Thank you for sharing your thoughts on reducing barriers to learning success while learning about common species of trees in British Columbia. I can imagine how engaging a nature walk would be to many young learners. At the same time, you are right that some learners might not be able to do a walk due to access or mobility challenges. I also wonder if these same trees would be in all areas of B.C. The alternative accesses to information you describe seem like good options. I particularly like the virtual walk, which would allow students to still observe leaves and cones in the context of a larger environment and give students some control over their point of view, allowing them to turn leaves over, etc.
Along with providing options for access to content, you have created choices for building and demonstrating knowledge. Thank you for sharing your thoughtful design. I enjoyed reading about it.
In this video, students are not forced to respond in any way. However, they are likely to do the things suggested by the video. For example, the video advises viewers to understand and look at nutrition labels. Learners who didn’t understand these lables would then be likely to feel a lack of knowledge and, when presented with an opportunity to learn more about nutrition labels, want to do so. Learners who do understand nutrition labels would be likely to pay more attention to them in the future.
After watching this video, we as instructors could give a small amount of explanation about the meanings of nutrition labels and how to read them. We could then ask students to look at food labels on several products from their homes to compare a variety of specific nutrients. For example, students could find three items that have relatively high amounts of calcium compared ot the daily recommended intake, and three items that have relatively low amounts of calcium. This would help students to develop their ability to understand and apply their understanding of nutrition labels. In an online course, they could submit images of labels with written or video documentation of their findings.
Each student could get feedback by comparing their findings with two others and selecting 2 – 3 foods within the group as generally the most nutritious. They would, as a group, write a few sentences to defend their choices, using information from the nutrition labels. Both the written justification and relevant food labels would be submitted. Online, they could use meeting technology such as Zoom to discuss as a group; they could use Google Docs to collaborate on the written justification; everything could be submitted on a Learning Management System such as Brightspace.
This activity would be manageable in terms of work for us, the instructors. We could check to see that nutrition labels had been understood correctly by the group and the written justification demonstrates that the students have thought about the information. Depending on the level, depth, and length of the course, the work would be manageable and worthwhile for students as well. A shorter course might call for briefer and less time-consuming activities, while something longer would allow enough time to look more closely at nutrition labels. For larger numbers of students, perhaps pre-selected nutrition labels would make less work for the instructor since there could be less variation in information for students to work with.
Thank you for sharing your reflections on Experiential Learning. This is yet another way of giving students the opportunity to actively engage with their learning and make better meaning of the knowledge and skills they acquire.
I agree that there is nothing like experience to really understand the impact of following a bad diet. It seems to me a key idea to experiment with these in a “controlled, reflective context,” as you note in your fourth paragraph. In order to avoid putting students in situations where they are causing their bodies lasting harm, I wonder what kinds of controlled exercises could be proposed to illustrate the the incorrectness and, sometimes, dangers of some of the myths that can be found on social media.
Ethan, thank you for sharing your research and experience with open pedagogy. I am very interested in the structure of your schooling where you got the opportunity to engage deeply in your learning interests. It must have been wonderful to have such strong ownership of your learning. When transitioning to a more traditional high school model, what did you find difficult?
I agree that health and diet is very personal, requiring some trial and error. I like your idea of integrating student-generated content, and developing peer-reviewed meal plans aligns with Design Thinking as well. Let’s talk!
Blog Prompt: Choose one (or more) of your planned learning activities from your Blueprint and identify any barriers to student success. How can you alter or adjust your current plan to reduce those barriers?
Students to any course bring with them unique needs, abilities, and history. This diversity, if not addressed, can lead to a large proportion of students having trouble engaging fully in learning within the course. Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework created by CAST to address a diversity of student needs based on what is known about the human brain, offers guidelines to support student learning in a number of ways (CAST, n.d.). Based on these guidelines, we can design multiple options for engagement, representation, and action & expression in order to increase access, support the learning process, and support executive functioning.
One of the planned learning activities we have in our Blueprint is to read an article and a webpage about healthy food choices. Barriers to reading could include difficulty with language, literacy, or vision. To reduce these barriers, we could encourage students to use translation or text-to-speech technology if they choose. We could also offer video or podcast alternatives which cover the same content. If the course is given in person, we might investigate to find out if any student needs alternatives for large print. We could also offer the article and/or webpage in options written for multiple levels of English comprehension. Finally, we could ensure plenty of pictorial support of the text, with captioned descriptions.
Additionally, there may be misunderstandings in the students’ conceptions of healthy eating, which could impact access due to bias and distracting ideas. CAST UDL Guidelines suggest creating a supportive culture by exploring how biases can impact learning (CAST, n.d.). This could be done in a short introduction to the reading, video, or podcast, acknowledging possible preconceptions or myths about healthy eating.
