Examples of Multiple Means of Representation

Examples of Multiple Means of Representation

Overview

Offering multiple means of representation honors the different ways learners approach content. Each guideline shares considerations for ensuring information is accessible, comprehensible, and encompasses diverse perspectives, along with strategies to scaffold learning. 

Resources

  1. Multiple Means of Representation Guidelines & Considerations 
    1. CAST UDL Guidelines website that provides guidance on how to incorporate each guideline and the corresponding considerations 
  2. Some of the examples on this page align with AACN New Essentials competencies within the following domains: 
    1. Domain 1: Knowledge for Nursing Practice 
    2. Domain 2: Person-Centered Care 
    3. Domain 3: Population Health 
    4. Domain 9: Professionalism

Examples

Guideline 1: Design Options for Perception 

1.1 Support opportunities to customize the display of information. 
  1. Choose course resources and tools that allow students to customize the display of information (e.g., font, text size and color, color contrast, image size, volume control, playback speed, etc...).  
1.2 Support multiple ways to perceive information. 
  1. To support multiple ways to perceive information, if you are providing students with: 
    1. a video, also provide accurate captions.
    2. a narrated PowerPoint, also provide an indexed transcript.
    3. a podcast, also provide a basic transcript.
    4. an image, also provide accurate alternative text descriptions.
  2. Include an audio file and a transcript for the Welcome video to optimize perceptibility. 
  3. Create short video module introductions in addition to the traditional written module introduction (the written intro will also serve as a basic transcript). 
  4. Deliver weekly announcements as an embedded video, an audio file, and text for multiple means of perception.  
1.3 Represent a diversity of perspectives and identities in authentic ways.
  1. When creating case studies, avoid stereotypes and incorporate a range of patients with various identities including (but not limited to) gender, race, different abilities, nationality, and socio-economic background to represent the diversity they will see in professional practice. (AACN New Essentials 2.1c, 2.2b, & 9.6a)

Guideline 2: Design Options for Language & Symbols

2.1 Clarify vocabulary, symbols, and language structures. 
  1. In a course’s Start Here module, include a sheet of course-specific commonly used vocabulary words and their meanings to assist students in their learning. 
  2. Embed vocabulary support, e.g., linking to the Interactive Nursing Glossary, to reinforce comprehension.
  3. Pre-teach domain-specific vocabulary students will use in the course using common terms.
  4. Deliver a vivid course narrative to conceptualize abstract information.
2.2 Support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols. 
  1. Write the full term followed by the acronym in parentheses for each initial appearance on a page.
  2. In courses that introduce students to various professional organizations, there are often a lot of acronyms used. Create a reference sheet that lists all of the organizations along with their acronym to help students connect the two as they become familiar with them.
  3. Define specialized terminology using non-specialized terminology and examples. 
  4. Provide links to multilingual glossaries like WordReference to support linguistically diverse students.
  5. Facilitate decoding of specialized vocabulary by pairing written terms with visuals that illustrate meaning.   
  6. Enable the Immersive Reader feature in Canvas to support comprehensibility of text. 
    1. Note: If this is turned off at the account level, use the following instructions to turn this feature on at the user level: How do I use the Microsoft Immersive Reader in a course as a student?  
2.3 Cultivate understanding and respect across languages and dialects. 
  1. Make students aware they can change the Canvas site navigation language and enable auto captions in a set language when available to reduce learning barriers for linguistically diverse students.
  2. Make students aware they have the option to use the Canvas IgniteAI translation feature for discussions, inbox, and announcements.   
  3. Choose course resources and tools that offer options such as changing site language and text-to-speech features which reduces learning barriers for certain linguistically diverse students.  
2.4 Address biases in the use of language and symbols. 
  1. Create scenarios, simulations, or discussions centered around linguistically diverse patients to prepare students to establish caring relationships and communicate effectively. (AACN New Essentials 2.1, 2.2, 3.1g, & 9.6)
  2. Choose course content that explores linguistically responsive communication strategies to prepare students for engaging in effective partnerships. (AANC New Essentials 2.2, 3.1g, & 3.2c) 
2.5 Illustrate through multiple media. 
  1. Incorporate learning objects that provide additional context to the material being learned in the module. 
  2. Choose course content that includes multiple media such as podcasts, videos, web explorations, and learning objects to make information more relatable and comprehensible. 
  3. Choose course content that includes graphic representations to supply concrete visuals that align with abstract concepts presented in text.
  4. Choose videos that illustrate concepts using animations or real-world models to make abstract information relatable.  

Guideline 3: Design Options for Building Knowledge

3.1 Connect prior knowledge to new learning. 
  1. Craft course narrative that activates background knowledge, draws explicit connections between module topics, and leverages analogies and metaphors to facilitate conceptualization of concepts.
  2. Choose course content that anchors new concepts to familiar, well-known concepts to activate background knowledge. 
  3. Choose course content that leverages analogies and metaphors to facilitate conceptualization of concepts. 
  4. Use advanced organizers like concept maps to foster connections between concepts.  
3.2 Highlight and explore patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships. 
  1. Include examples or illustrations of all major course assignments or activities.
  2. Prompts and questions within active learning guides can focus student attention on critical concepts. 
  3. Choose course content that provides examples to emphasize key concepts.
3.3 Cultivate multiple ways of knowing and making meaning. 
  1. Provide multimedia content options to give students multiple entry points into the module lesson. 
  2. Include a variety of assignment types to allow for multiple ways of making meaning and demonstrating learning. 
  3. Design rubrics for discussions and assignments that offer student choice of deliverable to focus on assessing comprehension rather than the deliverable, which honors the many ways individuals construct knowledge. 
  4. Build course pages so curated content is organized under consistent headings by topic to chunk information, which supports categorization of information and reduces cognitive load. 
  5. Organize multimedia content options by topic to provide multiple entry points and learning pathways. 
  6. Choose course content that organizes information by topic, which supports categorization of information and reduces cognitive load.
  7. Choose course content that incorporates storytelling as a strategy for constructing knowledge. 
  8. Design larger assignments/projects to have multiple parts, which supports information processing and helps to prevent cognitive overload.  
3.4 Maximize transfer and generalization.
  1. Develop explicit, supported scenarios to generalize learning in new situations (e.g., different types of problems that may arise when working with a patient or using specific scientific principles when analyzing parasites).
  2. Incorporate non-graded practice opportunities, such as learning objects, with immediate feedback for self-correction to support memorability of concepts. 
  3. Craft course narrative that anchors abstract concepts with familiar contexts to make information relatable.
  4. Organize multimedia content options by topic to represent the same information in multiple ways to scaffold concepts and improve their memorability.
  5. Incorporate active learning guides to facilitate synthesis of information.
  6. Include prompts in active learning guides that invite students to define terms in their own words or make their own connections, which honors the multiple ways individuals construct knowledge and promotes generalization of learning.
  7. Prompt students to document mistakes and articulate corrections while completing practice activities (e.g., learning objects) to facilitate synthesis of information. 
  8. Design discussions and assignments that direct students to explicitly articulate connections between concepts, which promotes generalization of learning to new contexts. 
  9. Structure learning around concepts that incorporate real-world scenarios to support students in transferring theoretical knowledge to clinical practice. (AACN New Essentials 1.3, 2.4, 2.5, & 2.6). 

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