Hopkins Universal Design for Learning (HUDL) Accelerator is a collaborative initiative at Johns Hopkins University. The HUDL initiative provides faculty with high-quality, personalized support, and engaging resources that guide them in implementing UDL principles into online courses through a tiered approach that emphasizes variability, accessibility and the use of digital content. An emphasis will be placed on the implementation of UDL Primer for JHU’s School of Education.
In this Discovery session, you will learn about the Hopkins Universal Design for Learning (HUDL) initiative, a university-wide program led and supported by the office of the Executive Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. The collaborative initiative aims to support faculty integration of UDL principles in both face-to-face and online courses across the university. UDL provides an opportunity for the Hopkins community to think about teaching and learning methodologies that provide engaging opportunities for success for all learners, not just those who request special accommodations. To guide and support faculty integration of UDL principles, ambassadors and instructional designers created HUDL Accelerator, a high-quality training program that guides faculty through the integration of UDL principles using a tiered approach that emphasizes variability, accessibility and the use of digital content.
Often faculty have difficulty envisioning what UDL looks like in an online course, or they think it requires a tremendous amount of time and resources in order to integrate UDL principles. Or, faculty view UDL solely as an accessibility requirement – something they need to do in order to accommodate a student with special needs. HUDL Accelerator guides faculty in understanding that UDL is a framework designed to give individuals equal opportunities to learn. Through a series of engaging, media-rich activities that model best practices, faculty discover that they can be creative in designing flexible learning environments that address the variability of learners, using a range of both low and high- tech solutions. The tiered approach also aims to provide faculty with the understanding that they can “HUDL a course” through small changes over time, rather than trying to completely redesign a course at once in order to integrate UDL principles.
HUDL Accelerator meets the diverse needs of faculty in all disciplines by providing learning resources in a variety of media formats. A centralized website includes summaries of current UDL research, engaging videos and interactive activities designed to support microlearning principles, case studies highlighting successful implementation of UDL across the institution and a community of practice space for faculty to connect with one another to share insights and ideas.