and continuing education courses and programs. The College has a diverse student population as indicated by the College’s 2017-20 Strategic Mandate Agreement with the province of Ontario with approximately:

12% of students enrolled self-identify as a student with a disability
20% of students enrolled are first-generation (meaning they are the first person in their family to attend post-secondary education)
2% of students enrolled self-identify as Indigenous
70% of students enrolled access funds from the Ontario Student Assistance Program
2000 international students are enrolled from more than 70 countries (2018).

Blended Learning

In addition to a diverse student population, Mohawk College is a “blended learning” institution, meaning that all of Mohawk College’s courses, with very few exceptions, are technology-enabled with curriculum delivery and assessment managed through the learning management system (LMS). Mohawk College defines blended learning as integrating online and face-to-face learning environments in the delivery of a course. A blended course at Mohawk College is also

…designed to integrate face-to-face and online activities so that they reinforce, elaborate on, and complement one another, instead of treating the online component as an add-on or duplicate of what is taught in the classroom (“What is blended learning?”, n.d.).

UDL Implementation

As of Spring 2020, Mohawk College is approximately 4 years into a college-wide implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The primary role responsible for developing UDL initiatives, promoting implementation, and providing strategic planning is the UDL Curriculum Consultant; this position resides within the Centre for Teaching & Learning (CTL). The placement of this role within Mohawk College’s CTL is an important contextual distinction as many other higher education institutions have UDL support resting in centres for students with disabilities. Instead, the UDL Curriculum Consultant works closely with Educational Technology and Curriculum Development Specialists within CTL to support UDL implementation for all courses, programs, and learners, as opposed to a specific population of students.

In 2018, Mohawk College completed an eCampusOntario grant funded research project to support strategic UDL implementation planning and resource development. One element of the Universal Design for Learning for Technology-enabled Post-secondary Courses at Mohawk College research project was an audit of the College’s LMS to determine existing, supportive tools to use in the implementation of UDL within the blended portions of courses. The research project also yielded data regarding UDL priorities for students and faculty, with many priorities lending themselves to comprehensive implementation within the online course environment. In 2018, a refined strategic plan for UDL implementation was developed within CTL, which included leveraging the LMS.

Implementation Barriers

When UDL was introduced at Mohawk College, in 2015, several implementation barriers were identified:

No clear process or support to determine appropriate UDL initiatives for Mohawk College’s specific context.
A lack of comprehensive knowledge of the LMS.
A shortage of faculty time and UDL in higher education knowledge to include UDL elements within their courses.
A significant lack of institution specific UDL resources designed for post-secondary, online implementation.
An absence of ongoing assistance to support the dynamic nature of UDL implementation in higher education.

In addition, there were significant concerns from faculty that the implementation of UDL would be prescribed or rigid, leaving little room for their subject matter expertise and/or professional autonomy.

It was a conscious decision to make UDL implementation at Mohawk College voluntary in order to support the flexibility and autonomy faculty have regarding their course curriculum design, development, and delivery. While this approach is time consuming it has, anecdotally, shown greater faculty interest in implementation of UDL thus far. Changing an institution’s culture to one where learner diversity is not merely tolerated, but celebrated as an integral part of learning takes time; UDL implementation requires this culture change. It then takes more time, still, to find barriers to learning and then provide support for UDL implementation to eliminate those barriers. In order to help address the implementation barriers identified, Mohawk College decided to embed UDL into the LMS.

UDL within the LMS

Once the Universal Design for Learning for Technology-enabled Post-secondary Courses at Mohawk College research project was complete, Mohawk College’s CTL identified two primary goals:

Provide significant support for faculty to adopt UDL in their courses in order to overcome the identified implementation barriers.
Ensure an online learning environment that is more inclusive and accessible in order to broadly support all learners.

