ADCET UDL Symposium: UDL as the basis for inclusive digital education – Analysis of an intervention program in higher education for teachers at vocational schools

In-person presentation

Inclusive-digital education is not anchored in the curriculum of the vocational studies course at the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET). However, it seems expedient to anchor inclusive-digital education as an interplay of inclusion and digital technologies to overcome barriers and promote participation in the degree program (Wüthrich, 2024).

With Guidlines 3.0, the Universal Design of Learning (UDL) offers a connectable basis for inclusive-digital education (e.g. Böttinger & Schulz, 2023, Obermaier et al., 2022, european-agency, 2022). Inclusive-digital education has so far been a blank space in vocational education and training (Sonnenschein, 2023) and implementation measures in concrete lesson plans are a desideratum in studies on inclusive-digital education (Mertens et al., 2022).

In one module of the degree program, weekly input on UDL and its possible applications in inclusive-digital education took place over a period of six weeks. In this module, the students created a lesson plan in which the newly learned UDL elements were to be integrated. The focus was on the following components of Guidelines 3.0 (cast, 2024): Perception, Language and Symbols, Motor Actions and Expression and Emotions.

The students completed a pre- and post-questionnaire on self-efficacy, a final group discussion was held and the lesson plans were analysed. The article takes up the students' initial experiences with UDL and describes the challenges and opportunities involved in implementing lesson planning to meet the requirements of inclusive-digital education. The following questions were answered:

• How do students perceive the requirements of UDL, and;
• to what extent can UDL serve as a framework for inclusive-digital education to promote participation in the classroom?
  
  

This presentation explored the above program and discussed the students' initial experiences with UDL and the challenges and opportunities involved in implementing lesson planning to meet the requirements of inclusive-digital education.

Presenter

Dr. René Wüthrich, lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (EHB). His area of interest lies in the cross-cutting topics of inclusion and digitalization, with a focus on inclusive digital education using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework as part of sustainable teacher training.

(June 2025)