DET/CHE 2020

The challenges of shifting to remote instruction have highlighted inequities and barriers for learners, some new and some that have existed for a long time. For nearly 25 years, some of us in higher education have been using technology-mediated learning environments to lower barriers and address opportunity gaps for our learners. Today, it’s no longer an optional practice: everyone needs to know how to “toggle” between in-person instruction and technology-mediated learning, all while addressing the social-justice aspects of learning (Fritzgerald, 2020) with and through technology.

To help make educational materials and practices inclusive and useful for all learners, this interactive keynote radically reflects on how instructors can adopt Universal Design for Learning in order to create learning interactions that provide students with broader access to learning and more time for study and practice in their busy days. Paradoxically, this involves broadening our focus beyond service to learners with disabilities, into a larger ease-of-use/general-inclusion framework.