2. Principle 1 - Multiple Means of Engagement

Have you heard questions such as

"When will I ever use this in my life?" or "What does this have to do with me?" or "Why do I need to learn this?"?

These questions show how important it is for learners to know the “why” of learning as we try to engage them with any learning process, be it a classroom activity or an assignment. Yet, learners greatly differ from one another in what attracts their attention and curiosity and how their motivation needs to be stimulated and supported. Based on the affective learning network of the brain, this UDL principle “Multiple Means of Engagement” addresses why and how we should recruit and sustain students’ interest, motivation, and engagement. This principle is comprised of the following three guidelines, and this section of the module walks you through them one by one.

2.1. Provide Options for Recruiting Interest ⇩| 2.2. Provide Options for Sustaining Effort and Persistence ⇩| 2.3. Provide Options for Self-regulation⇩| 2.4. UDL in Your Context ⇩

2.1. Provide Options for Recruiting Interest

Learners differ in what piques their interest; therefore, it is important to have alternative ways to attract their attention and interest. They tend to be more interested in learning when they understand how the knowledge they’re learning can be useful or meaningful to them. For example, when you keep presenting examples only from a certain social or cultural group, those students who do not belong to that group would not only find little relevance of those examples to them but also feel invisible, marginalized, or excluded, and their interest, motivation, and engagement in the course will decline. Research shows Links to an external site. that a sense of belonging plays a crucial role in students’ academic persistence and success. Therefore, creating multiple ways to engage diverse students’ interest is essential.

Another way to recruit their varying interest is to give them a choice to both make the experience relevant to them and give them a sense of ownership of their learning. For example, you may let your students choose a fieldwork site that they feel relevant to their life or career goal. To broaden the options, you may even allow them to have a “virtual fieldwork” through videos or other media. Furthermore, you may let them use social media (e.g. wiki, blog) to share their newly learned knowledge not only with their classmates but also with communities that they think may benefit from that knowledge, such as their local communities or online communities. When they feel empowered over their meaning-making process of learning, their interest is likely to be increased and sustained.

Watch this two-minute video that showcases how UBC geography professor Siobhán McPhee created an open education technology, a smartphone app, utilizing augmented reality to allow students to take an urban history tour of Vancouver’s historic Chinatown and Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods following the influence of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the late 19th century.

Title: Open Dialogues: Using Augmented Reality to Enhance Learning
Duration: 2:01 min.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/G8Htz8-nhtM

Figure 1: Make Learning Relevant to Your Students https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/how-to-make-learning-relevant/ Links to an external site.

Table Showing Checkpoints For Recruiting Interest and Examples
Checkpoints for recruiting interest	Examples for your classroom
Optimize individual choice and autonomy Links to an external site.	Each group researches and presents on a different topic. Students create a short video or lecture on a topic of choice related to the class. Students select some of course materials (e.g. podcasts, readings). Students choose their assignments from different options (e.g. different ways they could earn participation marks - write an essay, make a video, or interview an expert).
Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity Links to an external site.	Develop various case studies that could have relevance for different groups of students, or ask learners to create one relevant to them. Develop authentic activities, where students engage in work similar to what they would be doing as professionals in the field (e.g., students in a history course learning how to catalogue artifacts as a museum does). Invite guest speakers (either in person or via video) and ask them to discuss their professional work in relation to course content. Develop assignments where what learners do or produce in a course has value beyond the course itself (e.g. undertaking a research project in conjunction with a community group that will use the research). Incorporate a virtual field trip into your classroom (use webcam to connect students to another school, to allow them to see a live event).
Minimize threats and distractions Links to an external site.	Develop classroom guidelines to set a clear expectation for classroom conduct and to create a learning environment, where students feel safe to share their learning experiences with each other. Create a detailed course schedule that clearly lays out what students will need to do before, during and after classes.

2.1.1. Drag & Drop Activity: Recruiting Interest

On the right hand side, you see different methods for how to recruit interest from students. Drag each item from the right hand side and drop it to a right category on the left.

2.2. Provide Options for Sustaining Effort and Persistence

How can we support our learners to sustain their effort and concentration through the learning process? As learners differ in their initial motivation, some learners need support for remembering the goals and objectives, managing their emotional responses, staying focused on assignments, and/or setting learning goals for each study session. This can be addressed through offering different levels of challenge, fostering community and collaboration, and providing feedback by using reminders, checklists, frameworks, early alerts, progress-oriented support, peer mentoring and peer support groups.

In this 4-minute video, Gavan Watson introduces four characteristics of effective feedback to improve and sustain student learning.

