— edit —How can we use create feedback and assessment that are both informative and inclusive for learners in digital spaces? Digital tools enable us to provide effective progress updates and personalize learning experiences for the best results. What approaches can ensure equitable opportunities and quality feedback for all learners with different abilities?
UDL Techniques for Self-directed Learning
Personalized Learning
- Interest-Based Projects: Allow students to choose projects based on their interests, such as creating a multimedia presentation on a historical event or proposing solutions to a local pollution issue.
- Choice Boards: Offer a variety of activities that cover the same objectives, like watching a documentary or creating a mind map. Use AI tools for real-time feedback.
- Learning Contracts: Have students set their own goals and outline steps to achieve them. Schedule regular check-ins for support.
- Assessment Strategies: Implement automated formative assessments, self-assessments, and peer assessments to empower students to monitor and guide their own progress. Use digital tools to provide instant feedback and track learning outcomes, ensuring that assessments are aligned with personalized learning goals.
Active Learning
- Automated feedback and peer collaboration: Use interactive knowledge check tools, like H5P, to let students practice and test their learning with instant automated feedback. Encourage peer mentoring, virtual study groups, and social sharing to build a supportive learning environment using tools like Sketchpad or Google Forms.
- Discussion Boards: provide practical knowledge through industry experts’ recorded sessions. Set up LMSs’ discussion boards or the platforms like Padlet (visual collaboration tool), Piazza or Mattermost (standalone discussion and collaboration tools), where students can post their thoughts on a topic and respond to their peers.
Flexible, Accessible and Inclusive Learning Environments
- Rolling deadlines and asynchronous discussions: allow students to complete activities within specified time periods, such as flexible assignment deadlines, and a discussion participation within a specified time frame, enabling meaningful conversations without the pressure of synchronous participation.
- Accessible Content is a legal requirement, including clear navigation and logical succession of digital presentations, activities, knowledge checks, and assignments(see Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).
- UDL Principles: provide multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression while presenting instructional material and asking students to demonstrate their skills and understanding through various formats like essays, or multimedia presentations.
Practice:Using the guidelines above, design and publish a simple self-directed learning activity, that incorporates UDL principles. Consider the following steps:
- Choose a Topic: Select a subject area and define the learning objectives, ensuring they are clear and achievable for all learners.
- Plan the Activity: Decide on the personalized learning elements, active learning strategies, and flexible, accessible, and inclusive design principles you will incorporate. Ensure multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression are included.
- Create the Content: Develop the materials and tools needed for the activity, ensuring they are accessible and engaging. Use publicly accessible digital hosting space for publishing and displaying the activity for the learners to access (e.g. use Youtube or Vimeo for a video tutorial, or use an institutional publicly accessible Wiki or WordPress site for hosting H5P quizzes and practicums, or use a personal GitHub webpage). Ensure content adheres to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
- Provide Self-Assessment Tools and Strategies: to ensure students will be able to self-evaluate their learning progress. This could include:
- Self-assessment checklists or rubrics that align with learning objectives.
- Reflective journals or blogs where students can document their learning journey and reflect on their progress.
- Peer review and feedback mechanisms to help students gauge their understanding and performance, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
- Implement: publish the designed self-directed activity for open access online (on Google-class or WordPress). Consider how well the activity supports diverse learners and adheres to UDL principles.
- Share the URL address of the activity with the description of your goals (learning objectives). Add your message as a comment to this page.
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