The Learning Lab experience is supported by both asynchronous and synchronous components. Each part includes a set of resources, an asynchronous discussion, and an interactive live session, all of which culminate in the development of a project to apply learning to local and specific contexts in support of the learning objectives.
Schedule
Part 1: UDL Basics for IT Professionals
January 12, 2026 | 3:00–4:30 p.m.ET
Welcome, everyone! In our first live session, we’ll start with a brief introduction to the lab and to one another. You’ll learn more about the EDUCAUSE Learning Lab format, tour our Canvas site, and see how to earn our lab microcredential. We’ll make some time to get to know your fellow lab partners and facilitator, too.
The content of our Part 1 session will focus on the basics of Universal Design for Learning (UDL)—what it is, why it’s useful, and how it applies to our IT roles and work. You’ll hear stories from IT practitioners who are using UDL today to lower access barriers and reduce re-work and repeated efforts.
We will wrap up our time together in a preview of the entireLearning Lab. You’ll experience the concepts, ideas, activities, and interactions that we have planned, all in miniature. All throughout, of course, in true UDL fashion, you’ll have multiple ways to stay engaged, take in information, and take action and express yourself.
Part 1 Learning Objectives:
- Define the three principles, nine guidelines, and 36 considerations of the UDL framework and apply them to IT-specific contexts.
- Select one specific UDL consideration as a first-look sample of the format and content in all 36 considerations.
- Brainstorm the selection of an IT process or learning interaction at your institution as a possible subject for a lab-spanning microproject.
Part 2: Matching Opportunities to UDL Approaches
January 15, 2026 | 3:00–4:30 p.m.ET
Our second live session will begin with a brief review of the content and ideas from Session 1, along with a chance to recall, reset, and brainstorm the ideas and questions that you will bring forward into our second session.
The theme for Session 2 is matching opportunities to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approaches. We will examine two IT-specific cases where UDL helped to lower access barriers for learners and made things smoother for the IT teams involved as well.
We will engage in some practical-application time together, where you’ll have a chance to hear from each other in targeted conversations and collaboratively build more details into your lab microproject. You will also discover and practice with an instrument that helps us in our UDL efforts: the UDL Progression Rubric (Novak & Rodrigues, 2018).
Part 2 Learning Objectives:
- Analyze a UDL opportunity in your institution’s current IT practices or offerings.
- Practice level-setting and work planning for a UDL microproject in an IT area of practice using the UDL Progression Rubric.
- Plan, implement, and assess a UDL-informed design or redesign of an IT-learning engagement at your institution.
Part 3: Microproject, Macro Impact
January 20, 2026 | 3:00–4:30 p.m.ET
In our third live session, we’ll begin with another brief review of the content and ideas from Sessions 1 and 2, along with a chance to recall, reset, and brainstorm the ideas and questions that you will bring forward into our third session.
The theme for Session 3 is all about impact. Even though our Learning Lab activity is necessarily a small-scale project that you can accomplish mostly by yourself within the 21 days of our lab, it is intended to be an expandable miniature model of much larger efforts. You’ll encounter real-world stories of college and university IT teams who have adopted UDL principles across their entire operations, and learn practical steps, stages, and approaches for scaling up your UDL efforts in your own IT environment.
We will wrap up our Part 3 session by exploring one way to structure both small- and large-scale UDL efforts: the UDL Reporting Criteria (Rao, et al., 2019). This resource will assist you with the data gathering and optional conversations that will inform your final Learning Lab project activity later on.
Part 3 Learning Objectives:
- Analyze a UDL opportunity in your institution’s current IT practices or offerings.
- Predict the resources, approach, and scope for expanding a small-scale model project to a large-scale effort in an IT area of practice, using the UDL Reporting Criteria.
- Plan, implement, and assess a UDL-informed design or redesign of an IT learning engagement at your institution.
Part 4: Five Shifts: UDL in IT Teams
January 27, 2026 | 3:00–4:30 p.m.ET
In our final live session, we’ll begin with another brief review of the content and ideas from Sessions 1, 2, and 3, along with a chance to recall, reset, and brainstorm the ideas and questions that you will bring forward into our fourth session.
You will learn about five shifts in approach, scope, and processes that make UDL projects in IT environments run more smoothly. We will share examples of each of these shifts as they recently played out in colleges and universities, and focus on practical actions that you can apply right away to your own work, teams, and materials.
We will also set aside significant time in this live session for working on your Learning Lab microproject, either in collaboration with your colleagues, or with your facilitator as a guide to your individual efforts.
Our final live session will wrap up with a look back at the journey you have experienced in our Learning Lab: what big ideas, actions, and takeaways will you bring back into the workplace?
Part 4 Learning Objectives:
- Review and define the three principles, nine guidelines, and 36 considerations of the UDL framework, and apply them to IT-specific contexts.
- Align selected UDL considerations to guide the evolution of existing IT processes (e.g., training, web design, help desk engagements).
- Analyze a UDL opportunity in your institution’s current IT practices or offerings.
- Plan, implement, and assess a UDL-informed design or redesign of an IT-learning engagement at your institution.
Lab Project/Assignments
Our lab project is to create a plan for (a) analyzing a learning engagement in your IT content, offerings, or services, (b) applying one or more of the 36 UDL considerations to the action plan, (c) aligning your selected UDL consideration(s) to specific outcomes, and (d) predicting how you would measure and assess the success of your proposed project.
You will create each of the four elements of your lab project after one of our live sessions. Each element provides options to create different formats and types of responses that meet its criteria. All of the elements together constitute a UDL project proposal that you can share with your unit or campus leadership team, if you desire.