Students living in poverty are in classrooms across the United States. While educators believe UDL can help design environments that will support these students, they must acknowledge the overarching experiences of students in poverty and how those experiences affect their learning. Educators can utilize the UDL framework to design flexible environments that will eliminate barriers these students face. This resource provides the foundational information used to build this argument, and suggests available supports.

This paper examines how the emerging technologies of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are potential UDL resources supporting the Summit Goal of “Identification and dissemination of effective implementation tools.” In less than ten years mobile devices (smartphones & tablets) became common educational tools providing multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement. AR and VR are potential new platforms for UDL implementation that need to be incorporated into the existing research- based framework. New AR and VR platforms provide educators unprecedented new resources to support all learners by connecting these tools to the UDL framework.

Inherent in all learning environments, and in particular virtual learning spaces, are barriers. These can include barriers unique to individual students or a product of the technology. At California State University, Fresno, the large variety of university students include over 50% of students in poverty, first generation, and emergent bilingual language learners. The challenge of capturing the talents of this group is often a struggle for instructors, particularly in digital courses. Instructors should use design elements of UDL within post-secondary courses. These include: identifying barriers to learning, alternatives for participating during class time, effective alternative assessments based on construct relevance, and UDL meta-cognitive goals and transparency.

How can you help learners become expert learners?

In personalized learning environments, learners understand their strengths and challenges and are able to deploy strategies to support their learning. Daily, they are developing the skills needed to be self-directed learners, able to monitor their progress and make connections to prior learning.

These learners can also choose and use the right technologies for the task. As they progress, the anticipated result will be expert learners who are truly prepared for their future. The continuum toward mastery provides learners of all ages with a blueprint for building expertise. Lets take a look at the Stages of Personalized Learning Environments and how we can develop expert learners by helping them develop the skills at each stage along the Continuum of an Expert Learner.

Expert systems ensure that all parents, regardless of variability, are able to contribute meaningfully to the education of their children. With the adoption of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in December 2015, and its endorsement of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as best practice for all schools in our nation, it’s never been so important to engage parents in district implementation of UDL to foster collaboration and community and ensure the best outcomes for all students, regardless of variability.

This resource will provide an overview of the Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) strategic plan for communication, professional development, and stakeholder buy-in about UDL. This resource highlights professional learning options that must be considered by any district planning to embrace the UDL framework.

Maryland is the first state in the nation to have regulations about UDL. In order to help districts scale their implementation work, the Towson University UDL Project, sponsored by Dr. Nancy Grasmick, former MD State School Superintendent, recruited four UDL fellows during the 2015-2016 school year. The UDL fellows shared their work in a panel presentation at a UDL-IRN Summit. This document summarizes the content of their presentation, including specific emphasis on district level UDL implementation related to curriculum development, selection of instructional materials and professional learning.

This resource will highlight the journey of four principals who successfully helped support teachers moving from UDL exploration to implementation. The principals will share a summary of their UDL journey, as well as outline specific steps that school leaders can take to support building level implementation.

The ultimate goal of Universal Design for Learning is to create lifelong expert learners. As Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation moves toward fully implementing the Universal Design for Learning guidelines in all learning environments, institutionalization will require the development of student capacity for UDL language and development of expert learner qualities. This resource will examine resources that support teachers and students in the acquisition of the expert learner qualities, explore the role of the UDL Facilitators in BCSC, and provide examples of lessons and strategies to support the development of UDL language for students and methods of data collection to gauge growth of student capacity for understanding UDL language.

This resource will focus on the work of three university faculty who consistently employ the UDL principles in their courses. In addition, they will share the structure used at Towson University to support faculty UDL implementation, the Towson University UDL Professional Development Network. Participants will learn specific strategies for applying UDL in three very different areas: library instruction, music education and instructional technology.