Welcome back, explorers, to our BCcampus UDL Explorer Challenge Series! Our next challenge is to provide multiple media options for students to demonstrate what they know.
Why Is This Important for UDL?
Students have different strengths. Some are great at writing; others excel at drawing/designing, and still others are good at speaking. When you provide options, you create opportunities for greater equity.
This challenge is about providing multiple media options for communication, but it also ties in with engagement. When you provide options, you show students you care about who they are as individual learners.
Our Challenge for You
To complete this challenge, we are asking you to choose one activity or assignment in your class and provide options for students to demonstrate their knowledge.
You will find instructions, examples, and helpful resources for how to submit below. We are excited to see what you come with! Happy exploring!
Examples
Here are some examples of activities that build community.
“When my students are learning about tooth morphology, I give them various options to show me they understand the anatomy of a tooth by sculpting a tooth with clay, creating a video or PowerPoint that explains the anatomy, or finding an image where they can colour and label and describe the parts.”
-Heidi
“In my business communication class, students have to demonstrate they can write an email, so I’m really assessing their writing skills. However, in the learning activities we do, to meet this outcome, students produce an outline, and they can create an infographic, video, or text document. So I’m still able to provide options.”
-Venecia
Explore
- The UDL principle: Learn more about the UDL principle about using multimedia for communication.
- Resources for using multimedia for communication:
- The Centre for Teaching and Learning at Indiana University Bloomington has a comprehensive list of alternatives to traditional exams and papers.
- Western University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning has some online and alternative assessment ideas that include great examples as well.
In my organic chemistry course, I have my students research a Dirty Dozen compound (persistent organic pollutants). They are given a specific list of questions to answer on their topic and the choice on how to present the information. Over several years, the choices have included report, pamphlet, infographic, PowerPoint, webpage, interactive webbook and video. I don’t give all the choices every year but typically have two or three that students can pick from. I vary the choices depending what they are doing in their other classes as well. Some students prefer to write the report whereas others prefer the creativity that the infographic allows. The grading for them is all the same. Have they answered the research questions and presented the info in a professional manner with reasonable choices (e.g. style, colours, images where appropriate etc).
Thank you for sharing. We like that you give three choices. This really gives the students a variety to choose from and find an option that fits them best.
Similar to Samantha, presentations of content in one of my class by the students can involve using whiteboards, PowerPoints, prerecorded, faceless (if online), etc. The ask is that the student submit some format of notes on the topic so that other learners can see the framework for the instruction, but there is no requirement for how that looks either. It can be a pie chart, words, a picture with labels, etc.
Thank you for sharing. We like that there is not requirement for how the presentation looks. This really allows for creativity and a student centered classroom.
As a final comparative anatomy project, students choose one organ system that they are interested in. They can do a pre-recorded or live presentation of their organ system in different vertebrate animals. Students also have the option to write a paper but this option has never been chosen. They submit one to two slides per week that I provide feedback on throughout the semester. They are welcome to use whatever media platform they wish. Most students choose PowerPoint but I have had students choose OneNote or Canva.
Thank you for sharing. We like that you ask the students to submit a few slides per week for feedback. Interesting that no one has ever chosen to write a paper!
In my class, my students do chapter presentations as part of a flipped classroom model. They have the option to either do a live presentation or record a video presentation. Within the presentation itself, they have the option to include interaction or not, include Q&A or not based on their level of comfort or how much they want to challenge themselves with new strategies.
However, I think from next term, I will include more options for this activity such as an infographic, or maybe a powtoons video, or other kind of media that captures the key points of the chapter LOs.
Thank you for sharing. We are thrilled to see you planing to grow your UDL implementation a little bit more for next term. Way to go!
Multiple media options are incredibly important in the vocational education I teach. I usually share my lesson PPTs a week ahead, install the accessibility toolbox, and receive questions on the content they will learn. This process gives students pre-viewed learning before the class and more proactive participation during the class. Also, during the lesson, students can choose an option of note-taking on paper notes, recording or typing on a laptop.
Thank you for sharing. We really like the options you provide for students during your lesson. Students are really able to capture what they are learning in the way they learn best.
At the beginning of my course, I always start with an ice breaker activity in which I ask a few questions and ask students to introduce themselves. To introduce themselves they can use any media that they are comfortable (i.e. text, video, info-graphic, audio…)
Thanks for sharing. We like this this an activity that is simple and easy to add in to a class to increase add in options for multiple media options.
