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EDF5016 Topic 6:
Universal Design for Learning:
Barrier Analysis
 Acknowledgement to Country

 Aboriginal people formed one of the

most technologically advanced
societies in the world when they first
arrived in Australia.
 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people are among the world’s oldest
and continually active and adaptive
designers, innovators, and David Unaipon

technicians.
 The way they adapted to our
country's challenging conditions is a
testament to Aussie inventiveness.
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 Objective of today’s workshop

To understand the rationale and evidence supporting UDL as

effective and inclusive strategy for planning curriculum and
teaching.
To understand role of technology in inclusive classroom

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EDF5016 Learning Outcomes

LOC 5
understand curriculum aspects and teaching approaches to support
inclusive learning for differentiated educational settings and students with
additional needs
LOC 6
apply the principles of inclusion in planning, goal setting and design to
improve learning engagement across diverse student groups and
contexts
LOC 8.
consider how digital technologies may promote inclusion in the learning
environment

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EDF5016 APST

• support the learning and participation of learners with disability

(Standard descriptor 1.6)

• teaching activities that incorporate differentiated strategies to

meet the specific learning needs of learners across the full range of
abilities (Standard descriptor 1.5)

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Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning: What is it?

• Universal Design for Learning is a set of

principles for curriculum development that give
all individuals equal opportunities to learn.
• UDL provides a blueprint for creating
instructional goals, methods, materials, and
assessments that work for everyone.

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 Let us unpack

1. Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning

2. Diversity of Learners
3. Principles of Universal Design for Learning

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 ‘Universal’

• It is not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but

rather flexible approaches that can be
customized and adjusted for individual needs.

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 Diversity of Learners

• All learners have rights high-quality standard-based

education (ACARA, Melb Dec)
• To ensure that all students have genuine opportunities in
standard-based settings, educators need to develop a
new understanding of learner differences
• Address the diversity of learners at the point of
curriculum development, rather than as a retrofit

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 The Primary Brain networks

Recognition Networks Strategic Networks Affective Networks

The "what" of learning The "how" of learning The "why" of learning

How learners get

How we gather facts
and categorize what we see,
hear, and read. Identifying letters,
words, or an author's style
are recognition tasks.
Planning and performing
engaged and stay
tasks. How we organize and
motivated. How they are
express our ideas. Writing an
challenged, excited, or
essay or solving a math problem
interested. These are
are strategic tasks
affective dimensions.

Present information and Differentiate the ways that Stimulate interest and
content in different ways. students can express what motivation for learning
they know. MONASH
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Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfsx3DGpv5o
 Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
• Proactive
• Varied and flexible curriculum design for access by all learners
(see video elaborations at http://www.udlcenter.org/ and http://www.cast.org/)
• Provides guidelines for translating mandated curriculum
documents into meaningful programmes for students
• Evidence-based:
• academic achievement of students with learning difficulties in class
(Coyne et al 2012)
• engagement/motivation of students with behavioural difficulties
(Johnson-Harris and Mundshenk, 2014)
• Supports students at all levels of schooling and ability (Crevecoeur
et al., 2014; Rao et al., 2014)
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 UDL

• UDL is built on the premise that ‘barriers to learning’

occur in the interaction with curriculum
• Barriers are NOT learner characteristics e.g. the barrier
is the printed materials, not the student’s blindess
• When education fails, the curriculum, not the learner
should take the responsibility for adaptation

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UDL – A blueprint for teaching everyone
• UDL is a means of identifying and removing
barriers in the curriculum
• UDL calls for
– Define goals that provide appropriate challenges to all
learners
– Use of flexible and diverse methods to support all
learners
– Use flexible materials – take advantage of
technology
– Use flexible assessments to provide ongoing
accurate information to inform instruction
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 Planning For All – How does it work?

