Inclusive Impactful Instruction with Kevin Merry. Dr. Kevin Merry is the Head of Academic Development and Associate Professor of Learning, Teaching and Assessment at the Center for Academic Innovation and Teaching Excellence at DeMontfort University in Leicester, United Kingdom. His most recent book is Delivering Inclusive and Impactful Instruction: Universal Design in Higher Education. In today’s episode, we talk about the changing nature of higher education, mastery, feedback, and the cheese sandwich, but not the kind you eat. Tune in for an enlightening conversation with Dr. Kevin Merry and thank you for listening to this conversation on the Think UDL podcast.

Welcome to Episode 123 of the Think UDL podcast: AI and Ethics with James Basham. Dr. James Basham is a Professor in the Department of Special Education in the School of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. He is the founder of the Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network (UDL-IRN). His research is focused on the implementation of UDL, STEM education, learner-centered design, innovation, and technology in human learning. He has received and managed over $27 million in successful research and development funding. He is well-published, has given hundreds of talks, serves on various boards for journals, companies, and organizations, and is the principal investigator on various projects including CIDDL, the Center for Innovation, Design and Digital learning.

In this episode we discuss AI and UDL in higher education, and how AI relates to competency based learning and various forms of assessment. We also discuss personalized learning and the ethics of how AI impacts the teaching and learning experience in higher ed. And finally, we also discuss Jamie’s work as the founder and principal Investigator of CIDDL.

Welcome to Episode 122 of the Think UDL podcast: Artificial Intelligence and Accessibility with Joe Houghton. Joe Houghton is an Assistant Professor at University College Dublin Smurfit Graduate School of Business in Dublin, Ireland. He is also a prolific writer and producer of books, podcasts, and instructive videos and webinars on teaching and learning. He has recently thrown his intellect into the emerging trends in Artificial Intelligence and published his book, Applying Artificial Intelligence to Close the Accessibility Gap. I was glad to have the opportunity to write the foreword for this book and am delighted to have the chance to speak with Joe for the second time on the Think UDL podcast. If you’d like to hear our first conversation, you can listen to episode 91: Reflecting on a Starfish Difference with Joe Houghton and I will have a link to that episode in our resources section on the ThinkUDL.org website. This episode, episode 122, details some of the ideas from Joe’s book on AI and accessibility. We discuss tools that can be used to improve accessibility, the benefits and challenges of using AI to make courses and teaching more accessible, and what ethical concerns we should be aware of when using AI. And finally I ask Joe a bit about what he sees on the horizon for AI, UDL, and accessibility.

Dr. Liz Norell is the Associate Director of Instructional Support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss. In this conversation, Liz and I discuss several important UDL ideas including reflection and how to incorporate that into our classes and how beneficial it is for our own learning. We also discuss how to create psychological safety even within a course that could have many “hot-button” type issues, how to create choice and flexibility in your course, and what to do if there are too many choices for some students. We also discuss how students can essentially choose their own grade for a course based on their interests and efforts. Tune in for a very enlightening conversation with so many great ideas about how to infuse your course with UDL principles.

Welcome to Episode 120 of the Think UDL podcast: The Double Empathy Problem with Aaron Lanou and Colin Ozeki. Aaron Lanou is an educational consultant supporting schools and organizations to reach all kids with inclusive, strengths-based practices. Through the lens of Universal Design for Learning, he coaches teachers to support autistic students and all kids with a variety of academic, executive functioning, and social support needs. Aaron is also a member of Carol Gray’s Team Social Stories and was previously a special education teacher in the New York City Public Schools and Executive Director of ASD Nest at NYU, leading the nation’s largest inclusion program for autistic students. Colin Ozeki is currently a special education teacher at Urban Assembly Media Studies High School supporting the autism inclusion program ASD Nest. Growing up as an autistic student, he noticed the significant lack of autistic teachers and role models. Taking this observation into adulthood, Colin stepped up to become the teacher, role model, and inspiration autistic students deserve. He uses his unique position as an autistic teacher to promote neurodivergent inclusion, acceptance, and understanding of different neurotypes across school environments as a living example of success. Today’s episode focuses on a mindset and technique that Aaron and Colin introduced to me that is helpful when dealing with the Double Empathy problem, which is essentially what we have when a heterogenous group of neurotypical and neurodivergent, specifically autistic, people communicate with each other. Who do we expect to bend more or less, and how can we best communicate together? Stay tuned for some fantastic insights from Colin and Aaron along with how this all relates to UDL, and thank you for listening to this conversation on the Think UDL podcast.

