Universal Design for Learning: Application for technology-enhanced learning

The construct of Universal Design (UD) has been used in a number of fields such as engineering and architecture to design and produce products and services that are usable by people with a wide variety of characteristics. The Center for Universal Design (CUD, 1997) at North Carolina State University defines UD as “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design” (p. 1). A good example of UD in action is the sidewalk curb cuts now found in cities and towns throughout America. These curb cuts were designed to help people in wheelchairs, but the design is also useful for bicycle riders, skateboarders, runners, and others. The benefit of UD is that products and environments are made more usable to a wider range of people. The field of UD supports a framework that can also be used to enhance the field of education. A number of constructs have been established that have as their goal the improvement of learning environments to benefit people with a wide range of characteristics. One model is called Universal Design for Instruction (UDI) (Burgstahler, 2008; Higbee & Goff, 2008) and another one is Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (CAST, 2008). Both of these models have as their core mission to produce flexible learning environments that reduce learning barriers and support the needs of all learners. Because we embrace a learning-centered philosophy, we have applied the UDL construct to see how it might influence the design of technology-enhanced courses.