Title: Characteristics of Good Student Feedback
Duration: 4:38 min.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Huju0xwNFKU

Table Showing Checkpoints for Sustaining Effort and Persistence and Examples
Checkpoints for Sustaining Effort and Persistence	Examples for your classroom
Heighten salience of goals and objectives Links to an external site.	State the goals or objectives for the day (or a lesson) at the beginning or end of class. Display the objectives in multiple ways (i.e. at the beginning of a lesson, or next to an activity or assignment, or at the summary of a lesson). Ask students to reflect on the goals of the class activities or assignments and how these might be relevant to them in their particular context. Collaborate with learners to develop an assessment rubric for an assignment as a way to engage them in discussing what a mastery of a learning goal of the assignment should look like.
Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge Links to an external site.	Give student different options to complete an assignment (e.g. an essay, a short video, an interview). Ask students to generate midterm questions and use one or two of the questions in the midterm (Ask students to also review and evaluate the questions). Engage students to generate topics related to the class for discussions. Design class activities and course assignments in a way that scaffolds students learning (e.g., start with easier, lower-stakes assignments and gradually elevate the level of challenge while delivering in-class activities that support every step of learning). Create flexible paths to accomplish the course’s goals by allowing them to choose their assignments from different options that optimize challenge and learning for them. Develop a grading system that focuses on assessing whether students have achieved learning outcomes by the end of the course, rather than their performance throughout the course (e.g., Give three small exams during the term on topics A, B, and C and a final comprehensive exam that equally covers all the topics A, B, and C. If a student marked higher on the final exam than any other earlier exams, take that score for their course grade, instead of letting their lower scores on earlier exams affect the final grade so as not to punish them for the mistakes that they had made as part of their learning process. If their score on small exam B was higher than their score on that portion of the final exam, for example, substitute the score on the final on that set of questions on Topic B).
Foster collaboration and community Links to an external site.	In class assign groups, ask them to write a report collaboratively Create rubrics and community agreement for group work; consider involving students themselves in creating these Build in peer-to-peer feedback as part of a paper assignment (e.g., students share their feedback with each other on their first draft)
Increase mastery-oriented feedback Links to an external site.	Allow multiple attempts on exams (when possible) Ask follow-up questions after a lecture or presentation to ensure understanding Provide feedback that is frequent, timely, and specific

Student Voices

Dr. Laila Ferreira (Faculty of Arts, UBC) implemented the UDL checkpoint, “foster collaboration and community,” by developing a Community of Practice in her third-year writing course. She used this social/collaborative-learning model for the overall course. Below are some of her students’ comments regarding this approach:

Student A: “I have always been afraid to share my ideas in fear someone may not agree or think my ideas were silly. However, through class discussion & ComPAIR (online peer review tool) I have learned that sharing your ideas & knowledge is the only way to further develop. Hearing feedback & having people critique your work will only make it stronger.”

Student B: “The community of practice helped me understand where my skills are relative to my classmates, and I felt better supported by my peers.”

Student C: “I felt that I learned more from group discussions than from the reading the article & then being lectured.”

2.2.1. Self-Reflection Activity

Think about a class you teach and reflect on the following questions:

What are 4 characteristics of good feedback?
How can I foster collaboration in my classroom?
Have I linked course objectives to course assignments?
What opportunities exist to incorporate student choice?

2.3. Provide Options for Self-Regulation

How can we encourage student self-regulation and personal coping skills? According to Zimmerman Links to an external site., “self-regulation is not mental ability or an academic performance skill; rather it is the self-directive process by which learners transform their mental abilities into academic skills.” Self-regulation is about setting goals, selecting strategies, observing progress, revisiting and restructuring goals that are not met, managing time, achieving focus amid distractions, self-evaluating the strategies used and adapting them for the future based on lessons learned. While many learners develop these skills on their own, either by trial or observing successful adults, many have difficulties in developing these skills. Therefore, self-regulation skills must be explicitly addressed.

This UDL guideline offers different strategies on how to become a self-regulated learner, including: a) set personal goals that inspire confidence and ownership of learning; b) facilitate personal coping skills and strategies; and c) increase awareness around progress toward goals and how to learn from mistakes.

Table Showing Checkpoints for Self Regulation and Examples
Checkpoints for Self-Regulation	Examples for your classroom
Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation Links to an external site.	Provide students with a good sample of a completed assignment or project Give online learners badges for completion of different tasks (or different parts of a big project) Give examples of past class successes
Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies Links to an external site.	Prepare a one-pager where students can find all the available resources and services to support their learning and wellbeing (i.e. academic advice/support, peer support, tutoring, mental health, financial help,…) Use real life examples to demonstrate coping skills, possibly even from your own experience
Develop self-assessment and reflection Links to an external site.	Provide self-assessment quiz at the end of each chapter or module Ask self-reflective questions throughout a course and set up incentives in the course for students to actually complete them Encourage students to engage in journal writing Provide a two-minute self-reflection/self assessment paper at the end of class

2.3.1. Drag & Drop Activity: Self-Regulation

On the right hand side, you see different methods for how to support students with self-regulation. Drag each item from the right hand side and drop it to a right category on the left.