UDL Campus Implementation Criteria
When Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is systematically and intentionally applied campus-wide, it creates equitable, inclusive environments. By reducing barriers and supporting diverse needs, UDL ensures academic success for all learners.
The UDL Campus Implementation Criteria (UDL-CIC) offers a clear roadmap for campus-wide adoption of UDL while celebrating the departments that use the framework to design truly equitable learning experiences.
Based on implementation science, the UDL-CIC identifies and defines the critical attributes of high-quality UDL implementation at the organization level. Like UDL, it is data-driven, supports continuous improvement, and provides multiple pathways for organizations to progress through the stages of implementation.
When aligned with the UDL-CIC, educators design equitable, accessible environments that proactively address learner variability by eliminating systemic barriers rather than focusing on student deficits. This framework fosters an iterative, reflective process, empowering instructors to constantly refine their methods to meet the needs of every student.
The UDL-CIC is organized around four key domains, each consisting of several elements that define and shape the domain. These domains and their elements provide a comprehensive blueprint designed to guide institutions and organizations in assessing, planning, refining, and demonstrating progress in implementing UDL.
The four domains of the UDL-CIC are:
- Culture and Environment
- Teaching and Learning
- Leadership and Management
- Professional Learning
Domain One: Higher Education Culture and Environment
In higher education, the UDL framework is used collegially to create a culture that values equity, inclusion, and agentic learning for all. The higher education organization commits to design flexible, goal-directed experiences and environments that anticipate the variability of its members and has high expectations for all.
Domain Two: Teaching and Learning
In higher education that uses the UDL framework, faculty and staff design learning opportunities that anticipate learner variability so every learner can develop learning agency. The UDL Guidelines are used proactively and iteratively to design course goals, assessments, methods, and materials to reduce barriers to learning. Rather than focus solely on learning activities, a UDL higher education organization views all interactions as learning opportunities and designs each with UDL’s inclusive principles in mind.
Domain Three: Leadership and Management
In higher education organizations that use the UDL framework, leaders actively support and monitor UDL implementation across higher education organizations. Using an iterative, data-driven design process, leaders model UDL practices and ensure that all learning environments and experiences, including higher education organization processes, procedures, and resources, are designed to anticipate learner variability by reducing barriers and promoting equity, inclusion, and agentic learning for all.
Domain Four: Professional Learning
In a higher education organization that uses the UDL framework, professional learning opportunities are personalized and embedded, and they promote ongoing professional growth. Professional learning is designed and facilitated by UDL professionals to be flexible, data-driven, and goal-directed, and to promote the development of faculty and staffs’ expertise.
Cross Cutting Concepts
Foundational UDL design concepts are woven into the domains, elements, and indicators. When aligned with the UDL-CIC educators will design for:
- Equitable, inclusive, and accessible environments. The design process focuses on creating equitable, inclusive, and accessible environments and experiences for all.
- Learner variability. Anticipating learner variability requires that educators consider the whole learner, including their social, emotional, cognitive, perceptual, physical, sensory, and cultural strengths and needs when designing learning experiences and environments.
- Reducing barriers in the environment. By recognizing that barriers reside in the design of the environment or experience, not in the learner, barriers can be intentionally reduced using the UDL Guidelines and an iterative design process.
- Data-driven, iterative learning. Learning design is an intentional, iterative process focused on continuous improvement at all levels, using rich and varied data to inform subsequent design.