{"id":2914,"date":"2020-03-09T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T15:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/?p=2914"},"modified":"2020-03-09T15:59:23","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T22:59:23","slug":"provide-students-variety-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/2020\/03\/09\/provide-students-variety-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Provide Students Variety & Options"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you like to provide and receive information? What circumstances allow you to express yourself best? Our students\u2019 learning experiences center on the exchange of information, and since they don\u2019t typically get to design their own courses, we implicitly ask students to adapt to our<\/em> communicative norms. I\u2019m not a student, and for 40 hours each week, I work with colleagues who speak a shared language of diagrams, file naming conventions, and annotated comments.<\/p>\n

\n \"dense\n
Would you like to receive this email? This is how I felt most comfortable communicating with an instructor when deciding between two ways to facilitate a 4-step peer review process.<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

But in my everyday interactions with people outside of work, when I enter other professional domains, I am keenly aware of my communicative disadvantage, not unlike what our students sometimes face. Paying attention to these interactions gives me humility and makes me curious about how I can give students the agency to express themselves in the ways that suit them best. Let me share an anecdote from outside the office.<\/p>\n

Recently I had to visit the doctor for a routine health issue, and he showed me a diagram of test results while using some terms I wasn\u2019t familiar with. When I left, I thought in frustration, I would have benefited from having been provided a glossary of key terms in advance, and a reading list afterward to learn more about the implications of the diagnosis. Surely this doctor could have tailored the visit better by assessing my introductory level of knowledge on the subject and then by expanding on what I already knew, while filling in on the gaps he\u2019d discovered. That\u2019s the confident critique from the instructional designer in me. But of course, I was at someone else\u2019s office this time, operating outside of my professional identity, and my expertise wasn\u2019t being solicited. And I was pretty uncomfortable. What did this medical professional think of me? I could barely follow along with the conversation! And, more importantly, what had I gained from the (quite expensive) interaction, for which I had just taken time off from work?<\/p>\n

Our students are in a similar bind. Time spent in our courses is time they can\u2019t spend with their families or in the workplace \u2013 and they\u2019re paying for it! So how can we make students\u2019 experiences more satisfying?<\/p>\n

I return to the UDL Principle \u201cProvide multiple means of Action & Expression<\/a>\u201d regularly, and I think it\u2019s worth simply reading the original text:<\/p>\n

Learners differ in the ways that they can navigate a learning environment and express what they know. For example, individuals with significant movement impairments (e.g., cerebral palsy), those who struggle with strategic and organizational abilities (executive function disorders), those who have language barriers, and so forth approach learning tasks very differently. Some may be able to express themselves well in written text but not speech, and vice versa. It should also be recognized that action and expression require a great deal of strategy, practice, and organization, and this is another area in which learners can differ. In reality, there is not one means of action and expression that will be optimal for all learners; providing options for action and expression is essential.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This UDL principle reminds me to be open to ways of demonstrating and communicating knowledge that are outside my own comfort zone. So, when you create your course\u2019s assessment plan, consider building variety and options into assignments. How will certain activities advantage some students and not others? Consider how can you draw on your students\u2019 funds of knowledge<\/a>. Like me, who brought along a specific communication toolkit, our students\u2019 backgrounds have prepared them to communicate in unique ways. If your course relies entirely on one type of assessment (all exams, all essays), ask yourself whether the learning outcomes require it. What evidence of learning will be acceptable to prove students\u2019 newly developed skills? What experiences will provide that evidence? For example, you might provide students with opportunities to:<\/p>\n