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Collection

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) seeks to eliminate barriers to learning based on research on how people learn. It's an inclusive approach that recognizes student strengths and provides flexibility in how students access and engage with material and show what they know.

Updated December 2024
Lillian Nave headshot
Faculty and Educational Development Specialist
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for Student Success, Appalachian State University
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01

The UDL Guidelines

CAST

This interactive graphic published by the nonprofit organization CAST provides a high-level overview of UDL principles.

Headshot of Lillian Nave
Lillian Nave

This is quick reference material for anyone using UDL. The color-coded columns delineate the three areas of UDL: multiple means of engagement, representation, and action & expression.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.
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02

Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education

Thomas J. Tobin and Kirsten T. Behling

This book offers a robust introduction to UDL in higher education from its foundation to its implementation in various contexts.

Headshot of Lillian Nave
Lillian Nave

An excellent choice for a faculty book club, this will offer anyone new to UDL an extensive introduction to UDL in higher education.

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Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone is aimed at faculty members, faculty-service staff, disability support providers, student-service staff, campus leaders, and graduate students who want to strengthen the engagement, interaction, and performance of all college students. It includes resources for readers who want to become UDL experts and advocates: real-world case studies, active-learning techniques, UDL coaching skills, micro- and macro-level UDL-adoption guidance, and use-them-now resources.

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03

Universal Design for Learning Video Series

Oakland University Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

This playlist of videos provides an overview of UDL's principles and implementation.

Headshot of Lillian Nave
Lillian Nave

Need to explain UDL to a colleague? Want a quick overview in an easily understandable format? This short playlist of UDL videos is succinct, informative, and easily shared!

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Universal Design for Learning Video Series

Oakland University Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Open resource
Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, is a set of learning design principles that increase access and reduce barriers for all types of learners. In short, these principles encourage a variety of ways for instructors to engage students, represent course concepts, and allow students to demonstrate what they have learned. This video series breaks down the three guiding principles of UDL (engagement, representation, and action and expression) and explains how UDL principles benefit specific student populations. The series focuses on how UDL can apply to a college setting, but also provides guiding points for other levels of education.
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04

Think UDL Podcast

Think UDL Podcast

This podcast covers learner variability with guests from around the world, discovering how to implement UDL in higher education in various courses, departments, and even entire institutions.

Headshot of Lillian Nave
Lillian Nave

My Think UDL podcast is a great introduction to how UDL can be implemented in various areas across campus. Each episode looks at how UDL has transformed the learning environment from STEM to humanities and across undergraduate and graduate programs.

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Think UDL is a podcast about Universal Design for Learning where we hear from the people who are designing and implementing strategies in post-secondary settings with learner variability in mind.

Join host, Lillian Nave, as she discovers not just WHAT her guests are teaching, learning, guiding and facilitating, but HOW they design and implement it, and WHY it even matters!

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05

UDL on Campus

CAST

This website offers applications of UDL in the higher education setting, including resources and examples for course design, media and materials, and accessibility and policy.

Headshot of Lillian Nave
Lillian Nave

Ready to go deeper with UDL? This website from CAST provides a wealth of examples and resources around many aspects of UDL.

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This section provides an overview of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and how it applies to higher education learning environments and additional resources for deeper understanding. It also offers practical information about getting started, case stories that are examples of courses and programs that use UDL to improve student success and links to some colleges and universities that have UDL initiatives.

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06

Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice

Anne Meyer, David H. Rose, and David Gordon

This book offers an introduction to UDL and is available free on a flexible and customizable digital reading tool.

Headshot of Lillian Nave
Lillian Nave
This is the pioneering work on UDL created by its founders. Recently updated and situated in today's learning context, this book offers the pedagogical foundation of Universal Design for Learning.
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Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice

Anne Meyer, David H. Rose, and David Gordon
Open resource

It is important to remember that UDL is not primarily about technology: it is about pedagogy. The most radical aspect of UDL is that it raises our expectations about education. Instead of seeing students as limited, we see traditional curricula as limited and too uniform to enable all learners to reach goals that really matter. UDL provides an approach for designing learning environments that support high expectations and results for all students.

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07

3-2-1 Videos - Office for Faculty Excellence (ECU)

East Carolina University Office for Faculty Excellence

This is a collection of short videos from faculty who have implemented UDL in their teaching or course design framework.

Headshot of Lillian Nave
Lillian Nave

This is a repository of great ideas where faculty have shared how they have made UDL work for them in their context.

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3-2-1 Videos - Office for Faculty Excellence (ECU)

East Carolina University Office for Faculty Excellence
Open resource
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