The COVID pivot to online and blended learning has radically shaken teaching practices in the post-secondary sector, worldwide. Despite the overnight urgency and the rushed nature of the redesign, the shift to remote instruction and assessment has been a cathartic experience for individual instructors, departments and institutions as a whole. The pandemic has eroded the resistance to change which was prevalent in teaching and learning in many post-secondary landscapes. It has made classroom practitioners irreversibly conscious of their role and power as designers of the learning experience. It would be naïve, however, to assert that this has been a period of only net gains. In the area of inclusion and social justice particularly, while there has been overall an increased awareness of learner diversity, accessibility and addressing diverse student needs have often been set aside or dismissed within the COVID contingency planning. The argument has been that the pandemic had made it impossible to focus on or to prioritize a Human Rights approach when so many other basic organizational priorities needed to be tackled with urgency. The absence of focus on inclusion during the pandemic is concerning first because it has allowed a gap in opportunities to appear in most higher education landscapes – as inequities became exacerbated. The most worrying danger is, however, arguably yet to emerge. As instructors shift to the post-pandemic reality and integrate lessons from the COVID crisis into their practice, the prospect of adopting new teaching formats is increasingly appealing. A new, radically innovative conceptualization of blended learning is taking root - no longer seen as a response to remoteness, but instead as an optimized merging of best design considerations. It will be essential therefore, as this new vision of blended learning and its pedagogical potential emerge, to refocus attention on inclusion and learner diversity. Universal Design for Learning (UDL), it will be argued in this presentation, has a key role to play in this reflection and will serve as a crucial framework to guide instructors as they navigate this new landscape and take on new responsibilities as lucid designers of fully blended experiences for the 21st century. The session will explore emerging needs in relation to inclusion within this new blended learning reality; it will examine specific ways UDL can be optimized as a lens to guarantee that inclusion remains a central concern in the coming years, as the post-secondary sector navigates this metamorphosis; lastly the session will consider the strategic and organizational challenges involved in giving UDL a central position within the pedagogical reflection which is unfolding in the post-pandemic landscape.

1. Reflecting on inclusiveteachingin a post-pandemic
landscape- EmbeddingUDLin the designof innovative
blended learning for the21st
Keynote - Dalhousie Conference on University Teaching and
Learning – Blended Teaching for Engaged Learning
May 4th and 5th, 2022 – Halifax #DCUTL2022

2. Objectives of the Session
• Examine the original ambivalence of online and blended learning scholarship
towards UDL
• Explore the radical changes the COVID pandemic has triggered in this landscape
• Assess the gains and hurdles encountered during the pandemic in relation to
inclusive blended learning
• Explore three examples of successful UDL reflection having occurred during the
pandemic
• Acknowledge remaining challenges present in the implementation of UDL in post-
pandemic blended teaching and learning

3. Land Acknowledgement
• I am honoured to live and work on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Syilx
Peoples

4. Format of Keynote
• It is always difficult to be fully interactive when online. It can also be
challenging to be entirely UDL in short presentations.
• I have nevertheless tried to incorporate as many inclusive features as
possible:
• Use of interactive activities with Menti.com. Will not switch screens in the
interest of time but will talk to the results of the polls.
• Will also be monitoring the conference hashtag #DCUTL2022 through the
session and for the rest of the day (@Ffovet)

5. Format of Workshop (contd.)
• We will also have approximately 15 to 20 minutes at the end of the session
for questions. You can also use the chat function throughout and the
facilitators will inform me during the talk when questions pop up.
• Happy to engage with all participants one on one beyond the session via
email or social media.
• The slides of the presentation will be available on SlideShare immediately
after the workshop (and appear on my LinkedIn and Twitter accounts). I will
integrate the Menti slides for your use.

6. Personal lens and methodological stance
• Unique positioning as a scholar: have been both an Accessibility Services manager
and a faculty member
• Was involved in large scale UDL implementation from 2011 to 2016 across a campus
– experienced this process in its full complexity
• Have also been Academic Lead/ Program Head at UPEI and RRU, and have needed to
guide contract faculty around inclusive teaching and the use of UDL.
• Act as a UDL consultant with colleges and universities in Canada.
• My research and scholarship focuses on UDL
• I will be drawing from these multiple and varied perspectives

