Universal Design for Learning is a teaching strategy that aims to create a flexible and inclusive learning environment for all students. A UDL approach is accessible and diverse, and promotes teaching
strategies that reach a variety of learners in a higher-ed classroom including non-traditional students, those with disabilities, learning differences, autism, ADHD, and other forms of neurodiversity. UDL helps to engage students, makes the course material more clear, and leverages the skills and attributes of the diversity of learners to benefit everyone in the learning environment.
Lillian Nave, a Senior Lecturer and the UDL Coordinator at Appalachian State, is the host of the Think UDL Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to increasing the conversation about UDL in higher education and provides an outlet for higher education and workforce professionals to share their ideas, innovations, accomplishments around UDL.
Think UDL reaches a worldwide audience including all 50 states in the USA and six continents (just not Antarctica, yet). Each episode focuses on different topics such as new ideas for teaching, how to better reach students, grading strategies, how to make group work more successful, and other strategies to make courses more engaging and clearer for students. The podcast is both theoretical and practical-minded in nature, explaining what different UDL strategies are, how they are implemented, and why they matter.
The Think UDL Podcast released its first episode in December 2018 and has been growing rapidly since. With two episodes released every month, Think UDL has over 100 episodes and more than 60,000 downloads worldwide. Each episode includes a full transcript and further resources related to the conversation of each episode. The podcast can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Overcast, Castro, Stitcher, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Deezer, Just Listen, Player FM, iHeart, Wisdom, etc.) as well as on the website ThinkUDL.org.