Welcome to Episode 119 of the Think UDL podcast: Contextual Pathways with Lee Dale. Lee Dale is the founder and CEO of Say Yeah!, an educational tech company based in Toronto, Canada. Lee saw the accessibility gaps in online education and decided to do something about it, he created his company Say Yeah! to help unlock the potential in everyone. In this conversation, we discuss instructional design, using technology thoughtfully, and creating contextual pathways in online learning. If you have wondered how complicated teaching itself is, we discuss the various roles that are needed for online learning to be successful which include the subject matter expert, the educator, and the role of technology in online learning.

Welcome to Episode 118 of the Think UDL podcast: Badges, Modules and Praxis with Thomas O’Shaughnessy. Thomas O’Shaughnessy is an Assistive Technology Officer and UDL Project lead at the University of Limerick in Ireland. I thought I might introduce him and this episode with a poem:

In Limerick, Tom's praxis did shine,

Inclusive practice, his paradigm fine.

With UDL's broad scope,

And tech breaking trope,

Access for all, his constant line!

In this episode, Thomas outlines how UDL has bloomed at the University of Limerick with a national UDL badge, faculty and staff training, and large-scale awareness and implementation of UDL. Thomas has been championing the implementation of UDL and creating more accessible and inclusive educational spaces for all and shares his great work with us today. Thank you for listening to this conversation on the Think UDL podcast.

Rachel Combs is a Disabilities Accommodations Consultant and Professor in the School of Information Science at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. In this conversation, Rachel and I discuss her work with Project ENABLE which stands for Expanding Non-discriminatory Access By Librarians Everywhere and which seeks to raise librarians’ understanding of the library and information needs of disabled students and develop programs, services, resources, and technologies to meet those needs. We also discuss what she is doing at the University of Kentucky to reach all students and patrons and decrease barriers to access for all. You’ll find resources associated with this conversation on the ThinkUDL.org website and thank you for listening to this conversation on the Think UDL podcast.

Welcome to Episode 116 of the Think UDL podcast: The UDL Gears with Loui Lord Nelson. Loui Lord Nelson is an author, leader, consultant, and educator in  Universal Design for Learning in a global context. She is also my esteemed friend and colleague as well as the host of two podcasts on UDL, UDL in 15 minutes and UDL Research in 15 minutes, both of which cover a multitude of subjects focussing on UDL around the world mostly but not entirely focussed on K-12 . Together we cover a lot of UDL ground and I am so happy to have her on the Think UDL podcast today! In this episode we discuss a fabulous new resource Loui has created to help all of us understand and implement Universal Design for Learning a little better called the UDL gears. Through this tool, Loui has created an accessible visual representation of the mindsets, skills, and practices of UDL practitioners. And in this conversation we discuss how these three things are related and how we can dig a little deeper into them together. You’ll find a link to the UDL gears and some supporting materials on the resources page for this episode on the ThinkUDL.org website. Thank you for joining us to learn more about UDL.

Welcome to Episode 115 of the Think UDL podcast: UDL at Scale with Tom Tobin. Thomas J. Tobin is a founding member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Teaching, Learning and Mentoring as well as an author, speaker, and consultant on UDL, evaluating online teaching, copyright, academic integrity, and alt-ac careers (non-traditional and non-faculty career paths). Not only that, Tom is my long standing UDL friend whom I have already once interviewed in episode 3 of the Think UDL podcast. And he is back on the show again to move us far forward from that conversation way back in 2018. In fact, this conversation is about how to systematically implement UDL at scale. Tom has been doing a lot of research and work on how universities and systems can be successful in implementing UDL at large, not just in classrooms or in departments, and he has some sage advice and actual real evidence of what has already worked, and what we all might be able to do to accomplish this goal. It is an incredibly helpful and enlightening conversation based on so many conversations that Tom has had with UDL practitioners around the world! And let me also say now, too, that Tom says by the end of this episode that he wants to hear from you and your strategies and successes in implementing UDL at scale. So please look over the resources for this episode and reach out to Tom, too!