7. What is UDL?
• It can be difficult to define
• There is an overwhelming volume of resources online
• In a nutshell, it is the translation of the social model of disability into classroom
practices
• According to the social model of disability, disability is not a label or inherent
characteristic of the individual, but rather amounts to a tension/ lack of fit between
individual embodiments and the design of experiences, spaces or products
• UDL assumes learners diversity is the norm
• Encourages intentional inclusive design from the get-go
• Uses three principles/ dimensions to achieve inclusive design: multiple means of
representation, multiple means of action and expression, multiple means of
engagement
• UDL is therefore a reflective lens on practices

8. Encouraging growth of the UDL model
• Growing but sporadic interest around Universal Design for Learning across the post-
secondary sector in most jurisdictions over the last decade.
• Particular early hubs of activity in Norway, Ireland, Belgium, Canada and the US
• Encouraging energy
• No doubt that the notion that inclusion must be achieved through proactive inclusive
design rather than through retrofitting and accommodations is finally gaining in
popularity and visibility
• Accommodation and retrofitting models are cracking at the seams. Represent an
approach to equity and access to learning that remains grounded in deficit model
views of diverse learners.
• Accommodation and retrofitting model is also expensive and unsustainable.
• Differentiation is problematic in higher education – as the only viable alternative
• This conjuncture offers UDL a strong role as optimal framework for inclusion in the
tertiary sector and for the implementation of recent EDI policies.

9. Post-secondary faculty’s ambivalent relationship with
UDL
• Faculty often have a complex stance vis-à-vis UDL and its implementation in
class.
• UDL work has entertained an ambivalent and complex relationship with the
rest of the scholarship on post-secondary teaching.
• Overlap between the UDL literature and scholarship on online teaching and
learning is complex. It is prima facie obvious & rich, but in the field it has
been difficult strategically to get buy-in for UDL from practitioners and
researchers traditionally involved in technology rich pedagogy.
• Accessibility, Inclusion and Learner Diversity have often been dismissed by e-
learning scholars and practitioners.

10. Online teaching’s ambivalent relationship
with UDL
• Perhaps too much euphoria around the potential of technology as tool to
emancipate marginalized learners and to amplify their voices?
• Took the emergence of critical digital pedagogy before the field accepted the
double edged potential of technology: as both liberator and tool of
stigmatization
• The result is that a fair body of literature on e-learning, until recently, ignores
accessibility and learner diversity altogether.
• No natural allegiance between UDL advocates and e-learning researchers
(journals, conferences, research collaborations, etc.)

11. And then came COVID…

12. Interactive activity - How has the COVID pandemic
changed attitudes towards inclusion and UDL?
• We will use Menti to quickly poll you as participants.
• I will generate the Menti code synchronously as otherwise it resets if not used
immediately
• Visit www.menti.com and use the code that will be generated during the session
• Do you feel that the COVID crisis has:
• (1) improved awareness of accessibility and inclusion, and made UDL more appealing
• (2) made accessibility and inclusion more challenging, and has been detrimental the
buy-in for UDL
#DCUTL2022

14. Methodological stance
• A three-pronged methodological process:
• Discussions with accessibility personnel and UDL advocates/ stakeholders in
qualitative interviews
• Wider dialogue with inclusion and UDL advocates in interactive virtual events
throughout the pandemic
• Discussions with instructors, instructional designers and accessibility
personnel about MH and inclusive design in HE that was impacted by the
pandemic and unfolded it within it

15. Observations and Analysis
• Some gains/ facilitators
• Instructors have globally embraced
their role as designers of the
leanring experience
• They are increasingly aware of the
impact of bad design on student
experience
• They are more receptive than ever
to the relevance of UDL
• There have been more widely and
openly shared resources related to
UDL
• Some new hurdles
• The UDL discourse is more diluted
and less easy to identify
• Some confusion between UDL
strategies and simple technology
integration
• The reflection around UDL is
perhaps not as systematic as it can
be – engagement in particularly
has generally been ignored during
the pandemic. Focus has been on
‘multiple means of representation’
and ‘multiple means of action &
expression’

16. Observations and Analysis (contd.)
• Some gains/ facilitators
• Noticeably growing international
dialogue around UDL. Ironically, there
has been less travel but more
opportunities for the global sharing of
knowledge (e.g. launch of the ADCET
platform in Australia)
• More advocacy related to UDL from
the student body itself
• Widespread understanding that many
of the lessons learnt during the COVID
pandemic in relation to UDL need
integrated into f2f teaching in the
post-pandemic landscape
• Some new hurdles
• There have not always been adequate
points of contact for faculty seeking to
adopt UDL strategies – most key
stakeholders have been oversolicited and
exhausted
• Instructors themselves are more
receptive to UDL but also burnt out and
less open to innovation. COVID
exhaustion is real.
• Many students feel that despite growing
UDL efforts, there have also been
significant accessibility issues (proctoring
practices for example).

