By Melissa Kaufman, EdD, Associate Dean for Education at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) “is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning based on what we know about the human brain” (CAST, 2025, para 1). UDL has three core principles: using multiple means of Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression.

Using multiple means of engagement in your teaching recognizes the variety of identities your students will bring to the classroom and leverages those identities for increased learning for all. Using multiple means of representation supports students with documented and undocumented learning differences as well as supporting students who perceive content and construct knowledge in different ways. Using multiple means of action and expression considers how learning environments and teaching techniques helps learners express what they know in different ways.

When thinking about how to increase engagement in your course there are several strategies you can use.

1. Welcome different interests and identities. Encourage students to pull from their background and lived experience to engage with course work. Allow students to dig deeper into their areas of interest. For example, give students a choice of topic for a writing assignment or presentation.
2. Foster belonging and community in your classroom. Create an environment where students feel safe to share their opinions and to ask questions. Encourage a space where students can be wrong without feeling embarrassed or not smart enough.
3. Offer action-oriented feedback. When giving students feedback on assignments, share examples of how they can improve in the future and include recognition of what they did well.

There are three areas where you can vary representation in your course.

1. Use a variety of course materials: a mixture of books, journal articles, websites, guest lectures, videos, etc. Incorporate active learning into your class; allow students to work in small groups or conduct a class discussion. Some students will transfer more knowledge from reading, while others will respond well to a lecture, and still others will learn the most from a class discussion.
2. Think about the images you are using in your slides. Are you using the same type of person in all images? Does that person represent the students in your class? People respond well when they see themselves in examples.
3. Think about the stories and anecdotes you use. Can you borrow an anecdote from someone with a different background from you to help illustrate a point? Providing examples from a variety of backgrounds helps with representation.

For action and expression, there are three main categories to consider.

1. How students interact with content. Think about a variety of activities in your class. For in-person or synchronous classes, you can use in-class discussion, large group discussion, student presentations, etc. For asynchronous classes, you can use discussion boards, peer feedback, reading circles, etc. This variety of activities will enhance the learning of the students and improve knowledge transfer. Additionally, include a variety of authors from various backgrounds. If all the authors of the readings you assign have the same demographic make-up, look to see if you can find readings from a more diverse group of authors.
2. Is the content accessible. Ensuring content meets accessibility standards is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) not only is the law but increases access for all learners. This includes things like adding captions to all video lectures, using alt-text in slides and handouts, and using the built in accessibility tools in products like Word and PowerPoint.
3. How students demonstrate their achievement of the course learning objectives. When possible, give students choice. For example, allow them to do either a presentation or a paper or ask them to select the topic they will research. Or have them propose another assessment method that they know works for them.

Incorporating UDL strategies into your teaching can improve student learning, increase mastery of learning objectives/competencies, and bolster student confidence. It doesn’t need to be a complete redesign of your class, incorporating one or two strategies can have a big impact on student success.

If you are interested in learning more about UDL, reach out to me or Michael Edwards, PhD, senior instructional designer at Dornsife, we LOVE talking all things UDL and course design.

CAST. (2025, September). Universal Design for Learning. Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST).