Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education

Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

by Thomas J. Tobin, Kirsten T. Behling

Advocates for the rights of people with disabilities have worked hard to make universal design in the built environment “just part of what we do.” We no longer see curb cuts, for instance, as accommodations for people with disabilities, but perceive their usefulness every time we ride our bikes or push our strollers through crosswalks. This is also a perfect model for Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework grounded in the neuroscience of why, what, and how people learn. Tobin and Behling show that, although it is often associated with students with disabilities, UDL can be profitably broadened toward a larger ease-of-use and general diversity framework. Captioned instructional videos, for example, benefit learners with hearing impairments but also the student who worries about waking her young children at night or those studying on a noisy team bus. Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone is aimed at faculty members, faculty-service staff, disability support providers, student-service staff, campus leaders, and graduate students who want to strengthen the engagement, interaction, and performance of all college students. It includes resources for readers who want to become UDL experts and real-world case studies, active-learning techniques, UDL coaching skills, micro- and macro-level UDL-adoption guidance, and use-them-now resources.

Genres: Teaching, Education, Nonfiction, Academic, Disability, Academia

336 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2018

About the author

Thomas J. Tobin is the Program Area Director for Distance Teaching & Learning on the Learning Design, Development, & Innovation (LDDI) team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as an internationally recognized speaker and author on topics related to quality in technology-enhanced education, especially copyright, evaluation of teaching practice, academic integrity, and accessibility/universal design for learning.

Before joining UW-Madison, Tobin served for five years as the Coordinator of Learning Technologies in the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, and spent seven years in the Learning and Development arm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.

Since the advent of online courses in higher education in the late 1990s, Tom’s work has focused on using technology to extend the reach of higher education beyond its traditional audience. He advocates for the educational rights of people with disabilities and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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, Quality Matters certification, and recently completed his Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) certification (he tells his nieces and nephews that he is in 42nd Grade).

Tom serves on the editorial boards of InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, the Journal of Interactive Online Learning, and the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration.

Tom was also proud to represent the United States on a Spring 2018 Fulbright Scholar fellowship, under which he helped Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary to develop its first faculty-development program, and he provided workshops and training to twelve other colleges, universities, and military programs throughout Hungary.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engaging and informative (yes!) basic introduction to implementing the core principles of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) into higher education. What is particularly useful (and sets it apart from other books on the topic) is the "multiple paths" through the book. A useful "Suggested first-read chart" outlines the various readerships that might benefit from the book and which chapters might be most relevant, making it an excellent resource for small-group reading circles of administrators, staff, and faculty. Chapter 1 is a great primer on concepts such as learner variability, Universal Design (overall) and basic tenets of accessibility in higher education. Chapter 2 is a useful overview of some of the lawmaking surrounding accessibility, and is an important read for those who may need to make a case to administrators. The most compelling point is that the UDL framework can "reduce the need for individuals to have to ask for special treatment." The strange land that lies between accessibility and accommodations is one that is just now being more deeply explored as differences between "inclusion" and "belonging" are also being better understood.

Part 2, Reframing UDL, includes chapters on Mobile Learners and Digital Learners, but it is Chapter 5 that will resonate the most for faculty who may want to make changes but don't know where to start. The UDL framework, as fully presented by CAST, can be daunting. Tobin and Behling advocate for a "plus-one" approach that promotes a pre-emptive, responsive, and iterative process to designing assignments, syllabi, and/or assessment. This is a manageable strategy that can both temper the workload that may seem required to integrate UDL into a course, and it very well may bring skeptics on board, who might benefit from how to make "one assignment" more accessible (rather than "how to make YOUR TEACHING more accessible").

Chapter Six seems to widen the ambition, telling us that "UDL is too big to do alone," and while the point is well-taken, this would be one of those chapters that would be less useful to the skeptical faculty member. It will, however, motivate the faculty member who doesn't need to be convinced and is looking for allyship and teamwork in implementing UDL on a more curricular level. The greater point here is that UDL has the greatest impact on an institutional culture when supported across departments and at all levels.

Having prepared the reader for that concept/endeavor, Part 3 is devoted to "Adopt UDL on Your Campus" which provides solid guidance for moving from the individual "plus-one" to the institutional level. The final chapter "Engage! The UDL Life Cycle" is most useful for the condensing of information and review in a digestible format.

The book is beautifully researched and referenced, yet written in an inclusive and accessible tone. There are places that get rather heavy-laden with acronyms (other than UDL) , and while they are mostly cross-referenced, I would have loved to see more regular footnoting or parenthetical reminders of what they stand for. I was also a bit concerned when reading about the instructor who taught two sections of the same course and changed the approach to design and studying in only one of them as an experiment. Students are always subject to our pedagogical experimentation in some sense, but it didn't sit well with me to suggest that multiple sections of the same course (taught by the same instructor) should be drastically different to benefit our own learning as professors. While the data this professor received was valuable to implementing UDL more widely (and that was the point of including the anecdote), I do think we have to be careful about "experimenting" with inclusion in a way that can put others at a clear disadvantage.

The index makes it a great reference and resource, and the book is definitely one of the first I would recommend to faculty members who are interested in creating more inclusive spaces or who feel that "accommodations" are not supported. The book unapologetically subscribes to UDL as a framework, but even for those who prefer to pick-and-choose some of the ideas from UDL, it is a meaningful read. I'd also recommend that chairs, deans, VPs, provosts, and anyone in higher education read this book, especially if the institution is one that draws a strong line of demarcation between faculty and admin. Joint learning would go a long way to smoothing that divide and changing campus climate for the better.

[Waneta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who works in higher education needs to read this book.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you an educator? Do you want to be a good one? If you said yes, read this book.

[Rick Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really great information on UDL to be found here (I especially loved the idea of the "plus one" model). Fairly repetitive. Long stretches not really applicable to my own instructional practice.

[Wiebke Kuhn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an essential read for anyone interested in providing more access to more students to the resources a university provides.
Scaffolding from small steps we can take as individuals (whether we are faculty, support, or administrators) over awareness-raising strategies to full-unit and campus implementations, this books provides examples, strategies, techniques, and thought exercises to get you going. My biggest take-away from the book is:
1. This is about access for all, not accessibility for some
2. This is about awareness for all, not something that is put on faculty only
3. If we are serious, this is a culture change that will benefit not only all of our students but also everyone, employees, alumni, guests, who interact with your institution.
Let's get to work!

[Stan Skrabut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a powerful strategy for increasing access and inclusion in the classroom. The classroom can be face-to-face or online. In the book, Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education , Thomas Tobin and Kirsten Behling shared a way for individual instructors to adopt UDL principles as well as a way to increase adoption across campus.
Read more

[Monica Goodell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's be honest - this book is only for a very particular audience. It is very informative and helpful for my purposes of what I do at my job, but it is not a fun read. If you want to know how to make your materials more accessible to help avoid lawsuits about accessibility issues, then this book is key to making that happen. It is not, however, a quick fun read. Obviously, since it took me 2 years to finish!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really practical and far reaching book about UDL. I like the way that it reframes it to not just be focused on disability accommodations but on the increasingly challenging and mobile world of our students. Some parts are really focused on small changes that can be made at an individual course level and others focus on how to scale those small changes up to institution wide initiatives to better serve all of our students.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing style was very clear and straight to the point. I like the overview at the end of each chapter and PD activities found within the book. I recommend this book for leaders and admin. in education who want to train their staff in Universal Design for Learning. Although this is written for institutions of higher learning, much of the design is transferrable for secondary education.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not just about accessibility — it's about access. And access to learning that lasts isn't the same for everyone. Tobin and Behling take a practical approach and offer easy to implement strategies.

[K8 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tips for Universal Design. Who knew they would become sooo important. #quarantine #remoteteaching

[Susanne Huizing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical and relevant. If you are not adding more access using UDL to your courses - you are creating barriers for the many types of learners In your classes.

[Rachel Kinser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who teaches in higher ed should read this book!

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful and easy to read introduction into UDL. Lots of helpful tips and suggestions for implementation and evaluation.

[Karen]

Informative and applicable to many areas in higher education; very useful in terms of understanding today's students and how they access course materials.

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read to create more accessible classrooms!