Another barrier could be difficulty in transferring learning from the article, website, video, or podcast, to application in meal planning for themselves. We can support this by including explicit references and connections to this learning in future assignments. We could also survey students ahead of time to learn about the foods they like so that we can use relatable examples to help make sense of the content during instruction.
Liam, I really enjoyed reading your Blog Post #2. Your experiences and insights made me think about these issues in new ways.
In particular, I was interested to read about how online learning in 2020 evolved your learning and helped you gain tools in open learning platforms and online conversation. I, too, learned a great deal by connecting with peers online, at first through email forums and then, when social media came into existence, through online groups. I agree that the added perspectives and resource networks are incredibly valuable.
I’m curious what you mean by Network Pedagogy becoming something you need to search for yourself. Are you saying that each student needs to find the online tools that work best for them?
Your view of the role of the instructor as one who “send(s) the students down the path of success” also piqued my interest, and I liked the way you articulated that. Often as teachers, we are focused on helping students learn and the different ways we might enhance their learning, but from a student perspective, instructor appreciation of what they have learned is an important motivating factor. Paying attention to detail and transparency in expectations and being flexible in how we see accomplishment in an online setting not only supports students to be fairly graded but supports a successful social exchange in which the student meets the teacher’s expectations and is rewarded with approval.
Thank you for your thoughts. I look forward to reading future blog posts!
Students with exceptionalities: Students with uncommon ways of learning or behaving whose needs cannot be met through typical instructional approaches. (Filiatrault-Veilleux, 2022)
Disability: Disability is a term used to describe a functional limitation that hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society. (Legislative Services Branch of Canada, 2025)
Accessibility: In an educational setting, accessibility refers to having equal opportunity to gain knowledge, receive services, and participate in learning or community experiences. (University of Virginia, n.d.)
Digital Accessibility: Digital accessibility of education means that technology to be used is designed for all users, regardless of disability. (University of Virginia, n.d.)
Accommodations: Students with exceptionalities may require adjustments to course or class expectations or delivery modes in order to access learning. These adjustments are known as accommodations.
EdTech: EdTech is short for education technology and refers to modern technology used to support or enhance learning.
FIPPA: Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of British Columbia, Canada
Accessibility
In any course designed for a group of people (as opposed to self-directed schooling), we need to consider the wide variety of needs presented by students. In my experience, as instructors we tend to feel successful if we have met the learning needs of a majority of students. However, this tends to leave out students who are less typical, in particular students with exceptionalities. To ensure we reach exceptional students also, we must consider the accessibility of our course design, instruction, and assessment.
UDL
One way to create accessibility is through the use of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework constructed to address a diversity of student needs based on what is known about the human brain (CAST, n.d.). The main concept behind UDL is that a learner characteristic is a disability only because of its interaction with the learning environment (Rose et al., 2014). For example, a student who is dyslexic has trouble reading, which impacts their ability to learn Science if the information is relayed only through textbook readings; however, if the student has the option of hearing a lecture or watching a video to access the same information, the dyslexia is no longer a barrier. Therefore, by changing the learning environment, we can remove barriers to full participation in education. By offering students multiple options for understanding and engaging with content, accessibility is increased for a wider range of learning needs. By offering multiple options for demonstration of learning, barriers to assessment equity are reduced.
UDL addresses diversity in three main categories: engagement, representation, and action & expression, by increasing access, supporting the learning process, and supporting executive function. (CAST, n.d.)
Engagement
Representation
Action & expression
Increase access by designing options for…
Welcoming interests and identities
Perception
Interaction
Support the learning process by designing options for…
Sustaining effort and persistence
Language & symbols
Expression and communication
Support executive function by designing options for…
For example, when I design a course in Math, I build in opportunities for retesting to allow students to continue persisting in their growth towards learning outcomes. This increases access by supporting greater engagement. As well, students who struggle with tests due to anxiety may show their learning by engaging in a one-on-one conversation about the topic, again a way to support their learning process through multiple options for expression and communication and support their executive function of emotional capacity. Students have opportunities to engage with a concept through lecture, group work, use of manipulatives, engaging with technology, or watching videos, increasing access to learning by providing multiple means of representation. Collaborative activity in which students communicate as part of problem solving creates opportunity for multiple means of building knowledge (listening, watching, talking, negotiating), representing and communicating (writing, speaking, using models), and welcoming identities (seeking to reduce barriers of cultural bias by decreasing the amount of teacher-centred education).
