1 00:00:06,851 --> 00:00:11,561 Welcome to this podcast series on teaching and learning brought to you by the Center for Faculty Excellence. 2 00:00:11,711 --> 00:00:19,151 I'm your host, Michael Babcock. In this episode, we are joined by Nina Mondré Schweppe, an instructional designer in the center. 3 00:00:19,271 --> 00:00:24,701 Thank you for being here today. Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be part of this podcast project. 4 00:00:25,121 --> 00:00:29,171 Well, I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about Universal design for learning. 5 00:00:32,749 --> 00:00:38,689 My interest starts at some point in grad school with my background in language acquisition pedagogy. 6 00:00:47,233 --> 00:00:53,532 understanding what cuts were in, you know, in sidewalks or automatic door openers. 7 00:00:53,533 --> 00:00:55,806 But beyond that, I had no idea. And I spent a lot of time in grad school trying to figure out how we learn the nuances of language and 8 00:01:01,712 --> 00:01:11,762 how we understand things like subtext or complex contexts of concepts and interpretation of concepts. 9 00:01:12,062 --> 00:01:16,292 And trying to figure that out became sort of a focus of my grad research. 10 00:01:24,334 --> 00:01:32,194 side of arts and science over the years, and it's how my students learned that was really interesting to me that no class is the same, 11 00:01:32,344 --> 00:01:35,614 even if the subject matter is the same. And, you know, 12 00:01:35,884 --> 00:01:40,414 getting an insight into how my students sort of put the information together in order to 13 00:01:40,414 --> 00:01:45,964 be successful kind of is how my interest in universal design for learning came about. 14 00:01:46,391 --> 00:01:50,501 And over the years, my students have taught me how to be more curious about how they learn, 15 00:01:50,501 --> 00:01:54,131 about their background, about their interests, about their strengths. 16 00:01:54,371 --> 00:02:00,521 And that's given me the encouragement to kind of figure out how to create and design a course 17 00:02:00,821 --> 00:02:05,051 that does incorporate these sort of official guidelines of universal design for learning. 18 00:02:05,402 --> 00:02:06,917 Those are basically it's a learner centered design where students have multiple ways of engaging with information. 19 00:02:14,422 --> 00:02:19,702 That means as an instructor, you developed several different ways to present information and content, 20 00:02:20,002 --> 00:02:25,012 allow students to demonstrate what they know and express what they know and how 21 00:02:25,012 --> 00:02:29,032 they've learned it in multiple different ways so that they can reach the goal. 22 00:02:29,302 --> 00:02:34,840 And along the way, getting to know your students also allows you to minimize the barriers that they face, whatever they might be. 23 00:02:37,391 --> 00:02:40,780 Everything from language to what's going on in their home life, 24 00:02:40,781 --> 00:02:46,690 or if they're working several hours and not necessarily getting enough time to study whatever the case is, 25 00:02:46,691 --> 00:02:48,680 those barriers can be everything from ability to to sort of life environment sort of things, 26 00:02:52,916 --> 00:03:00,986 and then creating the sort of environment that allows them to learn as much as they can in the way that they're able to learn it, 27 00:03:01,226 --> 00:03:07,615 which is very different for everybody. Well, and I know, you know, we were we were talking to Ken in another podcast, 28 00:03:07,616 --> 00:03:15,896 and this whole notion of active learning has become so important and so different than how a lot of us as faculty probably experience college, 29 00:03:15,896 --> 00:03:23,126 where the professor would just get up and lecture and now we're going through through your work and workshops, you're doing that. 30 00:03:23,336 --> 00:03:26,996 There really are better ways to engage with students and meet them where they're at. 31 00:03:28,106 --> 00:03:31,726 So what are some of the so what are some of the things you do to make this work? 32 00:03:31,736 --> 00:03:35,096 I mean, how do you how would someone get started if they're not doing this now? 33 00:03:35,936 --> 00:03:42,146 I think one of the things that I always suggest is take some time at the very beginning of a course to get to know your students, 34 00:03:42,146 --> 00:03:44,276 get to know the students who are in your courses. 35 00:03:44,876 --> 00:03:50,966 There's a lot of information that you get from knowing the kinds of students who are in your department or the kinds of students who are sort of, 36 00:03:50,966 --> 00:03:56,786 quote unquote, typically take the kinds of courses that you teach, whether that's because they're required course, 37 00:03:57,146 --> 00:04:01,406 if it's a freshman foundational course or an upper division course, 38 00:04:01,406 --> 00:04:07,466 you kind of have a sense of who is in your course and getting to know who's actually taking the course that semester, 39 00:04:07,856 --> 00:04:13,976 even though it seems like it takes a little bit of time to get to know kind of where students are at in terms of their ability, 40 00:04:13,976 --> 00:04:16,514 what kind of background knowledge they're bringing in, what their strengths are, what their interests are. 41 00:04:19,528 --> 00:04:25,707 Gives you a chance to kind of reconfigure the information and give you a chance to meet the different students 42 00:04:25,708 --> 00:04:31,828 that you have in your class in a way that they're more likely to learn or to kind of spark their enthusiasm. 