UDL Pedagogy

This project fosters the pillars of UDL in pedagogy in three ways. First, it works to support a modality for representing what students learn. Second, it centres action and expression in that learning. Third, it brings attention to the question students have so long been asking: why are we learning this? Oral assignments offer students a compelling form of (self-) recognition to share their knowledge and research in a way that activates different learning muscles than a written assignment. In producing their work, students have a chance to encounter the purpose of the assignment differently. Even the simple argument that speaking and listening are also important for professional and civic life holds clout among learners. 

Oral assignments foreground UDL values during the assignment-design phase. These assignments can take on many different forms (as with any written assignment). The aural modality suits assignments as varied as short and long form; argumentative, analytical, demonstrative, and surveying; time-constrained or student-directed. This means they can also be tailored to the needs of the course and the cohort of students. UDL need not only apply to the classroom or assignment as its principles can also be considered from the perspective of educators. My hope is that educators will find designing and implementing oral assignments accessible too.

Finally, as educators we rely on oral communication in the classroom and in student meetings. Even though conversation is central to our plans for lectures, seminars, and workshops, we often lack clear guidelines for evaluating these interactions. Research shows that speaking is just as important as listening in teaching and learning. As education scholars Patricia Barkaskas and Derek Gladwin argue, “listening remains an underutilized pedagogical approach in Eurocentric education, largely because listening builds relationships rather than individualized power” (2021, p. 30). An article by W. Clifton Adams and E. Sam Cox (2010) corroborates that listening is not taught to the degree that it could be. As educators, we might better support students more comfortable with speaking and listening (e.g., first-generation, international, mature, neurodivergent, etc.) by reintroducing relational and connected ways of learning, such as oral assignments. This project considers UDL from the bottom-up to serve students, and, in so doing, improves the experience of the entire classroom for students and educators alike.