Being a blended learning post-secondary institution, with the vast majority of courses delivering content as well as assessments through the LMS, embedding UDL into the LMS was an efficient and straightforward way to connect faculty to UDL initiatives and resources, while moving the institution at large towards a more accessible and inclusive learning environment.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water…

The old proverb “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” is apt for Mohawk College’s situation regarding UDL implementation. By the time the Universal Design for Learning for Technology-enabled Post-secondary Courses at Mohawk College research project was completed, Mohawk College had determined that there were a large number of full-time and part-time faculty, Continuing Education instructors, non-teaching faculty, Counsellors, and Librarians who wanted to implement UDL (to varying degrees) within their work. In addition, the UDL priorities of students were clear. In short, Mohawk College had lots of ‘horses’. The research project also provided the College with a plan, context specific data, UDL resources, knowledge of LMS tools, and administrative support. The College had lots of ‘water’. Mohawk College needed its ‘horses’ to drink; it became CTL’s mission to make them thirsty for UDL (Cortes, 2010).

Mohawk College’s CTL wanted to remove the identified barriers and demonstrate how efficient it would be to implement UDL in courses. The College set priorities to reduce the need for individual accommodations for students with disabilities at a faster rate, better reach Indigenous learners, and more fully support International students. Including UDL in the LMS was determined to be the fastest way to reach the maximum number of instructors and faculty, their courses, and in turn, students. CTL’s goal was to make faculty and instructors thirsty for UDL and, through application, make the students they teach thirsty for the engaging, accessible, and inclusive environment that is created. A team within Mohawk College’s CTL, which included the UDL Curriculum Consultant and an Educational Technology Specialist, expanded an existing Course Master Template by embedding UDL elements.

UDL Elements Embedded into the LMS

The elements added to the Course Master Template in the LMS were determined by the data gathered through the Universal Design for Learning for Technology-enabled Post-secondary Courses at Mohawk College research project, ongoing discussions with and feedback from faculty, and input from the CTL team.

General Template Highlights

The Course Master Template for Mohawk College provides an explicit and well organized layout that allows learners to access course content quickly and from multiple locations in the course site. The course template provides a more uniform online course structure and minimizes student frustration with clear course navigation.

The general template structure is a weekly, modular layout with submodules identifying content to read, watch, and complete. In addition, modules for complementary resources, assessments, and communication are also included. The weekly structure, with supplemental modules for key information, helps to minimize distractions, foster online collaboration, and encourages faculty to provide options for students.

When creating the Course Master Template the CTL team was aware that there could not be one ideal layout for all courses or for all learners and so the template created offers faculty a wide variety of options for their UDL implementation within the technology mediated elements of their course. The template structure provides ideas and encouragement to Mohawk College faculty, while making UDL inclusion simple and highlighting supportive tools in the LMS. Through its application the Course Master Template works to remove learning barriers and encourages those UDL elements that support expert learning skills for students.

UDL Inclusions by Means

All of the UDL elements embedded into the Course Master Template include Mohawk College’s UDL initiatives, which focus on encouraging learners to be purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, as well as strategic and goal directed (“The UDL Guidelines”, 2018).

Multiple Means of Engagement

The Course Master Template includes a variety of elements advising faculty to include multiple means of engagement throughout their online learning environment. The following list outlines elements designed to make the learning goals clear and support active engagement with the content:

Course navigation instructions are encouraged and resources offered to advise learners of how to access course content effectively and efficiently, while identifying key learning outcomes for the week.
Note taking support options that can include posted lecture notes or slides, outline of key topics to draw learners’ attention, recorded videos of content, or implementing crowdsourcing lecture notes (placed in the Discussion area of the LMS for class sharing).
Proactively including additional time for quizzes, tests, and/or exams, delivered through the LMS, has been encouraged with an embedded statement (faculty determine how much time is suitable). The statement has been included on the course learning plan, as part of a UDL statement (which outlines all of the UDL elements in a course), as well as in the Assignments folder for additional visibility.
Progress monitoring is done automatically through the built in system progress tool.
Dedicated student communication space is provided in a number of locations within the online learning environment, including a class question and answer space and prominent use of the discussion tool to encourage collaborative learning with peers.