In one of my classes, students have to present a Francophone country, region, city of their choosing. They are free to choose their mode of presentation:
1. Traditional PowerPoint, Caanva, Google Slides
2. Visual presentation with recorded narration for those who are not comfortable presenting live
3. Visual presentation to send me
4. Visual presentation to present to me online or in my office
Thank you for sharing. We are sure students appreciate having the options. We really like that there are options for students who are not comfortable with presenting live.
Our students had always challenges grasping the restorative procedure. They have challenges putting the pieces together. It is difficult for them to understand the entire procedure and its parts even though there is a step-by-step written procedure and a demo video they can access at any time.
An exercise that might help to assess students’ knowledge and bring it together might be adding an OSCE. Students will have to work through the scenario by writing an essay, submitting a video, cartoon drawing, PP presentation, info chart, or any other way that would demonstrate the steps to be taken in that particular clinical situation.
Thanks for sharing! We like the variety of options you have come up with for this procedure. Students will be able to choose the option that works best for them and have a more successful outcome.
In my sociology class, I decided to provide multiple options for students’ term projects, since my main goal to see how well they understand and can apply sociological concepts (i.e. I realized an essay was not necessary to do this). Students have the option to complete a book report, research essay, or media analysis. In addition, they may present their work in one of multiple formats including essay format, video, narrated PPT, podcast, or poster. So far, they seem enthusiastic about having so many choices. I am looking forward to seeing the final product!
As a side note, it is interesting that most student are choosing to write essays despite having so many options. It makes me think that students are accustomed to essays and choose this option because they cannot imagine how to carry out the assignment in another way. I think it will be important to start collecting examples of student work when it is presented in a creative format to give students ideas for how to execute projects in alternative formats.
Thanks for sharing! It’s great to see the number of options your students have for showing what they know. We really like you plan to collect and show examples of previous student work. Sometimes we just need to see what others have done to get ideas for ourselves.
I’m really struggling with this one. In the past I’ve done drawing exercises just to get them to think about concepts differently. It worked great with international students as it got around any language insecurities. I’ve been learning H5P and I hope to find a way to bring back that level of interactivity. Just hard to do in large async course.
Thanks for sharing! Drawing exercises are a great way to provide a different option for students to learn concepts. We also really like H5P activities as an interactive learning option. For large classes you could just think about doing them as a self-assessment activity?
Similar to above posts, I am flexible and allow students to present information in a way that feels most comfortable to them. This could involve whiteboards, powerpoint presentations, Mentimeter slides, polls, piecharts, presentations with video off, prerecorded (if appropriate), jamboards, google docs etc. Upon completion, I post presentations to our Moodle classroom so that these presentations are accessible to all students for their learning.
I would love to carve out some time at the end of this school year to update class assignments and even final exams (i.e., use videos instead of students reading case studies/scenarios). Including more mixed media will certainly enhance the accessibility and learning of the students in my classes.
Thanks for sharing. You are providing some great options for your students to show their knowledge. You have some good ideas for adding in more UDL to your lessons. Remember just pick a few things and keep it manageable.
Referring to the same course mentioned in UDL explorer challenge #2, the online Health and Wellness class for paramedics. To work toward one of the course outcomes, relate concepts of health and wellness to long-term personal wellness planning, at the end of the personal values assessment activity (please see my entry for the UDL explorer challenge #2), students are asked to begin developing their health and wellness development plan or goals, in whichever format the students feel to capture their plan.
The students’ plan/goals are also submitted to the instructor as part of completed course work in the format the student chooses. Examples of what they could do to develop their plan or goals are provided in the class, as a guide or to spark ideas in students for their submissions. Some examples include mind-maps (handwritten or electronically created), bullet-point list, audio-journalling (voice-notes), info-graphic, video-journal, diagram, or meme-video.
I encourage the students to share their plans with their fellow students and encourage them to support one another in their plans/goals as they move along in the paramedic program.
For an activity – understanding of mechanism of alteration/pathophysiology of medical diagnoses, students are divided into small groups of 3-4 members and prepare to do a presentation on a given topic – medical diagnosis to the class. The options for delivery of their knowledge and understanding of the disease process include concept map, photos/diagram/flowchart, PPT, and video.
Thanks for sharing! These options are great and allow for students to be as creative as they want to be in their presentation. Doing this as a group activity also allows for the different strengths of each student to be utilized.