The UDL + AI Design Studio is a six-week redesign studio where instructors improve one real teaching challenge using Universal Design for Learning (UDL)—a widely recognized, research-grounded framework for designing learning experiences. While UDL is highly respected in higher education, it is often presented as a complex set of principles and strategies; this studio reframes it as a simple, practical WHY–WHAT–HOW design cycle that makes redesign manageable and actionable. AI functions as a design partner, helping instructors apply UDL more efficiently to refine activities and assessments with clarity and precision. By the end of this short course, participants will be prepared to:

• Analyze a specific teaching challenge using baseline evidence to identify where students struggle and what factors are contributing to the problem
• Apply the UDL Learning Design Cycle (WHY → WHAT → HOW), using AI as a design assistant to generate, refine, and stress-test UDL-informed design moves efficiently
• Create a cohesive UDL + AI redesign package that strengthens student engagement, improves content clarity or access, and supports meaningful performance
• Evaluate the redesign by developing a feasible implementation and evidence plan that identifies indicators of impact and next steps for refinement.

Instructors

V. Blue Lemay, Binghamton University
Kimberly Elsener, Binghamton University
Chris Cain, Mars Hill University

Course Schedule

This 6-week short course meets in Zoom on Fridays at 7-8pm Gulf / 11am-12pm Eastern / 10-11am Central / 8-9am Pacific/Arizona from June 26 to July 31.

Audience

This studio is designed for CIRTL participants who are currently teaching or supporting teaching in higher education (or expect to teach in the next academic term), including graduate students, postdocs, and early-career faculty. Participants should:

• Have access to a real teaching context and be able to select one “teaching artifact” to redesign (e.g., an assignment, discussion activity, lesson plan, etc.)
• Have access to an AI tool (institution-approved, if applicable) and have familiarity using it for general idea generation
• Come with an open, learning-oriented mindset—prepared to experiment with AI as a support for instructional design rather than avoiding it altogether

No prior UDL training or advanced instructional design experience is required.

Workload

Participants should plan to spend approximately 90 minutes per week on asynchronous work, including short readings/videos, drafting components of their redesign, discussion participation, and peer feedback. Total estimated time commitment: 2–2.5 hours per week (live session + asynchronous work).

Registration and Enrollment

Interested in attending? Fill out this short form to get a reminder when registration opens.

Registration opens on Monday, June 8th at 10am CT. Cap: 15. Registration will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Registrants from CIRTL member institutions or alumni of CIRTL member institutions will receive priority. Once registration closes, all registrants will be notified of their enrollment status.

Accessibility

If you have access needs, please let us know what they are. Contact Zoe Zuleger (zmzuleger@wisc.edu) who is supporting this workshop, to let us know how we can help you have a successful experience. In addition to meeting individualized needs, we will also take measures throughout the course to support accessibility for all our students:

• Sending pre-session reminders with upcoming assignments to all students
• Sharing materials for synchronous sessions with students (slides, activity instructions, etc.)
• Enabling live captioning in synchronous sessions
• Incorporating multiple modes of interaction into synchronous sessions

About CIRTL Programming

CIRTL Network programming is designed to develop future faculty committed to implementing and advancing evidence-based teaching practices to create undergraduate educational experiences that are accessible to all learners. Participants can explore our programming in any order, and to whatever extent supports your own teaching development needs and interests. To help participants understand what they can expect across all our programming, all CIRTL programming aligns with four broad learning goals; within those goals, programming might provide participants with an introductory, intermediate, or advanced learning experience.

This institute supports the following CIRTL learning goals at an intermediate/advanced level:

• Goal 1: Develop evidence-based teaching knowledge. See more Goal 1 programming.
• Goal 2: Connect with community to enhance teaching. See more Goal 2 programming.
• Goal 3: Cultivate teaching skills through reflective improvement. See more Goal 3 programming.
• Goal 4: Prepare for an impactful career. See more Goal 4 programming.