UDL Plus-One Pledge

People who have completed the UDL in Tertiary Education eLearning program have been invited to pledge their Plus-One.

Plus-One thinking is an approach designed to help educators embed Universal Design for Learning principles in their teaching and course development by first focusing on pain points for themselves or their students, then thinking of just one more way to reduce those pain points or barriers. For example, by providing course materials in one more format, or allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge of key concepts in one more way. 

To find out more you can watch Dr Thomas Tobin outline the Plus-One Approach  or register online to complete the UDL in Tertiary Education eLearning program.

For those who have completed the UDL in Tertiary Education eLearning program Make your UDL Plus-One Pledge .

UDL Plus-One Pledges made:

• I pledge to provide all course materials in both written and audio formats, ensuring that students can access content in the way that best supports their learning. In addition, I will offer one alternative assessment option—such as a presentation or project—instead of relying solely on written exams, so students have more than one way to demonstrate their understanding. (Ganapathy Subramanian Ponnappan, Teaching/Training)
• Ensure learning and assessment tasks are authentic so learners can see the relevance (plus-one engagement idea). I come from a secondary teaching background and have taught many learners who have brought a variety of skills, abilities and learning requirements with them over the years. When creating learning and assessment tasks for learners, one thing that has always stood out to me was the need to create tasks that ensure relevance and authenticity to all learners. They need to be able to see the purpose of the task and that it benefits learning relevant not only to the subject but to future knowledge acquisition, contexts and life more broadly. It can be tricky and it pays to know your learners. This can also tie into allowing choice in assessment format (plus-one action and expression principle) to encourage further engagement in authentic learning and assessment tasks. One way to assist with making sure learning and assessment tasks are authentic and relevant is to ensure intended learning outcomes are purposeful, achievable and that there are extrinsic and intrinsic knowledge benefits. (Anonymous)
• Allow students to submit their work in video or audio form. (Anonymous)
• Provide explicit instructions for a task in multiple ways. (Anonymous)
• My plus one pledge this year is to use the microphone consistently, even in smaller lecture theatres, and to repeat questions into the microphone (if we can't get a roving microphone to the questioner). (Anonymous)
• To improve my inclusive practice in Zoom, Teams or face-to-face (meetings, training, CoPs). E.g. Giving an inclusive self-introduction, announcing my name when speaking, explaining images or diagrams I present, reading out comments from chat or the room so nobody misses out. I see and hear many others doing this so well and really need to do this myself. (Justin Wylie, Teaching/Training)

• Encourage our teachers to action correction of the delivery and assessment resource mistakes they identify in class in the Learning Management System (LMS) – TAFE Queensland Connect Master Product. This includes sending the Product Improvement Request (PIR)to the E-Learn Design team to fix the Master Product for that unit from where the mistakes originate and/or Product Lead team for Electrical, Carpentry, Furnishing, Plumbing units.
  Teachers seeking improvement on a larger scale can be encouraged to present to their teaching team/complete a Major request for the Product Lead.
  My strategies include:
   1. Referring the teacher to Online Delivery team if they need assistance with the tasks
   2. Contacting the Product Lead and discuss the process of our Student Support team providing feedback when we see a minor or major request for improvement
   3. Promote the alignment of this Plus One to our Disability Access and Inclusion Plan (DAIP) 3.1, 3.4 and 7.1
   4. Attending teaching team meetings to encourage action from a student support perspective (Meredith Jackson, Equity/Student support)

• To consistently use 'norms' slides at the beginning of professional learning sessions and workshops to model the behaviour we want our academics to adopt. 'Lecture norm' slides at the beginning of each lecture are proving to be successful in supporting students with 'how to uni'. (Amy Webster, Equity/Student support)
• I will start each session of Educator PD with a Statement on Learning on Learning Design and explain how I have employed UDL to support their learning and engagement. (Michele McKell, Educator Development)
• Going back to basics and questioning assumptions. In conversations with others I need to stop and think that they may not be at the same point on their accessibility/UDL journey as I am and not to assume they know some the things/terms I take for granted. The same is true when asking them about their processes and ways of work. (Anonymous)
• I will do the accessibility check on all my powerpoints. I often tell academics that this is best practice but I fall short myself and don't always do it. (Samantha, Learning design)
• Clearer learning activity instructions (Jen Cousins, Teaching/Training)

• My Plus-One Pledge is to introduce an audio-visual alternative to my standard written assessments. I have noticed that many of my students are highly skilled professionals who can solve complex problems on-site but find the "blank page" of a formal 2,000-word report to be a major barrier. My "Plus-One" is to allow them to submit a recorded video presentation or a structured professional discussion instead. By adding this one extra option, I can assess their actual industry competency and communication skills without their progress being stalled by academic writing anxiety. It ensures the focus stays on their mastery of the subject matter rather than their ability to navigate a Word document. (Anonymous)