• Step 1: Set Goals

– What all students want to learn. What all aspects of goals
must be held constant for all students
• Context is established
– Background information regarding content and topic is
collected
• Align goals to local content and state standards to
ensure that all students have access to high quality
curricula

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• Step 2: Analyse current status of curriculum and
classroom
• Collect baseline information about current instructional
methods, assessments, materials, and student diversity
• Identify the possible barriers – these barriers need to be
reduced, or eliminated if possible so that all students
have the opportunity to be successful learners

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Current Barrier Identified Possible solution Web Resources
status
Reading Student can not read Incorporate technology www.sparknotes.com
materials at the grade level to remove barriers. www.cast.org
Use digital and audio http://www.trace.umd.ed
formats of texts u/
Complexity Student has Present concepts in https://www.brainpop.co
of materials difficulties visual and auditory m/
comprehending the manner www.eduplace.com
materials www.teach-nology.com
Complex Student has difficulty Provide additional www.wordcentral.com
vocabulary mastering the activitiesto reinforce www.puzzlemaker.com
to develop vocabulary of the unit vocabulary development
Written Student has difficulty Use alternative www.inspiration.com
assessments with handwriting assessments, allow www.eduplace.com
(speed/accuracy) assessments to be word
processed
Additional general accommodations that all students can http://www.ldonline.org/
benefit from can be found in these sites: https://nceo.info/
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• Step 3: Apply UDL to lesson development
• Apply the three core principles
– Multiple means of representation
– Multiple means of expression
– Multiple means of engagement
• Identify methods, assessments, and materials
• Write UDL lesson plan
• Collect and organize the supporting materials

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• Step 4: Teach the UDL lesson
• Minimise the curricular barriers
• Rely on effective teaching practices
• Apply appropriate challenges for each learner
• Important – No lesson works for all.
• ‘Universal’ does not mean that one size fits all

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Planning for All Learners
Set goals
• Establish context
• Align to standards

Analyze status
• Identify methods,
materials, and assessment
Teach UDL lesson • Identify barriers
• Teach lesson
• Evaluate success
• Revise lesson or unit

Apply UDL
• Identify UDL materials and methods
• Write UDL plan
• Collect and organize materials

FIGURE 1. Planning for all learners (PAL), a process for developing and delivering
lessons based on universal design for learning (UDL).
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Activity – Identifying barriers

 Please select and read a case study .

 Identify the barriers to learning in the goals, the
resources, the activities and/or the assessments.
 How would you reduce or eliminate these barriers?
 How would you use technology to support learning in this
class?
 Present your barrier analysis in a table like that on skile
18
 Share

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Activity – Barrier Analysis in your selected lesson for Assignment 2

 This week’s Moodle discussion Forum relates to barrier

analysis. You may spend 15 minutes now developing
your barrier analysis of your selected lesson.
 Swap and give feedback

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 Try these…
• Free speech to text dictation software in a
browser.
– https://talktyper.com/ (open in chrome)
• Simplify complex English
– https://rewordify.com/
• Visual organizer – mind mapping tool
– https://www.mindmeister.com/
• …and many more
 UDL - Further Resources

• http://www.cast.org/
• Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk-
BxeAygzqGabYBs1TPIHQ

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 MONASH
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The role of assistive technology in inclusion

and universal design
Inclusive Education Equipment Boost for
Schools - 2018

Equipment boost for Schools

FLEXIBLE BLIND AND

SPECIALISED
FUNDING LOW VISION
STREAM BY
$5,000 PER TECHNOLOGY
APPLICATION
SCHOOL LIBRARY
 What is Assistive Technology?

• Assistive technology may be classified as a device or

system that provides people with practical solutions to
everyday life activities

• Designed to compensate for functional limitations

• Enhance and increase learning, independence, mobility,

communication, environmental control and choice.
Creating Adaptable Classrooms for All Students

https://youtu.be/CMsu02h93-M MONASH
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 Assistive Technology

• Assistive technology supports students with diverse

learning needs within an inclusive learning environment
by:
– delivering information to students in a way that is more
appropriate to their needs
– changing the way a student can interact with the curriculum
and their environment
– providing a more appropriate and accessible way for students
to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the
curriculum

http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/inclusive/assistive-technology.html
 Time for reflection

What?
What is something that really
grabbed your interest today?

So What?
Why does this information matter for
your future teaching?
Now what?
How might you use this information in
the future?
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