17. Final Assessment: A window of opportunity
• There is a key role for UDL to play in the post-pandemic reflection around the
online & blended learning and inclusion.
• Some important lessons can be drawn from the pandemic pivot but these
lessons will not be learnt/ integrated without a conscious and intentional
analytical recap taking place.
• What did we learn about online accessibility? What did we learn about the
design of these online experiences? Where did we go wrong? Where might
UDL be useful as a framework.
• UDL can represent a simple, user-friendly, common-sense, and progressive
pathway towards designing fully inclusive online experiences. In that sense
UDL has a key role to play.

18. Final Assessment: A window of opportunity
(contd.)
• The pandemic has offered opportunities for awareness. We have to be
weary, however, of organizations’ and practitioners’ natural tendency to
return to status quo, in a pendulum movement, and to avoid change
altogether – even after a period of forced disruption.
• A lot of innovative, creative, and transformative practices developed and tried
out online during the pandemic are not inherently accessible and inclusive:
constructivism, social constructivism, critical pedagogy, active learning, etc.
• UDL allows us to find the ‘happy place’ – the overlap between these
pedagogical approaches and the central need to be accessible and fully
inclusive

19. Interactiveactivity–Whatpracticeshaveyou developedfroman
inclusivedesignmindsetduringthepandemic?
• We will use Menti to quickly poll you as participants.
• I will generate the Menti code synchronously as otherwise it resets if not used
immediately
• Visit www.menti.com and use the code that will be generated during the session
• What are the practices that you have developed from an inclusive design mindset
perspective during the pandemic which you would like to retain and develop in a
blended post-pandemic model?
#DCUTL2022

28. Spending a little more time on case studies, through
the lens of the three UDL principles
• We have a few minutes to be more specific and examine examples of
practices which evolved through the application of inclusive design during the
COVID pandemic.
• We will examine an example using each of the three UDL principles as a lens:
• Multiple means of representation
• Multiple means of action and expression
• Multiple means of engagement

29. Multiple means of representation
• Starting this reflection with an anecdote
• Early attempts to shift lecture style delivery to the online space have proved
catastrophic
• They have also shown the limitations of the traditional lecture format in f2f
delivery
• Has led to rich, innovative and often successful experimentation to vary the
ways course content is presented to students.
• The three hour lecture is not dead but it has been irrevocably rethought and
reinvented.
• This reflection can be framed, supported and guided by UDL.

30. Multiple means of action and expression
• The most noticeable example of how the pandemic has triggered a reflection
around multiple means of action and expression is the rethink which has
occurred around assessment.
• After well publicized failures trying to shift summative assessment to online
spaces, faculty have become authentically involved in reshaping assessment
altogether, seeking to move away from the regurgitation of content towards
genuine demonstration of gained and mastered competencies.

31. Multiple means of engagement

32. Multiple means of engagement
• The shift to online teaching during the pandemic, combined with the inclusive design
lens, has led many instructors to re-consider how they conceive and define learner
engagement.
• Many Zoom catastrophes have led to a collective acknowledgement that online
engagement is not just about being on camera.
• It leads to a wider reflection around the fact that being present in f2f class is not
evidence of student engagement either.
• Rich and far reaching initiatives have been developed over the last two years which
fit well within the UDL mindset: flexibility around synchronous presence, objective of
deeper more meaningful engagement with class content, importance of student
voice in the way engagement is delineated, etc.)

33. So… does this mean things are lookingup for UDLwithin
blended learning in a post-pandemiclandscape?

34. Not so quick!
• We will use Menti to quickly poll you as participants.
• I will generate the Menti code synchronously as otherwise it resets if not used
immediately
• Visit www.menti.com and use the code that will be generated during the session
• Do you feel that:
• (1) You are fully able to maintain and perpetuate the reflection that you have carried
out around inclusive blended learning during the pandemic now that we are
returning to normal?
• (2) you are too tired, over-solicited, and busy to reflect effectively on how to
continue the work you began during the pandemic on inclusive blended learning?
#DCUTL2022

36. Pressing danger
• Danger of the thirst for a return to ‘normality’
• Danger of a pendulum swing in large HE organizations which tend to want to return
to the status quo
• The status quo in HE was not ideal. Pre-COVID, there were singificant resistance to
UDL; there was also a great deal of haziness in instructors’ understanding of what
UDL represents; there was some hesitation too as to which stakeholder should drive
UDL implementation across campus (Senior administration? Teaching and learning
centers? Accessibility centers? Instructional designers?)
• This is a key moment in the process of UDL implementation in HE: campuses have
the opportunity to capitalize on these experiences or to revert back to their pre-
pandemic ambivalent positioning vis-à-vis UDL

