Building Capacity Through Universal Design for Learning in Cross-Disciplinary Online Graduate Programs

• In Event: Attending to Issues of Collaboration in Self-Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in online asynchronous courses, across three disciplinary content areas – special education, literacy, and educational leadership – as a way to both model for and empower practicing teachers and administrators to create capacity for equitable pedagogy for all learners. Experiencing UDL and multimodal practices as graduate students affords practicing educators an opportunity to consider how they too can create similar inclusive learning opportunities for their K12 students. Participants will consider their own use of UDL principles in their teacher educator practices and consider potential for ongoing professional growth in the area of capacity building for educators and learners through disciplinary collaboration.

Authors

• Abby Standerford, Northern Michigan University

• Christi Edge, Northern Michigan University

• Bethney Bergh, Northern Michigan University