Think UDL

Easing Academic Stress with Elizabeth Hitches

Welcome to Episode 131 of the Think UDL podcast: Easing Academic Stress with Elizabeth Hitches. Elizabeth Hitches teaches across various universities in Australia in inclusive education and research methods, and is a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland. Her current research is exploring students' academic stress through the lens of UDL and considering how stressors in the higher education environment might differ between students with and without accessibility requirements or disability. Her broader research explores inclusive education both nationally and internationally, drawing on students' voices and lived experiences. All of her research is available on google scholar. Elizabeth also works to support professional development to empower higher education staff to take accessible and inclusive approaches. She is grateful to be a member of CAST's national faculty, and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In today’s conversation, we talk about Elizabeth’s research on academic stress and what it looks like in the higher education environment, what it does to students, and how UDL can alleviate some of its effects. You might find a new way to consider your approach to your teaching and reconsider the learning environment we create.

Virtual Gathering, Real Inclusion with Cait Kirby and Liz Norell

Welcome to Episode 130 of the Think UDL podcast: Virtual Gathering, Real Inclusion with Cait Kirby and Liz Norell. Cait Kirby is the founding Associate Director of the Williams College Center for Teaching, where she primarily engages with faculty around exploring and celebrating teaching practices and opportunities. Cait spends her time tweeting about disability, pedagogy, and games. She enjoys knitting, reading, and making good trouble. Liz Norell is an associate director of instructional support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi, where she supports faculty who want to improve their teaching. Liz is also dedicated to spreading greater awareness of neurodivergence in and out of the classroom, reads voraciously, and loves a good road trip.

Drs. Cait Kirby and Liz Norell were two of the organizers of the June 2024 virtual conference Making Change,Taking Space: A Call to Gather (virtually). The first time conference was organized entirely by volunteers primarily in the North American higher education space as a FREE professional development opportunity for anyone around the world who would like to participate in three days of workshops, lighting talks, and structured social gatherings. I was lucky enough to be able to attend this virtual conference and was really impressed with the thoughtful design that the organizers collectively created, so I asked Cait and Liz to join me to discuss those decisions and how it all came about. You’ll also be able to see a lot more information about this virtual gathering in the resources section of the ThinkUDL.org website for this episode and find contact information for the group as well as Cait and Liz, who are only two of the many volunteers who put together this exceptionally well-designed, inclusive, thoughtfully paced and incredibly generative space. In today’s conversation, we will discuss how and why this virtual conference came into being, how and why accessibility was baked into every design and planning choice, what lessons were learned after this inaugural and hopefully annual conference and what is on the horizon for any folks who may have missed out and want to join along in this community. Perhaps you will find some new ideas to put into practice in your spaces that will radically include your learners and/or participants, too.

UDL Toolkit with James D'Annibale

Welcome to Episode 129 of the Think UDL podcast: UDL Toolkit with James D’Annibale. James D’Annibale is the Director of Academic Technologies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and has created a UDL Toolkit for his faculty at the small liberal arts college to help faculty integrate UDL into their teaching in no tech, low tech, and high tech ways, and with low lift to high lift options. This instructor-focussed toolkit systematically sorts some teaching responsibilities into UDL categories and may be a helpful way to engage your campus without having to reinvent the wheel yourself! Stay tuned as we talk about the UDL Toolkit for college instructors and thank you for listening to the Think UDL podcast.

HyFlex Love Affair with Kenyada McLeod

Welcome to Episode 128 of the Think UDL podcast: HyFlex Love Affair with Kenyada McLeod. Kenyada McLeod is Associate Professor of Web Design at Brightpoint Community College in the central Virginia region. I first came in contact with her work when she helped me through the QM certification process years ago when I had my First Year Seminar course QM certified. It was then we struck up a friendship around UDL and kept in touch over social media. Just recently, we crossed paths again when I saw she had written about her HyFLex model in practice and I decided it was time to interview her for the podcast to learn about how she has integrated UDL into her HyFlex world. Her teaching in the HyFlex model has been exemplary and is something I think we have needed to revisit on the podcast so I have invited her to talk about how she has been able to remove barriers to learning for her students and for faculty as well. Tune into this conversation to learn more about how to help today’s faculty and students who have varied demands on their time survive and thrive in a HyFlex learning environment.

Self-Efficacy Research with Ana Redstone

Welcome to Episode 127 of the Think UDL podcast: Self-Efficacy Research with Ana Redstone. Dr. Ana Redstone has decades of experience as an instructional designer developing online and hybrid courses. She leads UDL and accessibility strategy at Western Governors University and recently completed her PhD in 2023 in Instructional Design and Technology at Old Dominion University with her dissertation entitled, Investigating the Effect of UDL on Learner Performance, Engagement, and Self-Efficacy. In today’s episode, we delve into her research to see what exactly the research shows and if her hypothesis were correct. She looked at student performance through grades, and student engagement and self-efficacy using various LMS metrics. I am thankful for this conversation as I am often asked about the research on UDL in Higher Education and Dr. Redstone brings us one more case study in a burgeoning field and I thank you for listening to this conversation on the Think UDL podcast.

