The Learning Lab experience is supported by both asynchronous and synchronous components. Each Learning Lab sequence includes a set of resources, an asynchronous discussion, and an interactive live session, all of which culminate in the development of a project or application to apply learning to local and specific contexts in support of the learning objectives.
Schedule
Part 1: Approaching Expert UDL: How to Get There
March 13, 2025, 12:00–1:30 p.m. ET
This is a live session to learn the details of the Learning Lab, the Canvas site, and expectations for the microcredential. There will also be time to get to know your fellow Lab partners and facilitator.
During our welcome session, we will engage in a preview of the entire learning lab. You’ll experience the concepts, ideas, activities, and interactions that we have planned, all in miniature. And, of course, in true universal design for learning (UDL) fashion, you’ll have multiple ways to stay engaged, take in information, and take action and express yourself.
Learning Objectives
- Select one specific UDL checkpoint as a first-look sample of the format and content in all 31 checkpoints.
- Preview approaching-expert UDL strategies as outlined in the UDL Progression Rubric.
- Brainstorm the selection of a learning interaction at your institution as a possible subject of a lab-spanning project.
Part 2: From 3 Principles to 31 Checkpoints
March 17, 2025, 12:00–1:30 p.m. ET
Most Universal Design for Learning (UDL) practitioners operate at the level of the framework's three principles: multiple means of engagement, representation, and action/expression. These principles are supported by 31 checkpoints―a list of actions and design steps to take across cognitive domains that lower barriers for learners in very specific ways.
In Part 2, we'll engage in an examination of these 31 checkpoints and begin thinking about how to select from among them in order to narrow the focus on our lab project: planning, analyzing, implementing, and assessing a UDL-informed design or redesign of a learning interaction at your institution.
Learning Objectives
- Review all 31 UDL checkpoints and select one as a primary guiding for examining an existing learning interaction.
- Find and assess one piece of scholarship that engages with the UDL checkpoint you’ve chosen.
- Take away at least one practice from a colleague in our lab.
Part 3: Expert Learners and Expert Designs
March 20, 2025, 12:00–1:30 p.m. ET
As you continue to develop your UDL project plan, we'll look at how we can apply each of the 31 UDL checkpoints at an emerging, proficient, and approaching-expert level by using the UDL Progression Rubric (Novak & Rodriguez, 2018). You'll finalize your UDL project plan and start setting up your implementation to go beyond the scope of our lab experience.
Learning Objectives
- For your chosen UDL checkpoint, re-state the approaching-expert UDL strategy from the UDL Progression Rubric to apply to your own context.
- Share your thinking with at least one colleague in our lab who selected a checkpoint in the same Guideline cluster as yours.
- Perform a preliminary assessment of the current stage of progression for your chose learning interaction.
Part 4: Review and Reflect
March 27, 2025, 12:00–1:30 p.m. ET
To cap our learning lab experience, you'll predict the resources and processes that you'll require in order to put your UDL expert-learner project into practice. We will use our live-session time to engage in some open-thinking collaboration and connection-making, as well.
Learning Objectives
- Plan a micro-project to apply a UDL-informed design or redesign to a learning interaction at your institution.
- Analyze the learning interaction in order to assess the extent and progression of UDL already in it.
- Plan how you will implement the UDL project.
- Plan how you will assess the effect of your implementation.
Lab Implementation Project
The application project at the end of our learning lab will bring together the analysis you did in Part 2, the planning from Part 3, and add a component of “assessment for a UDL-informed design or re-design of a learning interaction at your institution” to round out our lab’s objectives and provide you with a complete approaching-expert UDL project that you can propose to your organization’s leadership team.