43 00:04:32,068 --> 00:04:38,368 Yeah. Nina, I know you're actually teaching, of course, right now. So can you share with us sort of how you did that when you started your your class? 44 00:04:38,368 --> 00:04:41,368 Is it techs and critics is after teaching, It is texts and critics, 45 00:04:41,368 --> 00:04:45,718 texts and critiques is a is the honors college sort of first year foundational course. 46 00:04:46,348 --> 00:04:47,637 This is the second semester. 47 00:04:47,638 --> 00:04:53,122 So it's primarily fiction, which gives students a lot more chance to be creative and and kind of express themselves in a more. 48 00:04:54,768 --> 00:04:56,649 Creative way than the first part. Mm hmm. So one thing that we did this semester is there are about 17 students in the course, 49 00:05:02,725 --> 00:05:03,423 and we took the time to kind of do a bunch of different little games to kind of playfully get to know each other. 50 00:05:09,973 --> 00:05:16,993 One of the foundational components of a course like Texan clinics is being able to speak to each other, being able to have a conversation. 51 00:05:17,293 --> 00:05:22,963 And it's really hard to have a conversation and be honest and open if you don't know the person who's sitting next to you across from you. 52 00:05:23,293 --> 00:05:27,403 So creating different ways for students to kind of meet each other and get to know each other. 53 00:05:27,643 --> 00:05:29,403 Some of those could be what, you know, 54 00:05:29,413 --> 00:05:37,213 everybody who is interested in music go to one side of the room and that gets students up and out of their seats and moving around the classroom. 55 00:05:37,393 --> 00:05:41,293 And then it breaks it into other little bit. What kind of music is that, you know? 56 00:05:41,383 --> 00:05:44,621 And from there, you can take it into a bunch of different directions. Students also have really great ideas about what they like. 57 00:05:47,406 --> 00:05:53,466 So letting students to kind of figure out what could be fun for them to give students agency. 58 00:05:53,466 --> 00:06:01,115 And it also creates a different energy in in the classroom, especially during that first week when everybody's sort of getting to know like, Oh, 59 00:06:01,116 --> 00:06:05,105 this is not how we did it last semester, or like, Oh, I don't know you at all, 60 00:06:05,106 --> 00:06:09,306 but I think you kind of funny and maybe I'll test the waters a little bit. Sure, that makes it fun. 61 00:06:09,666 --> 00:06:17,616 Well, and you know, those are smaller classes. What about some of the larger classes that faculty are, you know, a class of 100 or more? 62 00:06:17,886 --> 00:06:22,856 You know, we I know Ken ran a faculty learning community on working in that environment. 63 00:06:22,866 --> 00:06:27,006 So so there are things that you could do with a large class to try and make those connections. 64 00:06:27,396 --> 00:06:32,825 There are a lot of things that you can do in a larger class. It's just that you won't necessarily as an instructor or professor, 65 00:06:32,826 --> 00:06:36,969 you necessarily have access to all of the outcomes of that think pair shares, you know, 66 00:06:38,707 --> 00:06:44,587 where you get students to turn to a partner and talk about something amongst themselves and 67 00:06:44,587 --> 00:06:48,517 then share out into the bigger into the bigger group is something we do in a smaller group. 68 00:06:48,757 --> 00:06:57,366 You can also do that in a bigger group. Instead, though, what you might want to do is think Pare and instead of share, connect to another group. 69 00:06:57,367 --> 00:07:00,696 So each group gets to connect repair. Right. 70 00:07:00,697 --> 00:07:07,567 So they get a chance to have a bigger conversation with more than just the two people that they were initially having a conversation with. 71 00:07:07,897 --> 00:07:13,065 Now, what you want to do as an instructor, as a professor, to kind of figure out what the outcome of that is, 72 00:07:15,077 --> 00:07:19,997 you could build that into a low stakes assignment or something where they have to 73 00:07:19,997 --> 00:07:23,867 hand you an index card at the end of the class so that you can kind of gauge, 74 00:07:24,077 --> 00:07:29,687 you know, sort of get a bigger picture of where everybody's at. But it's definitely something that you can do in a bigger group. 75 00:07:35,313 --> 00:07:40,593 Oh, I like that. I mean, I think you're also going to build community, right, because they're going to start talking to each other. 76 00:07:40,593 --> 00:07:45,353 And it seems like students tend to sit in the same places in those those classrooms. 77 00:07:45,353 --> 00:07:48,933 So they're going to build those little communities there. Well, that sounds great. 78 00:07:48,963 --> 00:07:52,683 What about what were other things that instructors can do? 79 00:07:52,713 --> 00:07:58,563 I know representations important, right? Thinking about different ways to present the information. 80 00:07:58,563 --> 00:08:04,433 I mean, what are what are some ideas there? There are lots of different ways to present the same information. 81 00:08:04,443 --> 00:08:10,022 I think sometimes we have this expectation as instructors that there's, you know, something we've been thinking about for a long time. 82 00:08:10,023 --> 00:08:16,743 It's our area of expertise. Presenting it once and leaving it there sometimes feels like enough. 