Including the above UDL elements within online course environments assists students in becoming purposeful and motivated learners because they know what is expected of them and where to find relevant course information which is pertinent to their success. It also enables the learner to access content more efficiently, saving valuable time and easing frustrations. In addition, the built in user progress tool, noted earlier, provides students with an overview of their personal journey in a course and acts as a method of self-regulation for the learner. Letting students know how to access course content and explaining what is important and why enables learners to engage with course content more fully.

Multiple Means of Representation

Including elements to provide multiple means of representation is particularly convenient in a technology mediated learning environment. The Course Master Template encourages faculty to provide:

Content options, including HTML text with downloadable documents in other formats, videos with transcripts, and promoting the use of ReadSpeaker and DocReader (built in text-to-speech tools).
Multiple avenues for learners to access key information, specifically assignment instructions posted within the week it is issued and/or due, linked in the learning plan, included in the assignments tool, and also housed in the Assignments module.
Glossary for language and symbols using the LMS Glossary tool.
Accessibility and learning preference instructions that draw attention to the built in adaptive technology tools embedded into the LMS and provided for all learners.

These elements provide learners with the ability to discover and explore their online course curriculum independently or with minimal assistance from the instructor; encouraging learners to become independent, resourceful, and knowledgeable learners.

Multiple Means of Action and Expression

The Course Master Template urges faculty to offer multiple means of action and expression by including:

A UDL statement with instructions for faculty to write a customized statement that reflects the UDL elements they have included in the course.
HTML and Microsoft Word document versions of the College’s learning plan template, mirrored in the online course modular layout.
Communication options found in a variety of locations including an instructor information page, support and encouragement to create a ‘welcome’ video, multiple locations to provide contact information, and communication tools for faculty and learners.
Multiple submission options are listed on the assignments overview page, providing options for assignment completion. For example, a written document, PDF, PowerPoint, video, or podcast.
A consistent and explicit course homepage with course announcements, as well as accessibility and learning preference tools highlighted to optimize student access to built-in adaptive technologies.

By providing access to pertinent course information in key areas of courses learners can easily determine course expectations and create a plan for reaching those expectations. As such, the elements outlined above help to create strategic, goal directed, and motivated learners.

At Mohawk College, we respect faculty autonomy. Therefore it is possible for any instructor to customize the Course Master Template including eliminating all of the UDL elements that were included, if they wish. However, since implementing the template, CTL has not found this to be the case. Faculty design, develop, and deliver their courses with the UDL inclusions and see the benefits of UDL in their teaching and their students’ learning. With each success, faculty continue to add UDL elements to their courses and, over time, are developing more inclusive and accessible courses.

A Final Note About the LMS

Not mentioned in this chapter is the LMS Mohawk College uses; this was a deliberate omission as the LMS employed is, for the most part, inconsequential to the application of UDL in technology mediated, post-secondary courses. While all features discussed here may not be possible in every LMS, the strong majority are, and those that are not can be modified to provide the same level of UDL implementation. For reference, Mohawk College originally created the Course Master Template in Brightspace by D2L. However, in the Spring of 2020, Mohawk College transitioned to Canvas by Instructure and created a course Blueprint with the same elements, few modifications, and a similar course structure.

The Course Master Template in Canvas was implemented in April of 2020. By May of the same year the Course Master Template in Canvas had more than 500 individual course downloads.

References

2017-20 Strategic Mandate Agreement: Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology. (2018, May 4). Ontario. Retrieved April 18, 2020 from https://edtechbooks.org/-nzp

Benton Kearney, D. & Cook, A. (2019, October 3). UDL in the LMS [presentation]. Third Pan-Canadian Conference, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

CAST. (2018). The UDL Guidelines. Retrieved April 20, 2020 from http://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Cortes, M. (2010, December 21). Creating a magnetic and engaging environment for learning. Retrieved September 19, 2019, from https://edtechbooks.org/-Lot

Mohawk College. (2019). Universal Design for Learning Implementation. Retrieved April 13, 2020, from https://edtechbooks.org/-iDX www.mohawkcollege.ca/employees/centre-for-teaching-learning/universal-design-for-learning/universal-design-for-0

Mohawk College. (n.d.). What is blended learning? Retrieved April 2, 2020, from https://edtechbooks.org/-ApYm