ICDC 001: Fundamentals of Inclusive Design (15 hours)
This course focuses on the rationale for inclusive curricular design—namely, barriers to learning and the impact of these barriers on learners’ overall engagement and success. The course content fosters an understanding of the ways that the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework can pose a comprehensive framework for achieving key goals for inclusive design. Participants will reflect on their role as educators in addressing inclusion in their educational practice, and they will discuss approaches for optimizing positive impacts.
ICDC 002: Implementing UDL into Curriculum (15 hours)
This course presents a deeper dive into the UDL guidelines, that were introduced in ICDC 001. The content and activities encourage course participants to identify how theory informs pedagogical practice. Learners will identify strategies and share resources that support the UDL goals of developing expert learners and designing inclusive learning environments. The course also acknowledges the limitations of the UDL guidelines as a tool to address systemic barriers and encourages course participants to identify how systemic barriers can be effectively addressed in a learning context. By the end of this course, participants will have a deeper understanding of how to implement UDL, and how to layer UDL with anti-racist and anti-oppression frameworks. They will create strategies that can be implemented in their practice to support the design of learning experiences and spaces that honour and empower all learners.
ICDC 003: Designing Accessible Digital Learning Materials (18 hours)
This course introduces participants to strategies for constructing accessible digital learning materials for learners. Participants will recall what they have learned about inclusion, learner variability and UDL to consider how accessibility fits into this picture. The course begins with a short overview of accessibility, the legislation that protects it, and includes common guidelines that must be met. Additionally, participants become familiar with the technical skills needed to create accessible Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and PDFs. Throughout this course, the participants identify ways to address inclusion in their educational practice—particularly for learners with disabilities.