Students as Partners with Anastasia Williams and Lorena Perales

Welcome to Episode 126 of the Think UDL podcast: Students as Partners with Anastasia Williams and Lorena Perales. Anastasia Williams is the Assistant Director of the Center for Teaching at the University of Iowa. She focuses on inclusive teaching, course design, syllabus design, well-being, and universal design for learning (UDL). Lorena Perales is a sophomore at the University of Iowa, a first generation college student and a double major in social justice and criminal law who works as a student as partner for the Center for Teaching with Anastasia Williams on this project. In today’s conversation, we will talk about how they set up this fantastic project to get feedback on what has worked well and not so well in various courses based on real time student feedback through a variety of instruments throughout the semester. We will hear how the project was created and how it evolved and how students' voices especially shaped the feedback to professors throughout, and also how receptive faculty were to this along the way! Stay tuned to learn about an ingenious way to improve teaching at your institution through UDL and thank you for listening to this conversation on the Think UDL podcast.

Cultivating a Culture of Accessibility with Rebecca Mushtare

Welcome to Episode 125 of the Think UDL podcast: Cultivating a Culture of Accessibility with Rebecca Mushtare. Rebecca Mushtare is the associate dean of Graduate Studies and a professor of art and design at SUNY Oswego. With John Kane, she co-founded and co-hosts the Tea for Teaching podcast.

Rebecca’s primary research areas are inclusive design, design for older adults, and digital accessibility. She’s committed to designing equitable and transparent experiences in and out of the classroom. At SUNY Oswego she co-founded the Workgroup on Accessibility Practices in 2016 which has been responsible for many accessibility initiatives on campus including the Faculty Accessibility Fellows program that launched in 2019. She’s expanded her work on accessibility within SUNY by serving on the SUNY Empowering Students with Disabilities Task Force and working with the SUNY Center for Professional Development to offer workshops and training. Additionally, Rebecca has worked to spread these practices within civic engagement spaces including the local Vote Oswego initiative and the national civic engagement coalition, Students Learn Students Vote.  

She’s co-authored research articles related to accessibility in the Journal for Postsecondary Education and Disability, Journal of Communication in Healthcare, and the eJournal of Public Affairs. You can also find her work in community engagement projects like the Recollection Project. In today’s conversation, Rebecca and I talk about digital accessibility practices, accessibility plans, accessibility fellows and 10-day, 5-day Accessibility challenges. But throughout this conversation we find out we all have a role to play in accessibility on our campuses and we hope this episode gives you some ideas for yours! Thank you for listening to this conversation on the Think UDL podcast.

Inclusive, Impactful Instruction with Kevin Merry.

Inclusive Impactful Instruction with Kevin Merry. Dr. Kevin Merry is the Head of Academic Development and Associate Professor of Learning, Teaching and Assessment at the Center for Academic Innovation and Teaching Excellence at DeMontfort University in Leicester, United Kingdom. His most recent book is Delivering Inclusive and Impactful Instruction: Universal Design in Higher Education. In today’s episode, we talk about the changing nature of higher education, mastery, feedback, and the cheese sandwich, but not the kind you eat. Tune in for an enlightening conversation with Dr. Kevin Merry and thank you for listening to this conversation on the Think UDL podcast.

Artificial Intelligence and Ethics with James Basham

Welcome to Episode 123 of the Think UDL podcast: AI and Ethics with James Basham. Dr. James Basham is a Professor in the Department of Special Education in the School of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. He is the founder of the Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network (UDL-IRN). His research is focused on the implementation of UDL, STEM education, learner-centered design, innovation, and technology in human learning. He has received and managed over $27 million in successful research and development funding. He is well-published, has given hundreds of talks, serves on various boards for journals, companies, and organizations, and is the principal investigator on various projects including CIDDL, the Center for Innovation, Design and Digital learning.

In this episode we discuss AI and UDL in higher education, and how AI relates to competency based learning and various forms of assessment. We also discuss personalized learning and the ethics of how AI impacts the teaching and learning experience in higher ed. And finally, we also discuss Jamie’s work as the founder and principal Investigator of CIDDL.

Artificial Intelligence and Accessibility with Joe Houghton

Welcome to Episode 122 of the Think UDL podcast: Artificial Intelligence and Accessibility with Joe Houghton. Joe Houghton is an Assistant Professor at University College Dublin Smurfit Graduate School of Business in Dublin, Ireland. He is also a prolific writer and producer of books, podcasts, and instructive videos and webinars on teaching and learning. He has recently thrown his intellect into the emerging trends in Artificial Intelligence and published his book, Applying Artificial Intelligence to Close the Accessibility Gap. I was glad to have the opportunity to write the foreword for this book and am delighted to have the chance to speak with Joe for the second time on the Think UDL podcast. If you’d like to hear our first conversation, you can listen to episode 91: Reflecting on a Starfish Difference with Joe Houghton and I will have a link to that episode in our resources section on the ThinkUDL.org website. This episode, episode 122, details some of the ideas from Joe’s book on AI and accessibility. We discuss tools that can be used to improve accessibility, the benefits and challenges of using AI to make courses and teaching more accessible, and what ethical concerns we should be aware of when using AI. And finally I ask Joe a bit about what he sees on the horizon for AI, UDL, and accessibility.