Learn more about UDL in this video created by CAST.
Accessibility in an Online Setting
In an online setting, designing for accessible education includes also ensuring digital accessibility. Learning platforms with simple designs which are easy to navigate and use are more inclusive of those who have less experience with technology (Hotchin, 2025). Likewise, straight-forward language and highlighted definitions increase accessibility for those who have language impairments (Edmunds & Edmunds, 2018). Websites which are navigable by screen readers and alt text on images allow those with visual impairments to access content, while transcripts and captions help those with auditory impairments or struggle with understanding the language of the content. Standards and guidelines such as WCAG are useful tools to ensure learning platforms and materials are maximizing their accessibility (Hotchin, 2025).
Ethical Considerations
One way of addressing accessibility for those with learning differences is to offer computer-aided personalized learning. For example, programs such as IXL, a Math program that assesses student levels and difficulties in order to offer targeted tips, explanations, and challenges, are used in many schools to supplement regular classroom activity. While educational technology (EdTech) can enhance learning experiences by making practicable the creation of very flexible and responsive materials and environments, we also must take into account ethical considerations. In Ethics and Information Technology, Regan & Jesse (2018) discuss how EdTech is able to create learning that is personalized to the interests, preferred learning styles, and skill levels of students. Not only is personal information gathered, but students’ digital behaviour, such as the choices they make or the time it takes to click on a button, is tracked and analyzed to offer future experiences selected by the software. Regan & Jesse question whether this type of tracking and sorting is discriminatory and make associations with classrooms segregated based on race, ethnicity, gender, and class.
On a broader scale, use of digital technology raises ethical considerations about information privacy, anonymity, surveillance, autonomy, discrimination, and information ownership (Regan & Jesse, 2018).
Information privacy – Information about an individual should only be collected with their knowledge and consent, and should be used only for the stated purposes for which it is collected. [Privacy of information collected by public bodies in B.C. is protected by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).]
Anonymity – An individual should have the right to choose to be anonymous in a digital environment. This anonymity is protected if information about the individual is not allowed to be analyzed with public records in order to identify them.
Surveillance or tracking – This is the monitoring of student information and online behaviour to make predictions about future behaviour.
Autonomy – An individual should have the ability to freely make choices. Autonomy is impacted when computer algorithms pre-select options to offer.
Non-discrimination – While we currently have laws protecting people from being discriminated against based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or disability, sorting people in order to personalize learning creates dangers of discrimination based on computer system and machine bias.
Ownership of information – When digital services collect information about an individual, does that individual or does the digital service company own the information?
When we bring EdTech into the classroom, we bring these ethical considerations also. Since the technology is recommended by a school, district, or teacher, students and parents trust that learners will be protected against any unethical behaviour of companies. These companies’ motivations are not necessarily the well-being of students, but the success of their own product and operation. Are we giving companies a captive audience for their advertisement, research, or brand loyalty development? Where is students’ personal information being stored and who has access to it? For what purpose do they use this information? As well, in our attempts to create more accessible learning through technology, are we creating barriers for those who have less access to computers and Internet?
One way of taking advantage of the benefits of technology in an online course while minimizing interaction with the ethical considerations outlined above could be to have students use programs that do not require accounts. For example, Desmos Classroom activities can be accessed without signing on. The student would then need to take screenshots of their work and email it to the instructor. Another way is to allow students to use pseudonyms to protect their anonymity and share the pseudonym only with the instructor. Being aware of the ways in which student information can be exposed to misuse helps us as instructors to protect learners.
We also must manage the digital behaviour of the learning community. Similar to a classroom, in order to build a community that is supportive, productive, and safe, we need to set standards of behaviour. Treating one another with respect is a foundational expectation. Teachers and students are expected to respect one another’s privacy, ideas, choices, and identity. Just as bullying can be overt, such as when someone threatens, shames, or verbally abuses another, bullying in an online class can also be covert, such as when a student is excluded from a conversation or meeting. Such expectations and the consequences of bullying and harrassment should be made clear at the beginning of a course. Teachers can also model respectful behaviour through the use of inclusive language, employing preferred names and pronouns, and acknowledgement of differing viewpoints. Finally, as Hotchin (2025) reminds us, teachers should urge students to maintain academic integrity, meaning that students should avoid cheating, plagarism, and misrepresenting their work; they should cite sources and credit any use of others’ work.
Accommodations
While careful online course design can reduce the risks that come with EdTech and increase the accessibility of learning materials, content, and fair assessment, universal approaches may not ensure accessibility for students with more exceptional needs. As a teacher, I have encountered students who need personalized support for tests and assignments, those who require scribes to document their work, ones who need reduced abstraction, and ones who need substantially more challenge. In my experience, these students benefit from personalized learning assessments with specialists who can recommend specific accommodations needed.
