Our technology tools and systems help us to solve problems and increase access for online learners whose time- and place-based needs prevent them from coming to our physical learning spaces regularly. Online teaching and training has expanded the availability of education over the past two decades to vastly greater numbers of people worldwide.
However, for all of the concerns that online learning has addressed, the technology-mediated nature of the virtual learning environment presents its own set of barriers: reliable access to the Internet, device compatibility concerns, and bandwidth challenges for data-intensive tools and methods.
Fortunately, we can perform an inventory of our shared digital systems and tools from the perspective of the interactions that such tools should support. We can use the three principles of universal design for learning (UDL) to assess the ways in which we are using our existing tool sets to provide learners with choices in how they get and stay engaged in learning experiences, how they take in information, and how they take action and express themselves in learning interactions and assessments.
This knowledge provides a foundation for examining specific categories of technology tools and how best to use them inclusively, which is the topic of the next course in this learning path. Thank you for your ideas, research, and thinking so far; we’ll see you soon for our next course ‘Tech Tools and How to Use Them Inclusively‘.
Click on the quiz name below to take a short low-stakes quiz to see if you remember some of the key concepts of this course. Once complete, you will be able to view your results of the quiz. When you click ‘Click here to continue’ that will mark the end of this course, part 1 of a 3 part learning path.
Thank you for taking this ‘Shifting from Systems to Interactions with UDL’ course which has been developed with Thomas J. Tobin. We hope you have enjoyed it. Remember to mark this lesson as ‘Mark Complete’ to earn your Course Completion Badge.