The third and final category of CAST’s Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines is: Design Multiple Means of Action and Expression. This section is important because it focuses on how students act on their learning and express what they know. On one level, it’s about assessment and allowing students to show what they know and put their learning into meaningful action. On another level, it’s about increasing overall engagement and ensuring that students are active participants in their learning.
This dichotomy of intent can be summed up with this driving question: “How do we make sure that all of our learners can interact meaningfully with new learning, and also, how do we authentically allow them to express what they have learned?” Since not all students will be able to effectively complete learning tasks in the same way, it is important that we offer options, or “multiple means,” for students to act on and express their learning.
As with the other parts of the UDL Guidelines, Design Multiple Means of Action and Expression can be broken down into the subcomponents of: Design Options for Access, Support, and Executive Function.
Access: Design Options for Interaction
This first section addresses the concept of access, and to support our students, we must intentionally design options so that all learners can meaningfully access and interact with their learning. That’s a big job, and CAST sets up this section by asking a helpful guiding question: “How might we design materials and physical environments that ensure access and participation for every learner?”
If we break down that question, we can quickly see the two key elements of this section: materials and physical spaces. Materials refers to resources like textbooks, online links and web content, handouts, learning management systems, and physical or virtual manipulatives. When preparing these resources, we should ask ourselves, “Are all of my learners able to access these learning materials, or do I need to provide additional support?”
At a very basic level, all students must be able to physically access the learning materials and experiences needed in our classrooms. This is often where assistive technology—tools like screen readers, speech-to-text programs, and even physical buttons and switches that students can use to turn pages or activate online content—comes into play.
Interaction goes beyond the ability to access individual resources. It also includes the ability to navigate both the physical and virtual spaces in which students are learning. In a physical space, this might include how desks are arranged in the room. Is there enough room for all students to move around freely, including those with wheelchairs or other mobility considerations? Similarly, are whiteboards and technology devices accessible to every learner?
In virtual spaces, this often involves providing multiple media formats through which students might engage with their learning. Are they allowed to express themselves in a variety of ways, perhaps by writing, recording, drawing, or physically constructing artifacts of learning? Essentially, are students offered multiple means in which to engage in the learning and show what they know?
Digital options can improve access in a number of ways. When designing digital learning spaces, it’s helpful to offer choices whenever possible. Generally, the simplest option is to offer students a variety of media and modalities through which to express themselves. If it aligns with your learning objectives, consider allowing students the choice of typing or writing text-based responses, recording audio, producing a video, drawing a sketch, or creating a computer animation. Sometimes, it’s possible to require one specific digital program while still allowing many options and choices within it. Canva and Adobe Express are good examples of this type of robust and flexible creation tool. These platforms are essentially multidimensional digital suites that can offer users a wide range of options for expression and creation.
A tool like Padlet also allows users to input ideas using a wide range of media types: text, video, audio, images, links, and more. Ask yourself whether the format matters or if there are multiple means by which students might be able to express themselves and what they know. While your academic outcomes may not offer much flexibility, perhaps the avenue that your students take to get there could be less prescriptive. Providing options where they are appropriate will greatly empower your students and increase their odds of success.
Assistive technology applies here as well. This might mean that a student with a physical disability uses a switch to activate a digital device. It could also take the form of students utilizing a text-to-speech browser extension, such as Speechify, to allow text to be read aloud to them. It may mean leveraging features from Google Voice Typing to convert voice to text, or maybe students access a translation tool, like Google Translate, to convert content in English to a preferred language. If the language itself is not the primary outcome, a translation tool can greatly level the playing field, and these translators often work seamlessly in digital environments.
Technology has been transformative in improving accessibility. By encouraging students to use these tools when they are with us, we are not only lifting them up in our classrooms, we are also helping them to become more self-sufficient once they leave our educational space.
Support: Design Options for Expression and Communication
This second area involves both expression and communication. How can we support our students as they strive to express themselves and communicate?
As in prior sections, providing options is the key. By intentionally providing multiple modalities for possible expression, we are reducing communication barriers. This might again include providing options for text, audio, video, and other multimedia formats. It might also mean providing multiple tools to communicate within a chosen medium. For slideshows, maybe students are allowed to use Canva, Seesaw, Prezi, or Google Slides. Not all digital tools will be equally intuitive to all students. By providing options, students can choose the one that best meets their learning styles and needs.
