Introduction, Week 4

Active Engagement, Universal Design, & Accessibility

What's in this week's materials?

Content:

  • Ideas for active learning in a wide variety of class formats and situations
  • Revisiting growth mindset
  • An introduction to the concepts of Universal Design for Learning
  • How-to guide for using the Ally accessibility tool available in CPP's Canvas instance

Activities:

  • Rough out weekly plans that indicate what students should do inside and outside of class
  • Create a class agenda that incorporates active learning opportunities in a lecture session
  • Brainstorm "multiple modes" of engagement, representation, and action and expression for at least one piece of content or assignment in your class
  • If possible -- "Fix" an accessibility issue with a document or file using the Ally tool (available in CPP Canvas)


Why is this important?

Cal Poly Pomona's motto "Learn By Doing" applies to every class.  The person doing the thing is the person learning.

"Simply put, the idea behind active learning is that the brain needs to exercise continuously to form new neural connections, which strengthen decision-making and in doing so rewire the brain. Passively listening to lectures does not help the brain to exercise, actively thinking about right or wrong explanations and paths to follow does" (Huang, 2019)

A wide body of research speaks to the value of providing opportunities for active engagement even in courses or class meetings in which the goal is to transmit information (see for example Deslauriers et al., 2011).  Even better, providing active learning opportunities is even more effective in supporting first gen students and others who have historically been excluded and underserved in our classrooms (Freeman et al., 2014). 

But, different people bring different strengths, histories, and physical/neurophysical abilities to the classroom.  How can we plan a class that reaches every student and is still manageable and even enjoyable for the faculty member?  Universal design for learning posits that offering "multiple means for engagement, representation, and action or expression of learning" is the key.  Giving choices is highly encouraging for most students, as motivation is increased by autonomy and relevance.  Note that "multiple" does not mean "many"!  Think, "What's one more choice or option I could give?" not "I have to give all available options."

Finally, Cal Poly Pomona has a strong culture, upheld by policy and adherence to federal and state law, that instructional materials must be accessible to students with disabilities.  Accessible materials also support students who don't have disabilities. For example, captions on videos are great for people whose first language isn't English, and being able to render pdfs into audio files allows students to listen to content as well as read it.

Deslauriers L., E. Schelew, and C. Wieman. 2011. Improved learning in a large-enrollment physics class. Science 332(6031):862-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1201783.

Freeman, S., S.L. Eddy, M. McDonough, M.K. Smith, N. Okoroafor, H. Jordt, and M.P. Wenderoth. 2014. Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(23):8410-8415.

Huang, W. 2019. Active Learning with Carl E. Wieman: Don’t Lecture Me! Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Blog. 24 Nov. 2019. https://www.lindau-nobel.org/blog-active-learning-with-carl-e-wieman-dont-lecture-me/ Links to an external site..