ADCET UDL Symposium Keynote: Scaling Up with Universal Design for Learning . . . and How to Get Colleagues to Join You
In-person Keynote
To help make educational materials and practices inclusive and useful for all learners, this interactive session, presented by Thomas Tobin, radically reflected on how instructors and designers can adopt Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in order to create learning interactions that provide students with more time for study and practice in their busy days: broaden the focus beyond learners with disability and toward a larger ease-of-use/general-inclusion framework.
The session contained three scaffolded elements: an overview of UDL, how to scale up UDL efforts beyond individual actions, and how to talk with colleagues in order to establish UDL communities of practice in line with the recent focus of the Australian Universities Accord on “learning and teaching that is personalised and scalable” (Australian Government, 2023, p. 81) through the use of UDL principles.
Presenter
Tomas Tobin is a founding member of the Center for Teaching, Learning, & Mentoring at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as an internationally-renowned author and speaker on issues of quality in teaching with technology, including evaluating online teaching, academic integrity, copyright, and accessibility.
He holds a Ph.D. in English literature, a second master’s degree in information science, a professional project management certification, a master online teacher certification, the Quality Matters reviewer certification, the Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) certification, and he recently completed the Academic Leadership Academy from Penn State.
He tells his nieces and nephews that he is in Year 46.
He is the author of:
- Evaluating Online Teaching: Implementing Best Practices (2015).
- The Copyright Ninja (2017).
- Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education (2018).
- Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers (2020).
- UDL for FET Practitioners: Guidance for Implementing Universal Design for Learning in Irish Further Education and Training (2021)
(June 2024)