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Thriving in Academe
Open the Doors of Learning
Design learning activities that all students can respond to.
By Alexa Darby, Elon University
We teach so that all students, including those with disabilities, will learn. Universal Design for Instruction will help you structure your course flexibly to respond to individual students’ learning needs.
As instructors, we approach each new term thinking about how we will connect with incoming students in ways that promote deep learning and critical engagement with course materials. In this planning process, we don’t yet know what the learning needs of each individual student might be, and most times we don’t know which of our students have disabilities that might affect how they learn.
For some instructors, panic sets in when they consider the possibility of teaching a student with visual impairments, learning disabilities, mental health issues, ADHD or Asperger’s Syndrome. Because in many cases an instructor won’t find out if a student has a disability until a few weeks into the term, he or she is tempted to push this concern to the side.
However, every instructor can create a plan for the term that is flexible enough to meet the course goals and the individual learning needs of each student, including the unique needs of students with disabilities.
How do we plan our course when we don’t yet know the needs of each student? The answer lies in Universal Design for Instruction, a tool for learning that addresses the needs of all students.
 Meet Alexa Darby
Alexa Darby, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Department of Psychology at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, where she teaches courses in educational psychology and research methods. Before completing her doctorate at the University of Georgia, she was a disability service provider in postsecondary settings for six years. Her pedagogical interests include cognitive and constructivist learning and academic service learning. Currently she is conducting research on teachers’ emotions, the role of emotions in academic service learning, and teaching undergraduate students how to conduct mixed method program evaluations. She can be reached at adarby@elon.edu.
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