Venecia: Welcome back UDL Explorers
Heidi: to our BCcampus UDL Challenge series.
Venecia: My name is Venecia,
Heidi: and I’m Heidi. Our next challenge in this series comes from the principle of representation, specifically around maximizing transfer and generalization of knowledge. Why is this so important for UDL?
Venecia: Well, Heidi, students need to remember what they learn, but more importantly, they need to be able to transfer that knowledge to new contexts. So it’s our job to not only share new knowledge with students, but building supports so that they can retain and transfer that knowledge to different contexts.
Heidi: That’s really helpful and important for learning. Do you have an example to share?
Venecia: Well, in my ethics class we learn a lot of new concepts. So on the first day of class, I introduced a Cornell note taking method. Are you aware of this method, Heidi?
Heidi: Yeah, I’ve actually used it myself. Yeah.
Venecia: So students tell me that it’s really helpful because not only are they able to document the knowledge, but there is space for them to critically engage with the information. And that really helps them to again retain the knowledge and use the knowledge in other contexts.
Heidi: Yeah, I mean, getting students to retain information is always top of mind for instructors. Something I like to use in my classes is graphic organizers. They are really powerful visual tool that helps students organize their ideas.
Venecia: I also like to use graphic organizers because they’re really good for explaining complex concepts or for, you know, thinking about different ideas or for problem solving. So a challenge for you is to look at one concept that students struggle with in your class and design resources to help maximize transfer and retention of knowledge.
Heidi: And as always, there’s instructions and resources to help you below. We cannot wait to see what you come up with.
Venecia: Happy exploring. Bye bye.