HEARING THE STUDENT VOICE: UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING AS A FRAMEWORK FOR PEDAGOGICAL REFORM IN HIGHER EDUCATION

This presentation will share the results of a survey on students’ experiences of the learning and teaching approach at the University of Northampton (UON). UON uses a pedagogical approach named Active Blended Learning (ABL). This is characterised by learning in small groups and through close interaction between staff and students. Courses are designed for active learning on and off campus, in digitally rich environments that integrate ‘live’, real-time sessions with activities students can undertake where they like and at the time they choose.

Through consultation with current students on their experiences of this learning and teaching approach and their suggestions for improvements, the project aims to co-create resources for new and existing staff to enhance their current pedagogical techniques and understanding of ABL through the students’ lens. We aim to provide staff with tangible resources that can be used before, during and after their teaching sessions to engage learners with multimodal ways of learning. Using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (CAST, 2018) as a theoretical framework, the results of this survey have instigated an initial set of actions to inform the design of learning and teaching resources.

This presentation will discuss the findings of the initial survey which aimed to understand students' reflections on their experiences of ABL with a view to identifying practices that students find valuable and those they do not. We will frame the results in the context of UDL and higher education in the UK.