To learn more about accommodations in a UDL context, view this panel discussion hosted by the University of Windsor.
Accessibility Principles
UDL aims not only to reduce learning barriers, but to eliminate them (CAST, n.d.). However, the materials, instructional strategies, and learning environments informed by UDL literature can only change so much for learners. Learners still face barriers on a systemic level, such as standardized curricula (Rose et al., 2014) and student sorting based on chronological age.
In every year that I have taught, I have encountered one or more students who have been placed into an inappropriate class and cannot be relocated due to school, district, or provincial rules. As much as I can include these students in the learning experience by (to name a few examples) sourcing content for them, helping them to find roles within the classroom community, and/or making connections to areas of interest, the students do not experience an equal opportunity to fully engage in learning. I am not sure what improvements can ensure that all learners are supported effectively. However, I am curious about the effects of multi-year programming and placement based on readiness rather than age; teachers staying with the same students for multiple years (provided there is a reasonably good fit) to increase the benefits of established relationships and teacher understanding of students; increasing student-driven learning while giving executive functioning support and options for structured coursework; flexible scheduling; and decreasing the length of secondary school courses to allow for increased choice and program mobility.
In whatever learning environments become the norm, I think that it is important to continue to make accommodations for students whose needs are outside the targets of the system as it works for most. Recognizing that equality is not the same as equity, I think that these accommodations can sometimes be special programming in which the design is targeted towards meeting common needs of a subset of students with exceptionalities. As far reaching as UDL is in increasing accessibility for students, I believe we should remember to keep our focus on the needs of students and view UDL as just one tool.
Edmunds, A. L., & Edmunds, G. (2018). Special Education in Canada (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Filiatrault-Veilleux, P. (2022) Teaching children and youth with special needs (4). [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from lecture notes.
Hotchin, J. (2025, February 2). Module 3: Designing Accessible and Inclusive Online Learning Environments. University of Victoria – EdTech: EDCI 339 – Distributed and Open Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci339/
Regan, P. M., & Jesse, J. (2018). Ethical challenges of edtech, Big Data and personalized learning: Twenty-first century student sorting and tracking. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(3), 167–179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9492-2
Rose, D. H., Meyer, A., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal design for learning – theory and practice (1st ed.). CAST Professional Publishing.
Chase, thank you for sharing your thoughts about digital identity, online presence, and personalized learning!
I enjoyed reading about the very practical ways of creating, differentiating, and protecting one’s professional and personal digital identities. Your digital visitor and resident map caught my attention as I haven’t seen a tool like this before. I can see how useful it would be to learn about our online habits this way, particularly since we often have a skewed sense of how we spend our time. I wonder how many people underestimate the time they spend on social media. When we spend an evening with friends or pass an hour in an engaging lecture, time seems to slip away quickly, with the event over before we are ready to move on. No wonder online social connection is so hard to let go of, even if we want to.
I appreciated, as well, your tips on caution around our digital footprints. I do find it hard to keep up with privacy settings and app permissions. They frequently change without notice, and it is time consuming to constantly read through policies and check on permissions. In light of concerns around privacy and security, it really is important to stay on top of what information about ourselves we share.
Finally, thank you for sharing your perspective on learning approaches. It sounds like you enjoy having room to freely grow in your areas of interest and benefit from self-created structure when you need to learn things that aren’t intrinsically motivating.
Conrad, thank you for sharing your thoughts and findings on Inquiry-Based Learning. I agree that inquiry-based learning promotes a deeper understanding since learners are actively engaged in seeking and evaluating answers to their questions, taking information apart, and putting back together into something new. Thank you for sharing external sources to explore as well – so that we can do our own inquiry based learning!
The topic of health and wellness does present an opportunity for students to explore the wealth of misinformation available. Open-ended investigation of diet myths and social media trends, compared with evidence from trustworthy sources, might surprise quite a few learners. This is especially powerful when we think back to the video from a few weeks ago where learners had trouble learning new information about force directions just from being told and really needed to wrestle with the misconceptions they had.
Thank you for sharing your investigation into the Inquiry Approach of instruction. It seems that the process of inquiry as you outline it encourages students to learn deeply whatever their interests may be and share what they learn with others. Since you have chosen the topic of your Learning Design Blueprint and provided resources and structured tests, would you say that your alignment is with early-stage inquiry-based learning? It is an intriguing approach to teaching and bound to motivate students to follow their curiosity to learn more!
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