Jessica Lim’s Portfolio
SPECIFIC 鈥� GENERAL 鈥� UNIVERSAL
奥丑补迟听Brought听惭别听To听鲍顿尝
I came to UDL wanting to learn design techniques and principles to improve the accessibility of my courses.
惭测听specific听肠辞苍肠别谤苍 as a teacher has听been to help students from low-income backgrounds, students from the BIPOC and LBGTQ+ communities听feel invited and comfortable in the听general听(i.e.,听conventional) learning environment.
I wanted to learn听ways to improve my courses听so that I was decreasing the educational attainability gap between students. From the beginning, UDL helped broaden the听scope of my concern and reframe听my specific interest in more听universal听(i.e.,听inclusive) parameters. I realized very quickly that fitting students into the conventional learning environment was the wrong approach. A better,听more universal听method is to听reconfigure听learning environments such听that听they are听accessible and inclusive from the听outset.
With that in mind, I targeted one听philosophy听course to improve, titled听Thinking For Ourselves,听in which students range from well experienced in philosophy (some students have taken four philosophy courses by the time they take mine) to the complete novice (some students have never taken a philosophy course). This seemed like a听perfect opportunity to apply听some of the lessons听I鈥檇听learnt from UDL听to my specific concern about听attainability gaps.
When I听created听the听philosophy听course a few years earlier, I had the benefit of using lessons that听I鈥檇听learnt from WID in the听designing听process. The result was that my course听was听well听scaffolded, used a variety of evaluative methods,听emphasized听the revision process of writing, and offered many opportunities to use different听writing genres. It is my听favourite听class to teach and it is a successful course!听Nevertheless, I could see the attainability gap between the two groups of students (those with a philosophy background and those without), so I began tweaking things according to universal design principles. 奥丑补迟听you鈥檒l听see in听the second part of听my portfolio is a description of the changes I made from Winter 2019 to Winter 2020.
Quite as a surprise, the coronavirus hit in听Winter听2020.听It鈥檚听now Fall 2020 and we are still in its throes!听In anticipation of an online听Fall听and probably an online Winter,听I created a new Humanities 101 course from the听ground up using UDL principles.听This course,听in particular,听owes everything to the conversations I had with Laure听Galipeau听and Catherine Soleil and to my UDL cohort听members听Ahmad听Banki, Ian Cuthbertson, and Jeffrey听Zeidel. It felt like the course wrote itself听thanks to all of you. A听description of my听design process for this course听can be听found听in the third part of my portfolio.
Another outcome of听my UDL experience is that I reframed the听鲍顿尝 principles into four听basic tools. I did this so that I could have quick guidelines to follow in the future, and decided to include听the four听basic tools听in the first part听portfolio.
The result is that my portfolio has three parts:
- first,听four basic UDL tools;
- second, an example of applying the tools to tweak a pre-existing course;
鈥� third, an example of applying the tools to create a new course.
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