83 00:08:17,073 --> 00:08:22,743 And I would have to say that in my experience and in most students experiences, it's never really enough. 84 00:08:22,743 --> 00:08:24,461 So being able to present content material in different ways, sometimes that could be a reading, which is often the case. 85 00:08:30,311 --> 00:08:35,401 Well, and is there another way that you can present different components of that same information? 86 00:08:35,581 --> 00:08:37,621 Maybe a video, maybe something audio, maybe something more tactile? 87 00:08:40,169 --> 00:08:46,349 Any way that you can kind of reconfigure the information that you want students to get in different ways. 88 00:08:46,633 --> 00:08:52,573 Sometimes students will have a really easy time reading a text and getting the main points that they need to get, 89 00:08:52,813 --> 00:08:56,442 and that doesn't work for every student. There is, you know, 90 00:08:56,443 --> 00:09:02,682 a different way that maybe being able to share that information and learning from each other is a better way to for some 91 00:09:02,683 --> 00:09:08,713 students to get the main points or to feel more confident that they're getting the information that they need to be successful. 92 00:09:09,043 --> 00:09:16,543 So being able to present the content in a variety of different ways and being really explicit and direct and clear about 93 00:09:16,543 --> 00:09:23,682 what it is that students are supposed to be getting out of that content is also really important because it creates a goal, 94 00:09:23,683 --> 00:09:30,523 and being goal oriented makes that reading more important, let's say, or significant or more meaningful. 95 00:09:31,333 --> 00:09:36,343 Well, and so, you know, this feels like this could be a little bit of work on the instructor's end. 96 00:09:36,703 --> 00:09:36,781 But can you talk about what it was like? I mean, once you started putting this into action, did it make teaching a better experience for you? 97 00:09:43,827 --> 00:09:47,277 I mean, obviously this is helping the students, but from the of. 98 00:09:47,327 --> 00:09:48,869 Perspective of the professor is this approach making their jobs more interesting and and, you know, valuable? 99 00:09:55,475 --> 00:09:59,475 I think it I think it does. Or at least for me, I can only speak for myself. 100 00:10:02,355 --> 00:10:09,284 So when we talk about backward course design, for instance, creating the goals and asking yourself, 101 00:10:09,285 --> 00:10:13,455 what do I need students to get out of this in order for them to be successful? 102 00:10:13,695 --> 00:10:17,745 Whatever that measure of success happens to be, is it successful in this course? 103 00:10:17,985 --> 00:10:24,075 Is it successful to move on to the next level? Is it successful in ways to apply beyond the classroom, 104 00:10:24,375 --> 00:10:31,755 creating those clear goals for yourself in terms of learning outcomes beyond just the Bloom's taxonomy verbs? 105 00:10:32,445 --> 00:10:36,375 Having a clear goal. What is it exactly that I want students to get out of this course? 106 00:10:36,615 --> 00:10:43,365 By the end of this course, students will be able to learn or express the skills and knowledge, whatever it is that you want them to get. 107 00:10:43,605 --> 00:10:50,955 Knowing that from the from the get go really allows me to figure out, like, how am I going to get students to get there? 108 00:10:51,255 --> 00:10:55,785 How am I going to measure what it is that they have learned? How are we going to be able to tell? 109 00:10:55,815 --> 00:11:00,555 How are they going to be able to tell that they are successful, that they have achieved those goals? 110 00:11:00,765 --> 00:11:06,164 And the way that you create the different learning activities and experiences along 111 00:11:06,165 --> 00:11:10,495 the way are really in some ways determined by the people that you have in your class. 112 00:11:10,755 --> 00:11:18,585 Allowing students have a little bit more agency, but everybody knows what the goals are and how you get there can be variable, 113 00:11:18,825 --> 00:11:23,085 and then how they're going to be assessed is also a way to be okay. 114 00:11:23,085 --> 00:11:32,234 This is a clear trajectory from point A to B, and I think that makes teaching much, you know, in a way more focused. 115 00:11:32,235 --> 00:11:36,195 Does it take more time and does it take more preparation? In a lot of ways, yes. 116 00:11:36,465 --> 00:11:40,155 And then also allows you to be more flexible based on the students that you have. 117 00:11:40,335 --> 00:11:44,993 Right. Yeah. Well, we're just about out of time now, and I want to thank you for it for sharing this really important message. 118 00:11:47,057 --> 00:11:51,227 If faculty want to learn more about this and I'm trying to get you to make a plug about the center here. 119 00:11:52,197 --> 00:11:57,767 So. So what are some resources that faculty have if they want to learn more about about this technique? 120 00:11:58,274 --> 00:12:02,534 Anybody who has any questions at all is welcome to attend any of the workshops that we have. 121 00:12:10,588 --> 00:12:11,218 Thank you, Nina. 122 00:12:11,228 --> 00:12:18,267 So in addition to workshops, you can also set up one on one appointments with our instructional designers that can talk you through some issues. 123 00:12:18,268 --> 00:12:22,858 So we're we're there to make you be successful. So reach out if you need help. 124 00:12:23,008 --> 00:12:25,078 Well, thank you, everybody. Bye. Thank you.