While providing options has its distinct advantages, there should still be times where students are presented with the challenge of stepping outside their comfort zones. In fact, we’re doing students a disservice if we don’t provide those opportunities to stretch and extend their proficiencies. However, when we do push them outside of their comfort zones, it’s important that we provide scaffolds and supports to help them develop the skills they will need to be successful.
This might include offering a variety of tutorials and support materials. It may take the form of setting up a buddy system with classroom experts. It might include providing differentiated models as exemplars for students to emulate. Learning can also be structured using a gradual release approach, where initial attempts are fully supported before allowing students later opportunities to perform on their own with little or no support.
Once again, digital options are plentiful here. Unless specific media and materials are central to the learning outcome, it’s powerful to allow student choice. There are many ways in which students can use digital tools to construct meanings. They can write, speak, record, draw, code, or perform, and they can integrate these virtual tools with various physical manipulatives, such as building blocks or 3D models. Perhaps clay models could be used to create stop-motion animation that results in an educational video—an approach that would blend the online and offline worlds.
Even if you choose to dictate the specific type of media, there are many program options within that media category that can be used, thereby providing choice within the confines of a format requirement. For instance, a traditional video editing program can be used, but students might also choose other digital tools to create content before transforming them into the video format. A digital slideshow can be constructed and then turned into a virtual flipbook video. A comic strip can be captured in a series of screenshots, added to pages in Book Creator, and then converted into a video with audio narration. A website can include a library of embedded videos or a video playlist that is interactive and accessible online.
Not only does providing options help to differentiate learning experiences, but it also fosters creativity and problem-solving while adding a layer of excitement and motivation to the learning process. Creation is often a fun experience for students, and having voice and choice in that creation makes the experience come alive even more. Students are developing valuable and transferable life skills while having fun.
Executive Function: Design Options for Strategy Development
This last section once again targets the development of executive function skills. CAST refers to this as strategy development, a category that involves setting goals, making plans to reach those goals, monitoring progress toward them, and adjusting as necessary. Once again, these are core life skills that may not specifically show up in content-area standards but are essential to being prepared for life beyond school.
There are a number of digital tools that can be used to support specific considerations presented in this section. CAST’s first consideration is to set meaningful goals. To support this, consider using digital goal-setting templates and forms. These can help students put their thoughts into a meaningful structure while giving you a quick way to skim their ideas.
Another consideration involves organizing information and resources. To assist students with this, consider offering digital checklists or graphic organizers that they can use when generating their plans, researching, or putting ideas together. If you do offer graphic organizers, it can be helpful to provide more than one option from which students can choose. Even allowing students to decide between a digital and a paper version can be empowering. The mental skills are the same, even if the outcome is presented in a different format. It’s also helpful to have students try each approach at least once before settling on the one that works better for them. Until they’ve experienced each option at least once, it can be difficult for them to be certain which they’ll prefer.
Monitoring progress is another key part of strategy development. This is where checklists and rubrics can be very helpful. By actively having students reference these throughout the learning process, they can more effectively stay on track and maintain focus. If you use a learning management system (LMS), you can include a checklist or rubric as a digital assignment or as a resource that is shared digitally with you. This can allow you to peek in on the document, see student thinking, and intervene as needed.
Structured feedback can also be an important part of the monitoring process. You might use virtual peer-review systems to have students provide feedback to one another when they get to various steps in the process. Once again, if this is done through an LMS, you can look in, check student progress, and review comments that have been made between peers.
On an overarching level, you might have students engage in some sort of self-reflection at various stages of the learning process. Students could be allowed to journal using their media format of choice: text, audio, video, sketch notes, or something else. Another option is to use an online discussion forum to engage the class in a peer-feedback process. If you use this approach, be sure to set protocols and expectations before having students comment on each other’s ideas in public.
Overall, the UDL Guidelines provide a helpful framework for designing learning experiences that support all learners in our classrooms. There are several themes consistently woven throughout the guidelines:
- All learners are unique.
- Offering options and choices empowers all learners.
- Digital tools can support students in the areas of information access, learning support, and development of executive function skills.
Keeping these themes in mind can help us design learning experiences that are universally accessible to students and their unique needs.
To learn more valuable information about the UDL Guidelines, visit udlguidelines.cast.org.
AVID Connections
This resource connects with the following components of the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework:
- Instruction
- Culture
- Relational Capacity
- Student Agency
- Break Down Barriers
Extend Your Learning
- UDL Guidelines 3.0 (CAST)
- CAST (official website)