Foreword
In 2014, the The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) was established at Trent to facilitate the university’s commitment to pedagogical innovation and teaching excellence. Fostering positive and productive classroom experiences for both faculty and students is central to Trent’s mandate as a primarily teaching-focused undergraduate institution. Now known as the Trent Teaching Commons, the CTL has, since its inception, endeavoured to bolster this mandate and the teaching initiatives of Trent faculty through a commitment to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). SoTL is an essential component of supporting excellent teaching in higher education as it invites instructors to turn their disciplinary research skills to investigate questions that arise from their teaching. This field of inquiry pushes us to systematically study our teaching policies and practices to consider what works, what doesn’t, and why.
A key component of SoTL is “going public” (Felten, 2013, p.123) with one’s findings, meaning that the results of our studies should be shared within and beyond our own institutions. The goal of this knowledge dissemination is to provide instructors who may teach related topics or who are grappling with similar questions a window into how they might think about or explore these issues more deeply. “Going public” also creates and contributes to communities of practice in teaching and learning. It furnishes an ongoing dialogue about how we can approach our teaching through the lens of research and how we can share our knowledge as widely as possible.
In recent years, we have endeavoured to publicize our faculty’s SoTL work within Trent University. Creating connections between faculty across our campuses for discussing SoTL has been essential in supporting our instructors and creating a network of like-minded scholars. Now, we are looking to expand the impact of our institution’s SoTL research and “go public” beyond Trent. Case Studies in UDL is the first volume in the SoTL at Trent series. Hosted on the Pressbook platform, this series provides an accessible way of allowing other faculty, staff, and students to learn about the research in teaching and learning happening at Trent. It is the collaborative work of Trent Teaching Commons Education Developers, and eLearning Designers, as well as Trent faculty contributors. This series represents our collective interest in engaging with ongoing dialogues within the SoTL community and forging connections amongst SoTL scholars.
And what better topic to devote our first issue to than Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a pedagogical framework that has revolutionized how we think about supporting student learning and enhancing inclusion within higher education. The Trent Teaching Commons has encouraged faculty uptake of UDL and the implementation of evidence-based changes to undergraduate courses that enhance accessibility for all students through an internal grants program sponsored by the Wickerson Foundation Fund for Educational Leadership and Universal Design. The aim of the Wickerson Foundation Fund is to remove both visible and invisible barriers to learning by considering the needs of all students in course design, learning experiences, assessment, and the overall learning environment. To this end, we have offered $4,000 grants to faculty to help them incorporate multiple means of engagement, representation, and action into their courses.
Over the past five years, Trent University faculty have applied for Wickerson Foundation Fund grants through a competitive process. We awarded 10 project grants to 19 faculty members who developed projects as individuals or in teams of two or more educators. Grant recipients pursued projects that applied UDL to courses within nursing, chemistry, biology, English, and cultural studies. Faculty also applied our grants to larger curriculum revision projects. For example, faculty within the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies incorporated UDL into their courses in ways that affected student experiences within the Indigenous Course Requirement (ICR), a Trent mandate that all undergraduate students take at least one course that explores Indigenous perspectives, history, and knowledge. The impact of these grants has therefore spanned disciplines, courses, and programs across the university.
In February 2024, we had an opportunity to bring together our Wickerson Foundation Fund grant recipients for a symposium on the theme of “Teaching and Learning from One Another.” Our symposium allowed researchers to share their projects with one another and with faculty from across disciplines at Trent. We were fortunate to be joined by Karen Wickerson, a significant UDL champion, who shared her experiences and vision, and engaged with faculty equally passionate about UDL.
Attended by over 50 faculty and staff, this day marked a celebration of five years of Wickerson Foundation Fund grants and the transition towards focusing our efforts on sharing the insights and perspectives gleaned from these projects. We have incorporated videos of the presentations from this symposium as often as possible within this volume to provide deeper insight into our authors’ individual projects and the enthusiasm for UDL at our institution.
Case Studies in UDL features the meaningful pedagogical work undertaken by our faculty with support from the Wickerson Foundation Fund. The essays emphasize the personal and unique approaches of our instructors and invite others to incorporate some of their novel ideas into their own classrooms. Each project is presented as a kind of case study wherein faculty reflect on how they developed an interest in UDL; the goals and methods of their project; how the values of UDL were interwoven into their courses; how students experienced their approaches or interventions; and the lessons they learned throughout this process. While much of the information is presented as written text, we have incorporated audio clips, videos, and other interactive features that emphasize the value of UDL and designing learning experiences that engage multiple modes of representation.
It can be hard to know how broad pedagogies like UDL apply to specific contexts, such as distinct disciplines or large and small classes. We hope that in reading one or all the case studies in this volume, you find both practical suggestions and pedagogical inspiration for how you might engage UDL in your own classroom. And, whether you are new to UDL or an experienced practitioner, we hope that they give you a further appreciation for the many ways in which UDL can benefit both students and instructors in higher education.
References:
Felten, P. (2013). Principles of good practice in SoTL. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 1(1), 121–125. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.1.1.121
