Discover how Universal Design for Learning principles enhance the creation of accessible certificates of completion and competency. Learn strategies for incorporating accessibility into instructional design, aligning with California's Vision 2030 goals for equity in success, access, and support within noncredit education.

1. Designing Equitable Pathways:
Universal Design for Learning & Certificate
Development in Noncredit Education

2. Presenters
2
Mia Keeley, Dean
Educational Services, CCCCO
Janet Williams
Professor, North Orange
Continuing Education

3. UDL & Noncredit Certificate Development
 Overview of UDL
 The CCCCO UDL Task Force and Vision 2030
 UDL and Noncredit to Credit Pathways
 UDL Strategies
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4. 4

5. a
What is UDL?
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to improve and optimize
teaching and learning for all by:
• setting clear, rigorous goals
• anticipating barriers and
• proactively designing to minimize those barriers.
5

6. #1 Barriers are in the Environment…
Not Learners

7. #2 Variability is the Rule….
Every learner
has a ”jagged”
learning profile.

8. #3 Inclusion by Design…
Rather than as retrofit.
You can’t add the blueberries at the
end and call it a blueberry muffin
-Cordelia McGee-Tubb

9. a
UDL Taskforce Purpose
9
The Chancellor’s Office convened
a Universal Design for Learning
(UDL) Task Force to collaborate on
an implementation approach that is
suitable for California Community
Colleges across the state in 2024-
2025.
The UDL (Universal Design for
Learning) Task Force is intended to
make curriculum and learning in
the classroom and in service
delivery more accessible to
community college students and to
ensure that all students experience
community college as a place
where they belong.

10. UDL Task Force Constituency Groups
● CCCCO Educational Services
● Chief Student Services Officer Association (Co-chair)
● Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (Co-chair)
● Chief Information Systems Officer Association
● Student Senate for California Community Colleges
● Student Senate for California Community Colleges
● Disabled Student Programs and Services Director
● California Association for Postsecondary Education and Disability
● Distance Education Coordinators Organization
● CCC Accessibility Center
● Student Wellness and Mental Health
● California Community College Administrators for Occupational
Education

11. Vision 2030
A Roadmap for California Community Colleges
Goals for Our Current Students & Future
Leaders
Strategic Directions
Equity in Access
Equitable Baccalaureate Attainment
Transfer and CCC Baccalaureate High
School Students, Adult Learners
Equity in Support
Equitable Workforce & Economic
Development
High Road Training Partnerships in
Healthcare, Climate, STEM, Education
Equity in Success
Implications for the Future of Learning
Innovation & Sustainability Advanced
Data Analytics and Generative AI

12. Shifting the Paradigm
Prevailing Approach
Waiting for students
to apply for services
Strategic Focuses
Maximize student
receipt of resources
and support
Remove student
burdens
Enable greater
institutional
flexibility
Proactive Approach
Bring tailored
support to those in
need
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13. Trends in Higher Education
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• Legal Challenges
• Since 2013, U.S. DOE’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has entered
into resolution agreements (re: digital accessibility) with over
1000 higher education institutions, public school districts, library
systems, etc. OCR Search Letters & Agreements.
• Disability Rates
• Increasing # of SWDs enrolling in higher education (U.S. GAO,
2009)
• Greater variation in types of disabilities…(Digest of Education
Statistics, 2011)

14. 14
What is the general level of acceptance of student-
centered service delivery and course design, delivery,
instruction, and assessment using UDL principles at
your campus?
ⓘ Start presenting to display the poll results on this slide.