• Ensure any activities I organise provide learners with choices and the ability to be creative and draw on their life experiences, rather than providing one set option. (Olivia Inwood, Library and information services)
• Provide a transcript of video content in LMS. (Marnie Scholes, Teaching/Training)
• As an educational designer in higher ed I will mention UDL in every interaction with academics and professional staff to keep the equity and inclusion element front of mind not as an add on or nice to have if time permitted. UDL needs to be non negotiable in 2026 and made evident in all subjects and assessment tasks where ot has been used. Mapped across every course and subject so they get a UDL rating for how well its adopted. Its time we in higher education we walked the walk, not just talked about it. (Anonymous)
• I pledge to use plus one in my training. (Anonymous)
• Create an introductory video for my topic and include it in the Announcement forum for my units. (Michael Fedyk, Learning design)
• CAaSSA commits to enhancing adult community education through Universal Design for Learning. We pledge to: Enhance representation by providing learning content in multiple formats to meet diverse adult learning needs; Expand assessment choice by offering flexible assessment formats - written, video, audio, or action - recognizing that adult learners bring varied strengths and life experiences; Starting with our "pinch points," we will add one additional pathway to success, making community education more accessible and inclusive for all adult learners. (Hang Ngo, Executive/leadership)
• Make more time to contact learners. (Anonymous)
• Action & Expression - [I] pledge to review current course curriculum to provide a variety of ways that the learner can present their findings for assessment. (Kylie Cakau, Teaching/Training)
• [I will add] captions during the live lecture. (Jelena Rukavina Vuckovic, Lecturer)
• To provide learners with a printout to help support them when learning about technical terms, so that they can use it as a guide and a reference point for further education. (Anonymous)
• Design an assessment that offers learners choice in the way they demonstrate their achievement of a learning outcome, and support this with clear rubrics so it is obvious to them how they would be graded, no matter what they choice of presentation is. (Anonymous)
• To engage students in the weekly readings through a discussion board that invites them to share what they 'hope' or predict to learn as well as answer, "What ONE question would you like me to answer in class about this reading?" The questions will kick off the next tutorial and class discussion. (Olivia Karaolis, Teaching/Training)
• Add alt text to images. (Carol Ong, Learning design)
• Having many students from a CALD background, I will adapt my training by using whiteboard drawings to clarify. I will also encourage those who are comfortable to come up and draw, and I will simplify words using drawings. (Anonymous)
• I pledge to show learners how to use learning tools and technologies. (Amarachi Vivian Okonkwo, Teaching/Training)
• To generate awareness among academics of UDL and the value it brings to accessibility to education for all learners. (Robyn Latimer, Equity/Student support)
• To provide the learning experience materials in more than one way to ensure students can demonstrate their understandings in a way that make sense to them. (Anonymous)
• Add extra content for practical assessments so students are able to engage with pre-practical content in a preferred format (video, audio, book resource). (Anonymous)
• When collaborating on any projects within RMIT, to always find a plus one method to represent the information we are trying to convey and to allow engagement in any project activities, so that we are leading by example. (Teresa Dowding, Manager Equitable Learning and Accessibility)
• To allow an alternative format also for their assessment task. (Anonymous)
• Create a forum where learners can introduce themselves, share ideas and ask questions. (Anonymous)
• Allow student choice with topics and space to reflect in the essay assignment on how their ideas about the social science course have changed from the beginning of the course/assignment. (Anonymous)
• I pledge to ensure I advocate for UDL from any role within education I hold, to ensure that diverse voices and experiences are sought after and acknowledged. (Adele Vogel, Research)
• To provide course materials in more than one format and check my accessibility on all content. (Brooke Russell, Teaching/Training)
• Develop more short-form video instructions to compliment and augment text content (with closed captions - of course). (Danni, Academic Capability Building)
• Provide course material in a number of formats e.g. text, video, online quizzes. (Anonymous)
• Conduct an audit of current program assessment methods and topics and expand options where possible. (Anonymous)
• Check my online materials for accessibility. (Anonymous)
• To ensure assessments come in different formats. (Anonymous)
• Convert a section of content to an alternative format. (Anonymous)
• To make the why of learning more explicit for my learners ie why is it important to learn or do that thing. (Samantha Clarke, Teaching/Training)
• To ensure all new online courses I develop have the 'course content' in a format that allows students access to alternative formats should they need or prefer it. (Lisa Brennan, Learning design)
• I will use the Accessibility Checker within Microsoft Word to ensure my material is as accessible and usable as possible for everybody.     With my name and role description acknowledged. (Marika Leopold, Teaching/Training)
• I will investigate ways to create assessment options in a heavily regulated assessment environment. (i.e., How can we provide options within the bounds of assessments published in the handbook?)  (Ashley Anderson, Learning design)
• To offer one alternative assessment option for one unit this coming semester. (Jen Cousins, Teaching/Training)
• I will focus on making assessment more accessible by offering students one extra choice for demonstrating their skills and knowledge. Some ideas I can try include a talking-head video, animation, audio, a diagram or a role-play, depending on the task. (Annie Carney, Learning design)    
• NR TAFE AccessAbility Student Services will continue to provide all students a safe, inclusive environment and the individualized learning support required to achieve a positive outcome in their chosen area of study. (Shirley Russell,  AccessAbility Coordinator)
• Add a video introduction to online courses. (Anonymous)