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Inclusive university teaching: Designing learning for everyone

Inclusive teaching anticipates students’ different abilities, backgrounds and learning needs. Good practices shared by Dr Jonathan Borg, from the Department for Inclusion & Access to Learning within the Faculty of Education, illustrate how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can support this approach.

UDL goes beyond individual accommodations by proactively designing learning environments that anticipate learner variability and reduce barriers to participation from the outset, while maintaining academic standards.

UDL encourages different ways of engaging students, presenting information and enabling learners to demonstrate their understanding. Practical approaches include:

• Sharing materials early to support preparation.
• Combining text, visuals and captioned videos to improve accessibility.
• Setting clear learning goals and organising content into manageable sections.
• Varying participation opportunities through paired discussions, polls and written reflections.
• Using formative check-ins to identify misconceptions before major assessments.
• Allowing appropriate assessment formats while retaining common learning outcomes and criteria.

Start with one lecture, activity or assessment: identify a barrier, try an adjustment and review its effect.

Academics interested in learning more are invited to participate in the workshop organised by OPAD, .

Through this , the aims to disseminate best practices at ½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ that align with both national and European standards for quality in higher education. If you have an example of good QA practice which you would like us to share, please get in touch with us at qac@um.edu.mt