Ideas for course design

• Student personae: A useful starting point for building Universal Design into learning, is to reflect on who our students are and how we might anticipate their needs in order to create an inclusive and accessible learning environment. These student personae cards came out of a partnership between staff from the Information Services team and students and represent the sorts of students we might have studying at Edinburgh. You can download the cards as an OER resource to help with course design.

• Quick guide for new course proposers: This useful resource provides a step-by-step guide to incorporating inclusion into course design at Board of Studies level.

Learning activities

The below suggestions relate to ways that you can make your synchronous and asynchronous learning activities more inclusive.

• Accessibility checklist: A website by Information Services listing ways to increase the accessibility of your media and your use of core learning technologies, including information about Teaching Resources, Collaborate, Blackboard Learn, Academic Blogging Service, and Resource Lists. The checklist is a useful way of working through your content to ensure inclusion and accessibility are embedded throughout.

• Five tips for making your Miro board more accessible: A SharePoint site created by colleagues in ECA on how to familiarise your students with Miro, and how to make your boards easier to navigate and more accessible.

• Creating Accessible Materials (PowerPoint, 2 slides): These useful slides have been put together by the University's Disability Information officer, Vicky Galt, and provide a brief overview of ways to make PowerPoint slides accessible for all students.

Furthermore, the Recognising and Counteracting Sexuality Based Microaggressions resource offers some useful tips on how to avoid microaggressions in pedagogy, and create identity safety (p. 8), for example:

• Wear a rainbow lanyard or other visible sign that you are safe for queer people, in-person and online.
• Incorporate diverse identities and cultures into case studies, exemplars, and other learning materials but avoid 'excusing', 'straightwashing', or erasing queer identities.
• If your curriculum asks students to draw on their own experiences, consider whether this might require them to 'out' themselves, e.g., writing about love, relationships, and family structures.

Assessment

UDL Tips for Assessment from CAST (2020):

• Align assessments to learning goals.
• Offer authentic opportunities for assessment.
• Assess engagement as well as content knowledge.
• Include frequent formative assessments.
• Reduce unnecessary barriers to access.
• Support learner variability through flexible assessments.
• Use and share rubrics to clarify expectations.
• Involve learners in assessing their learning progress.
• Reflect on summative assessments for future design.
• Build communities of practice that support reflective design.

The following resources provide a quick entry point for finding out more about universal design, inclusion and accessibility:

• Accessible and Inclusive Learning: Guidance from the IAD on how to support the University's Accessible and Inclusive Learning policy, including:
  • Course Outlines;
  • Prioritised Reading Lists;
  • Providing Lecture Outlines Before Class;
  • Using Microphones in Lectures.

• Universal Design: Top ten tips for Universal Design.

• Introduction to Universal Design for Learning (8 mins): This video provides a useful introduction to universal design and its application within learning.