Creating inclusive environments in education & employment for people with disabilities.

FET Staff - Digital Badge in UDL - Oct-Dec 2022

Note: Registration for this course is now closed.

What: Free introductory course on Universal Design for Learning running groups simultaneously for Irish HE and FET staff. This page is for FET staff only - for HE staff info click here.

Available to: Strictly for staff currently working in Further Education and Training in the Republic of Ireland. Participants must have some teaching activity planned during week 5-9 (Oct 25th - Dec 3rd) that they can work on as part of the UDL Redesign Activity (can be individual class, group of classes, training session or assignment - flexible). Places allocated on a first come first served basis.

When: Oct 3rd - Dec 12th. Registration closed.

More information: A Zoom session in May provided potential participants with information about the course so feel free to view the recording of that session .

Time Involved: Approx 25 hours over 10 weeks, roughly 2.5 hours per week. Optional 5 hour add-on for participants interested in rolling this open course out to colleagues in the future. Feel free to download the full course schedule.

Course Activities: 3 short course information webinars, 5 self directed online modules (35-75 mins each), 4 peer group meetings, 1 UDL Redesign Activity.

Important: Participants must have some teaching activities planned during weeks 5-9 (October 25th - 3rd Dec) of the course which they can work on as part of their UDL Redesign Activity. Can be scheduled classes/lectures, assignment to be delivered, staff training session or other teaching activity - we are flexible.

Registration: Free, operating on first come first served basis. Pre-registration available to limited numbers in ETBs/Institutions with supporting badge facilitators by direct invite only.

Certification: Participants who complete this course will receive the Digital Badge for Universal Design for Learning from the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.

This Autumn, AHEAD and UCD Access & Lifelong Learning are teaming up to jointly deliver the Digital Badge for Universal Design in Teaching and Learning once again in a fully online format. This digital badge course, hosted by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning, will provide participants with a strong introduction to the Universal Design for Learning Framework and give them the opportunity to implement UDL approaches within the teaching activities they are currently undertaking. But this year there's a big difference to how we're running the course. Where typically we would run the course for about 35 people, this year we are teaming up with previously trained UDL badge facilitators to offer this course to 1,000+ participants simultaneously in FET and HE - the largest national roll out of UDL CPD ever undertaken in Ireland. So sign up to be a part of it and join the growing Irish UDL community.

This free course involves approximately 25 hours over the 10 week period, averaging 2.5 hours per week with a 5 hour optional add on later in the course for those interested in becoming future facilitators of the open course themselves. Participants will work in a Peer Group of three or four throughout the course to support each other's understanding of the course content and brainstorm ideas for the key course activity where they will implement UDL ideas in real time into a teaching activity. Registration details, key course information and dates for your diary are featured below and the full course schedule is available here.

Please note this course strictly for staff currently working in Further Education and Training in the Republic of Ireland. For HE staff info and sign up click here.

Support for the UDL for FET Practitioner Roll Out is provided by SOLAS as part of their funding of AHEAD's core FET activities.
SOLAS Logo

About this Badge

Implementation of Universal Design principles in Teaching & Learning promotes inclusivity and equity while also ‘future-proofing’ your teaching. As our classrooms and lecture theatres become increasingly diverse, our practices must also adapt to reflect the changing landscape of higher education. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, which guides the development of flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences and cater for the wide range of diversity in our lecture rooms. This CPD course will give you an introduction to the concept of Universal Design for Learning and invite you to review and update your own Teaching and Learning practice.

Course Criteria - Participants on the Course Will:

Reflect on the Diversity of Students in their Institutions
Gain a good understanding of the Universal Design for Learning framework and how it can support diverse learners
Deepen their understanding of UDL through peer engagement
Redesign some elements of their teaching and learning practice based on their knowledge of UDL principles
Consider how they will change their practice more broadly in line with a UDL approach

How the Course Works?

The course is delivered via a mixture of webinars and guided self paced multimedia modules, with participants also working through group activities in online meetings as a group of three or four known as a Peer Group. They will work together with their Peer Group throughout the course.

The Peer Group system means that you experience the course with other colleagues and share perspectives on the course content. At the end of the course, each member of the Peer Group confirms to the facilitators that the others have taken part in the process and that plays a major role in the release of the digital badge to certify completion.

One of the major activities participants will undertake is to redesign a teaching activity they are actively delivering in line with UDL principles and to implement the redesign during the course. This redesign happens during weeks 5-9 of the course, after the participant has undertaken significant learning about the UDL framework and sought advice from colleagues in their Peer Groups. Because of this, participants must have some form of teaching activity scheduled during this period which they can redesign (e.g. a lecture, workshop, training event, assignment etc.).

At the end of the process, the Peer Groups will meet to discuss what they learned with each other and share a brief report on their experiences.

In summary, participants will undertake the following as part of the 10 week, 25 hour course:

3 course information webinars
5 self paced online multimedia modules
4 Peer Group Meetings
1 UDL Redesign Activity - real time UDL implementation

Additionally, participants can choose to undertake the optional 5 hour add-on 'Facilitator's Badge' which trains them to roll out this national forum open course to their colleagues at a later date.

Course Entry Requirements

Participants must:

Be currently working as an educator in a teaching and learning capacity in FET or Higher Education in the Republic of Ireland (can include any role where teaching/training is delivered to students/staff e.g. teacher, librarian, teaching enhancement staff, disability officer that delivers training)
Have one or more teaching activity (lecture/training session/class/assessment etc.) taking place between week 5 and 9 of this course (October 25th – December 3rd) that they can redesign as part of the course.

IT Requirements

This course will feature both webinars and small group online meetings which you will require a laptop/pc with a speakers/headphones, a webcam and a microphone (for best audio quality a headset rather than an internal laptop mic). The Zoom platform will be used for webinars so it’s a good idea to try and join this test Zoom link now in advance of the course starting and contact your IT administrator’s for advice if you have any problems. Similarly, the Big Blue Button platform is used for online meetings - You can test your computer/microphone/webcam for use with Big Blue Button in advance of the course beginning by clicking here, entering your name and clicking Join under the HTML5 link.

Since lots of the material on this course is delivered through multimedia, the course also requires a reasonably good internet connection capable of streaming video.

Key Course to put in your Diary now!

Participants should put the key times and dates listed below in their diaries. All other course work can be done at times that suit (within specific time frames). Feel free to download the full course schedule.

Here are some some key dates:

13:00 – 13:45, October 3rd - Orientation - Webinar #1 – Course introduction, tour of the platform, introduction to Peer Groups, week by week breakdown
Suggested Peer Group Meetings in the Downloadable Course Schedule.
13:00-13:30, October 17th – Webinar #2 – Introducing the Redesign Activity
13:00-13:30, December 5th – Webinar #3 – Submission and Getting Your Badge
By December 12th - Submission of Redesign/Facilitator Activities and Verify Other Group Colleagues Work