Accessible Active Learning

About this Resource

Welcome to the Accessible Active Learning Resource. Accessibility is essential in all learning environments. For this project I engage with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and specifically accessibility as a framework of thinking and action that aims to remove barriers to participation for learners, teaching assistants (TAs), instructors, facilitators and everyone involved in the teaching space.

This resource was developed by Shaya Golparian who is an Educational Developer at the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT) at the University of British Columbia.

Resource Objectives

This resource is designed to:

Describe underpinning pedagogical practices that contribute to the design of more accessible active learning techniques.
Offer a process for modifying and redesigning active learning techniques in order to remove barriers to participation and accommodate learners with disabilities or mental health needs.

Intended Audience

This resource is intended for use by any instructor or facilitator who incorporates active learning techniques in their classes, sessions or events.

This resource was initially designed for Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) and TA Training facilitators at UBC-V. It was meant as a resource to help them design activities with accessibility in-mind, to help make activities accessible to more students and participants; It also engaged them in a process of redesigning active learning techniques in order to accommodate learners with disabilities or mental health needs.

What is Active Learning?

Active learning is any approach to instruction in which all students are actively engaged in the learning process.

Below you can find a list of active learning techniques that you can design drawing on the UDL principles in order to remove barriers to student participation and engagement.