Dr. Margaret Schultz presents as part of the Ignite Speaker Series

For release:  February 22, 2017

Dr. Margaret Schultz, instructor in the Department of BIT, will be a presenter at the Ignite Speaker Series on March 16, hosted by UM3D. Her presentation is entitled "Applying UDL principles and supporting self-regulated learning in a project-based distance education course." The mission of UM3D is to provide assistance to University of Memphis faculty and staff with their efforts to design, develop, and deliver high-quality hybrid and online instructions. Ignite is a speaker series to raise awareness and facilitate discussion of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) amongst faculty and staff.

UDL is a curriculum design framework based on cognitive neuroscientific principles and beliefs about the way people learn. The UDL guiding principles for curriculum design are based on the belief that people are widely diverse in terms of the ways that they are able to learn. The curriculum should be designed to support the many different ways that people learn so that education is accessible to everybody.

Dr. Schultz serves as co-chair of the UDL Research and Implementation Committee along with Dr. Fair Josey Berg, instructional designer at the University of Memphis Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. The goals of this committee are to provide a means for translating UDL research into practice on our campus and consider ways to reshape teaching and learning by guiding the design of instruction with flexibility in mind. The Center recently funded a trip where Dr. Schultz attended a symposium hosted by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) at Harvard University to learn about the latest research and strategies for implementing UDL principles. She has focused her research efforts on UDL in post-secondary distance education.