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16. UDL Task Force Goals (1 of 2)
• Ensure differentiated supports are accessible to increase
effectiveness of accommodations and serve all students
• Facilitate alignment of the work of this taskforce with CC system
accessibility policies and structures
• Align with CCCs efforts to center equity in policies and structural
redesign of assessment systems and approaches
• Lower the psychological burdens of accessing services, supports,
and engaging in learning on campus
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17. UDL Task Force Goals (2 of 2)
• Establish faculty and staff expectations and PD priorities around
procurement, provision, and creation of accessible materials, assessments,
and technologies
• Prioritize student engagement in standards for implementing UDL
principles and in faculty PD priorities
• Incentivize local adoption to reduce barriers to access through the timely
provision of accessible materials and technologies
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18. Where are we now?
Planning Phase
Final meeting of the Planning
Phase was March 1, 2024
• Currently reviewing Task Force Draft
Recommendations
Implementation Phase
Task Force will continue its work
in the Implementation Phase in
the 2024-2025 academic year

19. 19

20. Noncredit to Credit Pathways
Create equitable pathways into the workforce,
including noncredit on-ramps to certificate
completion, associate degrees, and bachelor’s
degrees (CCCCO, 2023, p. 20)
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21. (D’Amico et al., 2020, p. 18) 21

22. System-Level Needs
• Noncredit can provide a doorway to credit
• Data is limited
• Scalable Models that support student success
• Short-term classes
• Virginia’s Fast Forward program allows students to
earn credentials in weeks rather than years.
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23. Completion Rates (1 of 2)
Course Type Course completion rate (%)
For-credit courses
College-level courses 77.6
Developmental education 65.0
Noncredit courses
ESL 59.3
ABE 53.2
GED 56.0
Noncredit vocational 76.7
(Xu & Ran, 2020) 23

24. Completion Rates (2 of 2)
Highest award obtained %
No degree/certificate 94.9%
Certificate 1.1%
Associate degree 2.0%
Bachelor’s degree 1.8%
(Xu & Ran, 2020) 24

25. Important Considerations: The Not Awesome News
• Despite the optimism about noncredit opportunities as a way to enter the
workforce and earn a living wage, Davis Jenkins, a senior research scholar at
the Community College Research Center (CCRC) said that he has seen “zero
evidence” to support it.
• Noncredit certificate programs are more likely to benefit students who already
have a good job through upskilling
(Gardner, 2022)
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26. 26

27. UDL & Equity:
Noncredit Education
Paperback ISBN 978-1-930583-45-0
Ebook ISBN 978-1-930583-46-7

28. UDL: Designing Equity
(Black & Moore, 2019)

29. Important Considerations: Program Level (1 of 5)
• Change & Development
• What is the change cycle for curriculum at my school?
• Who or what drives change (e.g., a regular review cycle or an indicator
like poor enrollment)?
• How are students involved in curriculum review and development?
• Curriculum & Context
• How does the curriculum proactively plan for student learning?
• What outdated ideas about learning are used?
• Watch out for “learning styles” and other unproven clichés about how people
learn.
• How can you help the developers understand and integrate updated ideas
about learning?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

30. Important Considerations: Program Level (2 of 5)
• Curricular Legacy
• How can I support curriculum teams to make improvements without
throwing out everything?
• How can I reduce the threat that UDL means that everything needs to be
changed at once?
• Curriculum & Stakeholders
• How can I help the development team learn about learning validity and
UDL?
• What are they already doing that aligns with a UDL approach?
• What are they doing that’s a near miss (i.e., “learning styles” which is well-
intentioned but needs to be updated with current information)?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

31. Important Considerations: Program Level (3 of 5)
• Curriculum & Community
• Who else can be involved in curriculum conversations?
• How can student services teams like accessibility services or international
student services be involved?
• This may be particularly helpful at the learner analysis stage.
• How can student stakeholders or alumni be involved in curriculum
development?
• Curriculum & Decision Making
• Who is making decisions about what and how to teach?
• What external regulations influence those decisions?
• What is within the control of the curriculum development team?
• What is outside of its control?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

32. Important Considerations: Program Level (4 of 5)
• Perpetual Process
• How can I emphasize the iterative improvements and small changes for
UDL?
• How is curriculum quality evaluated?
• How can UDL indicators be layered into that evaluation?
• Data & Information for Curriculum Change
• How can curriculum teams access demographic data or information about
student learners?
• What data or information exists that helps demonstrate a need for UDL?
• How will you measure curriculum improvements?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

