Despite its formidable name, Universal Design for Learning is a basic concept: it means providing and receiving assignments in ways accessible to all learners. Here is the most cited overview: “The UDL Guidelines.”
And here’s a basic definition: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a way of thinking about teaching and learning that helps give all students an equal opportunity to succeed. This approach offers flexibility in the ways students access material, engage with it and show what they know.
UDL asks you to deliver your assignments in more than one format (perhaps both recorded and printed text) and to offer your students more than one path to demonstrate their learning. For example, students have the option to complete a single assignment in several ways, such as a paper, a presentation/video, or a visual map. Do note that requiring different modes of demonstrating learning for different assignments is a step in the right direction; perhaps for one assignment you require an essay, for another a video. A course with Universal Design will also accommodate students with disabilities, perhaps captioned recordings (which Panopto can do), or recorded detailed descriptions of visual images.
Creating a course with Universal Design features can be challenging. Here are some resources on UDL in the performing arts:
Decolonizing the Music Curriculum with Andrew Dell’Atonio
Think UDL Podcast
Arts Integration and Universal Design for Learning
The Kennedy Center
Action and Expression
UDL, CAST Guidelines