Universal Design for Learning usually gets introduced as a comprehensive framework, three principles, nine guidelines, some thirty checkpoints, which can make it feel like a project rather than a set of everyday teaching moves. In an online course specifically, a small number of concrete practices deliver most of the actual benefit, and each one also tends to reduce support requests and accommodation friction along the way.
Here is a starting point that fits inside a normal course revision, no special project required.
The idea, in one sentence
Design the course so the flexibility some students need is available to everyone by default, rather than handed out one student at a time on request. CAST, which developed the framework, frames this around three questions: how do students engage with the material, how do they take it in, and how do they show what they know (CAST UDL Guidelines).
Where to start
Give the content more than one way in, for each major concept, offer more than a single representation. A short reading paired with a short video, a diagram alongside the prose, a worked example next to the rule. This helps students who process material differently, students on slow connections, and students reviewing on a phone, and it is usually a matter of adding one alternative rather than rebuilding anything from scratch.
Caption and transcribe the media, all of it. Captions and transcripts serve students who are deaf or hard of hearing, students in a noisy room, students reading in a second language, and anyone who wants to search or skim later. If the institution already has a captioning pipeline, this is close to free. If not, it is the single highest-value accessibility step available in an online course.
Offer a real choice in how students demonstrate learning, at least once, for one significant assignment, let students choose the form, a written analysis, a recorded explanation, an annotated build, while holding the same standard and the same rubric throughout. This supports a range of strengths and circumstances without lowering the bar an inch.
Make the structure and the expectations unmistakable. A predictable module pattern, a clear “start here” on every module, due dates stated in more than one place, a rubric attached to every graded item. Ambiguity functions as a barrier, and it falls hardest on first-generation students, working students, and anyone without someone obvious to ask.
Build in low-stakes practice with fast feedback. Auto-graded practice questions, a worked example students can check their own attempt against, a short ungraded check at the end of each module. This gives every student a way to find out whether they understand something before it counts toward a grade. Exactly what a struggling student who does not want to raise their hand needs most.
Provide a predictable way to ask for help. A “getting help in this course” page with the real links: the instructor’s stated response-time expectation, the tutoring center, the accessibility office, tech support, and a low-stakes channel for questions. Students who do not know how to ask are often the ones who need to most.
What this is not
It is not lowering standards, and it is not building a separate track for some students. The rubric, the workload, and the learning goals stay exactly the same. What changes is that the course stops assuming one kind of student, one kind of connection, and one way of showing understanding.
How it connects to the rest
Most of these moves overlap heavily with what an accessible course template already provides and what a collegial course review looks for. An institution with those already in place has done a good part of the UDL work at the structural level, which frees up an instructor’s own revision time for the parts that genuinely need their judgment: the multiple representations of a hard concept, the assignment worth offering a real choice on, the practice question that catches the common misconception before it becomes a pattern.
Charlie Wrightmann is a consultant at Wrightmann Education Technologists. Part of the Learning Platforms series.
References
- CAST. Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, version 3.0. https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
- W3C. (2018). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/