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Introduction
According to the center that founded it, "Universal Design has its beginnings in demographic, legislative, economic, and social changes among older adults and people with disabilities throughout the 20th century" ([4] Center for Universal Design, 2009). Spurred by the educational standards movement as well as by the increasingly diverse population of students entering our educational systems, universal design (UD) has also emerged as a needed approach to the improvement and reform of both public and private education. In an educational context, the intent of UD is to consider and address the needs of diverse learners in the early phase of instructional design and thus avoid the need to "retrofit" the curriculum or scramble for solutions that will support inclusion at the last minute.
Specifically, guidelines and resources are available for three major approaches to the application of UD for educational purposes:
universal instructional design;
universal design for instruction; and
universal design for learning (UDL).
While the methodological emphasis of the approaches may vary, all three of these entities focus on the concept of UD with the goal of making teaching and learning an accessible and inclusive experience.
Background
Since 2004, a team of educators at The College of St Scholastica have been researching the advantages of using a supplemental online site to enrich and extend the traditional learning environment. The intervention involved a large lecture- and lab-based course in anatomy and physiology and - based on a technological intervention that offered students 24/7 access to organizational materials, tutorial-like practice tests, and personal grade information - our early findings demonstrated significant improvements in the area of academic achievement as measured by student test scores ([1] Bryans Bongey et al. , 2005).
Based on our continuing efforts, we applied the UDL approach to curriculum design and instruction in the 2008-2009 offering of the same course. Although the application of UDL guidelines to the course's design and instruction did not serve to replicate the same significant leap in student achievement that was noted in our 2004 intervention, data from student interviews and surveys showed a high level of student satisfaction. However, despite our considerable investment of time, energy and resources, student grades did not reflect improvement leading us to the hypothesis that there may be a UDL...