ABSTRACT
The widening participation agenda has led to increasingly diverse higher education student cohorts internationally. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) offers principles and guidelines to provide all students new to higher education an accessible and inclusive curriculum, which can support their motivation and enable them to achieve success. This chapter describes the specific application of UDL in engaging, teaching and assessing students transitioning into higher education. Current evidence on this topic is reviewed, and two case studies describing its implementation in an Australian university are provided.
Applying UDL principles to curriculum design can effectively support students’ transitioning to higher education, but also requires careful consideration. Making UDL explicit to students may support them to make the most of their opportunities. However, their abilities and capacity as novice higher education students transitioning into academic culture and practices – and the demands and stressors inherent to beginning higher education – must also be taken into account. The UDL framework cannot be used in isolation, and may be successfully integrated with other curriculum design frameworks, educational theories and institutional policies. Rigorous evaluation of the application of UDL to students’ transition to higher education is crucial for its ongoing development, however these evaluations must be embedded from the inception of these practices to be effective.
