Design

Creating flexible, inclusive learning from the start

Watch: Transforming Inclusive Education (Shelley Moore)

In this video, Shelley Moore uses the analogy of bowling to reframe inclusive education, emphasizing the need to plan for learner diversity from the start.

Goals are the starting point for any learning experience. Whether you're teaching in person, online, or in a community setting across Newfoundland and Labrador, clear, inclusive goals help everyone understand what they’re working toward and why it matters. When we know the goal, we can choose teaching methods, materials, and assessments that support it.

In Universal Design for Learning (UDL), strong goals are clear and consistent, but allow for flexibility in how learners reach them. This is known as firm goals, flexible means—everyone is working toward the same outcome, but not everyone has to get there in the same way. This approach is especially important across Newfoundland and Labrador’s diverse educational settings, where learners may bring different strengths and access needs.

This section will support you in creating learning goals that are meaningful, accessible, and aligned with the UDL Guidelines, wherever you're teaching in the province.

Essential Readings and Tools

Use these tabs to explore Goals, Assessment, and Communication within the Design step

Using flexible assessments to reflect diverse paths to learning

Goals are the starting point for any learning experience. Whether you're teaching in person, online, or in a community setting, clear goals help everyone understand what they’re working toward. When we know the goal, we can choose teaching methods, materials, and assessments that support it.

Watch: Lesson Planning and Learning Goals with UDL (CAST)

This short video from CAST explores how to design clear, flexible learning goals that align with Universal Design for Learning principles, supporting all learners from the start.

In Universal Design for Learning, a strong goal is clear and understandable, but flexible in how learners can achieve it. This is called firm goals, flexible means. It means that everyone works toward the same outcome, but they don’t have to get there in the same way.

Some helpful tips for designing inclusive goals:

Start with a clear, plain-language goal
Share the goal in more than one way (e.g., visual, verbal, written)
Help learners connect the goal to their own lives, communities, or interests
Break big goals into manageable steps
Give examples of what success looks like
Include space for feedback and reflection

By focusing on what students should learn, not how they should learn it, you create more options for success. This section will help you design goals that support all learners.

Essential Readings and Tools

UDL Tips for Developing Learning Goals

A short, practical guide from CAST with strategies to create clear, flexible, and inclusive learning goals that align with UDL principles.

Planning for Clear Goals

This resource outlines how to develop well-defined, flexible learning goals that support inclusive course design and align with UDL principles in higher education.

Goals, Barriers, and Planning

This module from CAST and TIES introduces the UDL design process and the 5-15-45 collaborative planning model to help educators design more inclusive learning experiences.

Firm Goals and Student Engagement

Katie Novak explores how clear, purposeful goals can enhance engagement and support UDL-aligned teaching.

Watch: Lesson Planning and Learning Goals with UDL (CAST)

This short video from CAST explores how to design clear, flexible learning goals that align with Universal Design for Learning principles—supporting all learners from the start.

Designing Assessments That Reflect, Not Restrict, Learning

In Newfoundland and Labrador, where learners may be navigating a wide range of educational settings, UDL invites educators to reimagine assessment not as a static measure of success, but as a dynamic process for understanding and supporting learning. Assessment can serve multiple purposes: ensuring accountability, tracking student progress, and informing instruction. UDL emphasizes assessment for learning, where flexible, ongoing tools are used to gather meaningful insights and improve the learning experience in real time.

A core UDL principle in assessment is construct relevance: the idea that assessments should measure the intended knowledge, skill, or ability, and not be clouded by unrelated demands. Inaccessible formats, language complexity, or rigid timelines can create barriers, especially for learners with diverse needs. By offering tools like text-to-speech, alternate formats, and flexible response options, educators in Newfoundland and Labrador can ensure a more accurate and equitable picture of student understanding.

UDL-informed assessments align with clear goals, use multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression, and create space for authentic, scaffolded, and reflective learning. This step offers strategies to help you design assessments that reduce barriers, respect learner variability, and support student growth across our province.

Essential Readings and Tools

Practical UDL Assessment Strategies

A quick-reference table of inclusive, low-effort strategies to make assessments more flexible, manageable, and aligned with UDL.

Engaging Alternative Grading

In this episode, Joshua Eyler shares how alternative grading methods can deepen student engagement and align with UDL by shifting the focus from evaluation to learning.

Tips for UDL-Aligned Assessment Design

This resource from CAST shares practical suggestions for designing flexible assessments that reduce barriers and support all learners.

UDL Assessment Flowchart

A step-by-step visual guide to help educators reflect on whether assessments align with UDL principles—prioritizing clarity, flexibility, and learner success.

Watch: 6 Steps for UDL Lesson Planning

Learn how to apply UDL in your teaching with this six-step planning process designed to support all learners.

Building inclusive learning experiences through intentional planning and open communication.

Designing inclusive learning plans is about more than listing deadlines and content; it’s about building intentional, flexible experiences that anticipate learner variability from the start. In Newfoundland and Labrador, where classrooms and community learning spaces are shaped by rich cultural, geographic, and social diversity, UDL provides a framework for designing meaningful and accessible learning for all.

A strong learning plan begins with a focus on why learning goals matter, encouraging conversations about relevance, motivation, and connection to students’ lives, communities, and future roles. In rural, urban, and Indigenous learning contexts across the province, this kind of flexibility and responsiveness is key. UDL encourages educators to plan for diverse pathways using multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression, making space for different strengths and ways of learning.

UDL also encourages a shift in mindset from “fixing the learner” to reimagining the design. Communicating expectations, supports, and options clearly, whether in a classroom in St. John’s or a community-based setting on the west coast, helps reduce barriers and build trust. A well-designed learning plan doesn’t just deliver content, it creates a welcoming, responsive environment where all learners in Newfoundland and Labrador can participate fully.

Design

Creating flexible, inclusive learning from the start

Essential Readings and Tools

CAST UDL Lesson Planning Guide

Podcast: Transparent Design

Tips for Designing Learning Experiences

Step-by-Step UDL Lesson Planner

Use these tabs to explore Goals, Assessment, and Communication within the Design step

Using flexible assessments to reflect diverse paths to learning

Essential Readings and Tools

UDL Tips for Developing Learning Goals

Planning for Clear Goals

Goals, Barriers, and Planning

Firm Goals and Student Engagement

Designing Assessments That Reflect, Not Restrict, Learning

Essential Readings and Tools

Practical UDL Assessment Strategies

Engaging Alternative Grading

Tips for UDL-Aligned Assessment Design

UDL Assessment Flowchart

Building inclusive learning experiences through intentional planning and open communication.

Essential Readings and Tools

UDL Planning Tools for Educators

Inclusive Classroom Strategies

Inclusive Educational Materials Toolkit

Students as Partners (Think UDL Podcast)