37. Preparing students as stakeholders

38. Preparing students as stakeholders
• ‘Transitional friction’ is a very tangible reality whenever we hope to shift
students to more authentic learning
• If not proactively addressed, this can backfire and endanger attempts to
implement UDL
• Students must become active stakeholders and partners in this process

39. Strategic hurdles
• Caveat: Pre-existing tension around the strategic process of UDL adoption in HE
• There were organizational issues related to UDL adoption across campuses, before
the pandemic
• Often UDL adoption has been over-focused on evidencing pedagogical benefits; it
has neglected management of change from a strategic and organizational
perspective (Fovet, 2021)
• There has also been a lot of confusion as to which stakeholder should be in charge of
the implementation drive. This often leads to territoriality.
• There is a need to plan UDL implementation with an eye on an ecological
understanding of the contextual variables that come into play
• The COVID pandemic has not eliminated these strategic hurdles. The process of
management of change needs to be proactively mapped out – even more so now

40. Need for an ecological lens on UDL
implementation across institutions

41. Questions

42. References & Resources
Black, R. D., Weinberg, L. A., & Brodwin, M. G. (2015). Universal design for learning and instruction:
Perspectives of students with disabilities in higher education. Exceptionality Education International, 25(2), 1-
16
Boothe, K., Lohmann, M., Donnell, K., & Hall, D. (2018) Applying the Principles of Universal Design for Learning
(UDL) in the College Classroom. Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship, 7(3).
Burgstahler, S.E. (2015) Universal Design in Higher Education: From Principles to Practice. Harvard Education
Press, MA
Dalton, E. M., Lyner-Cleophas, M., Ferguson, B. T., & McKenzie, J. (2019). Inclusion, universal design and
universal design for learning in higher education: South Africa and the United States. African Journal of
Disability, 8, 519
Dean, T., Lee-Post, A., & Hapke, H. (2017). Universal design for learning in teaching large lecture classes.
Journal of Marketing Education, 39(1), 5-16
Fovet, F. (2021a) Developing an Ecological Approach to Strategic UDL Implementation in Higher Education.
Journal of Education and Learning, 10(4).
Fovet, F. (2021b) Anger and Thirst for Change among Students with Disabilities in Higher Education: Exploring
Universal Design for Learning as a Tool for Transformative Action. In C-M. Reneau and M.A. Villarreal (Eds.)
Handbook of Research on Leading Higher Education Transformation with Social Justice, Equity, and Inclusion.
IGI Global.
Fovet, F. (202c1) UDL in Higher Education: a Global Overview of the Landscape and its Challenges. In F. Fovet
(Ed) Handbook of Research on Applying Universal Design for Learning Across Disciplines: Concepts, Case
Studies, and Practical Implementation. IGI Global

43. References & Resources (contd.)
Fovet, F. (Ed.) (2021) Handbook of Research on Applying Universal Design for Learning Across Disciplines:
Concepts, Case Studies, and Practical Implementation. IGI Global
Fovet, F. (2020) Universal Design for Learning as a Tool for Inclusion in the Higher Education Classroom: Tips for
the Next Decade of Implementation. Education Journal. Special Issue: Effective Teaching Practices for Addressing
Diverse Students’ Needs for Academic Success in Universities, 9(6), 163-172.
http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=196&doi=10.11648/j.edu.20200906.13
Griful-Freixenet, J., Struyven, K., Verstichele, M., & Andries, C. (2017) Higher education students with disabilities
speaking out: perceived barriers and opportunities of the Universal Design for Learning framework. Disability &
Society, 32, 10
James, K. (2018) Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a Structure for Culturally Responsive Practice. Northwest
Journal of Teacher Education, 13(1), Article 4.
Kennette, L., & Wilson, N. (2019) Universal Design for Learning: What is it and how do I implement it?
Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning, 12(1)
Nieminen, J.H., & Pesonen, H.V. (2020) Taking Universal Design back to its roots: Perspectives on accessibility and
identity in Undergraduate Mathematics. Education Sciences, 10(1). 2020, 10(1), 12
Novak, K. & Bracken, S. (Eds.) Transforming Higher Education through Universal Design for Learning: An
International Perspective. Routledge

44. Contact details
• Frederic Fovet (PhD.)
• Implementudl@gmail.com
• @Ffovet
• www.implementudl.com
#DCUTL2022