33. Important Considerations: Program Level (5 of 5)
• Systemic Change
• What program-level processes already exist for new program
development and program review?
• How can I help systemize a UDL approach for curriculum teams through
resources, processes, and so on?
• How can I provide multiple entry points and starting points for UDL
integration?
• One size will not fit all.
• How can I ensure that my approach to working with instructors and
curriculum models UDL wth our highly variable instructor learners?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

34. Important Considerations: Course Level (1 of 6)
• Goals
• Separate the means from the end
• What must students do to achieve this goal?
• What is the process for this learning outcome?
• How would you assess mastery for that goal?
• Consider all three learning networks
• Are there learning goals that include learning expertise?
• What goals are included for self-assessment and reflection?
• Applying knowledge to new situations?
• Self-regulation and strategy development?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

35. Important Considerations: Course Level (2 of 6)
• Goals
• Challenge all learners
• How will these goals challenge (not threaten) your learners?
• What steps might be needed to ensure challenge is maintained?
• Actively involve learners
• How can students be a part of creating goals or mini-goals?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

36. Important Considerations: Course Level ( 3 of 6)
• Assessments
• Are ongoing and focused on learner progress
• How are the assessments structured?
• Are there summative and formative assessments?
• Measure both product and process
• Are there assessments providing mastery-oriented feedback?
• Are there grades awarded?
• Are flexible, not fixed
• Are there choices when possible?
• What can flexibility look like in this assessment?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

37. Important Considerations: Course Level (4 of 6)
• Assessments
• Are construct relevant
• Are the assessments measuring what they’re intending to measure?
• Do they align to the learning goals?
• Actively inform and involve learners
• How will learners know about the criteria for success in the assessment?
• How can the learners be involved in the assessing process (i.e., establishing
goals or criteria or providing feedback)?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

38. Important Considerations: Course Level (5 of 6)
• Methods
• Can be continually adjusted to meet learner standards
• How do you go beyond your comfort zone when teaching?
• How do you or could you match methods with goals?
• Include all students within a collaborative environment
• How do you build classroom community and collaboration?
• How do you define collaboration?
• How do your students define collaboration?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

39. Important Considerations: Course Level (6 of 6)
• Materials
• How can materials help students to measure their progress and
collaborate over time?
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

40. Backward Design
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(Black & Moore, 2019)

41. Questions?
41

42. a
Let’s Stay in Touch!
Mia Keeley: mkeeley@cccco.edu
Janet Williams: Janet.Williams@noce.edu
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43. 43

44. References (1 of 2)
Black, J., & Moore, E. J. (2019). UDL navigators in higher education: A field guide. Cast.
CCCCO. (2023). Vision 2030: A roadmap for California community colleges. California
Community College Office of the Chancellor.
Center for Applied Special Technology. (2024). UDL guidelines 3.0 full draft.
D’Amico, M. M., Morgan, G. B., Thornton, Z. M., & Bassis, V. (2020). Noncredit education
enrollment and outcomes: Exploring the “black box” of noncredit community college
education. Career and Technical Education Research, 45(2), 17–38.
44

45. References (2 of 2)
Gardner, L. (2022). What community colleges need to thrive.
Lumina Foundation. (2017, June 7). About the Lumina Foundation. Lumina Foundation.
https://www.luminafoundation.org/about/
Xu, D., & Ran, F. X. (2020). Noncredit education in community college: Students, course
enrollments, and academic outcomes. Community College Review, 48(1), 77–101.
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46. UDL
Resources • UDL on Campus
• Introduction to Accessibility
• AEM Center Podcast: Intersectionality, UDL,
and Communities of Belonging in Higher Ed
• CCC Environmental Scan
• Environmental Scan Executive Summary

47. UDL Task Force
& CAST
CAST is a nonprofit education research and
development organization that created
the Universal Design for Learning framework
and UDL Guidelines, which are now used
worldwide to make learning more inclusive.
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