Agile for Learning

Abstract

This paper discusses the need for including principles of Universal Design for Learning into online curriculum development. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides a framework for assessing the accessibility of learning materials and providing and including experience for all learners. Similarly, Agile Development principles provide a rapid prototyping set of best practices that can be integrated into a self-directed learning experience, and perpetually improving curriculum. This paper suggests that combining the rapid prototyping of Agile, in this case, the type of Agile called “Scrum”, together with UDL principles allows a mindset that fosters student engagement and dynamic learning that is transparent and inclusive.

Introduction to Universal Design

In both academic circles as well as in common usage, recent research about the nature of human ability has begun to challenge traditional notions of both gifted and impared students. Terms that focus on student disability are becoming less acceptable (Cherney, 2020), and society has become increasingly aware of the value that arises when individuals are given the opportunity and resources necessary to achieve their own goals. Universal Design is a term coined by Ronald L. Mace, an architect, to describe his own experiences of life with a disability (Pilarski & Rath, 2013). It encompasses the idea that creating special accomodations for those with “special needs” can both be expensive as well as stigmatizing, but choosing to create intentionally accessible spaces can be beautiful and efficient. Its intention is to choose inclusivity by planning for it in advance. Choosing inclusivity prevents costly later adaptations.

Similarly, applying these concepts to learning in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) challenged the idea that the failure to learn was fundamentally a difficulty of the learner, and instead sees failure to learn as a condemnation of the learning process (Posey). UDL is built around three driving principles, but fundamentally, in terms of design, UDL simply emphasizes building courses that feature progressive enhancement instead of always relying on graceful degradation. Graceful degradation builds for an ideal circumstance and then determines how to handle failures. Instead of creating a lesson and adapting it to include more capabilities to compensate for different capabilities, UDL promotes lessons that are created planning for and assuming a range of variability among learners, having multiple paths to achieve learning goals. The intention is to create “expert learners” (Posey) rather than master teachers.

Planning lessons with UDL is a holistic approach to objective management. It should not be inferred that each student requires their own individualized learning path. Rather, Rao and Meo note that learner variability is both systematic and predictable, so the teacher can reasonably be expected to create options that meet a flexible range of requirements, and allow students to select the options that suit them. The UDL framework includes practical checkpoints at which teachers can create branching paths that allow students to achieve objectives in multiple ways.

With online education, the daunting nature of understanding student needs is magnified by the distance. Distance makes personal connections between student and instructor more difficult, and communication is severely restricted, as compared to a traditional classroom setting. Online learning can often be text based, linear, and driven by the need to provide specific information, which does not provide ample opportunities for student engagement (Hollingshead & Carr-Chellman, 2019). The difficulties in connecting with both instructors and material can leave students predisposed to failure. Fortunately, the UDL framework provides a method for stimulating engagement. Based on neuroscience research (CAST.org), the UDL framework targets three aspects of education which directly stimulate the brain to learn through encoding and retrieval. UDL encourages flexibility in these three aspects of the learning process in order to create a self motivated engaged learner.

The growth of UDL has paralleled the evolution of a different style of business development projects, with the development of a concept called Agile Development. Principles of Agile Development are making their way into the UDL design space (González, et. al). Agile development is based on the concept of small teams which are self-directed with a knowledge of how to accomplish goals, and the authority and ability to pursue value in a well defined way. Like new “best practices” for UDL, Agile development promotes adaptability and user-centered thinking, around a set of core design principles. Agile development principles aid in developing online learning courses, by creating a mindset of adaptable improvement that is user focused and inclusive. These concepts may be used by both developers of educational software, as well teachers in the classroom as a rapid prototyping version of instructional design.

In this paper, I will review current research and recommendations for the integration Universal Design for Learning in online classrooms. We will briefly explain the principles in the UDL framework, and provide a review of practical recommendations. Additionally, we will lay out a suggested method for both integrating agile design principles in course design, as well as a suggested structure for a positive learning environment.

Background

Universal Design

With teachers in mind, Posey lays out the concepts of Universal Design in the article, Universal Design for Learning(UDL): A teacher’s guide as part of the teaching series Reaching and Teaching All Students With UDL, Posey explains UDL is a tool to think about barriers which are preexisting in the learning environment and the obstacles to learning, in order to reduce barriers to learning.

UDL is built around three points of flexibility. The first is flexibility in engagement, which addresses a learner’s connection and desire to learn. The goal of this flexibility is to create learners that are purposeful and self motivated. The second is flexibility in representation, which addresses the realization that learners consume knowledge in different ways. This is to create learners that are resourceful and knowledgeable. The third is flexibility in action, which addresses the complicated issue of allowing students flexibility in assessment to demonstrate their knowledge in different ways. This encourages students to be strategic and goal-directed (CAST.org). Posey provides questions and recommendations for ways teachers can examine the ways they give students choices, the options students have for receiving the material, and the methods provided for feedback.

Rao and Meo argue in their article Using Universal Design for Learning to Design Standards-Based Lessons that it is necessary to “unwrap” academic standards, separating them into skills and objectives, and use these standards to identify clear goals that may be assessed with a variety of methods and materials. Rao and Meo show how an academic standard, such as reading standards in the Common Core State Standard (CCSS), could potentially be unwrapped. For example, a standard in the CCSS may say, “Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.” A standard contains words that describe the skill that must be obtained, what the student must do, as well as a description of what knowledge the student must obtain in order to perform that skill. For this standard, the skills could be considered “Writing narrative” and “Develop experiences or events”, and they need to understand what techniques effective, what makes details descriptive, and what makes event sequences clear (Rao & Meo, 2016). The UDL cycle uses those goals to create potential assessments, and which are then used to create flexible materials, then teaching the material and creating a self assessment. UDL focuses on the neuroscience of learning, and suggests that the goals may be achieved in a variety of ways, which should be provided to the learner.

In the book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, (Brown, et. al.), describe the nature of learning as one of encoding, consolidation, and retrieval (pp. 72-83), which is reinforced most effectively by intermittent practice. They point out that failures to retrieve information are critical to reinforce learning, saying “easy learning” is less effective than more challenging approaches. Learning, from this perspective, is a matter of creating mental context for information from existing information, and creating ways to retrieve that information. It is providing a variety of methods for encoding and retrieval that UDL targets, to encourage successful consolidation of information in the learner.

Agile Development

Agile Development is a style of project management developed for software projects based on a set of guiding values and principles. It was conceived of as a mindset necessary to create consistent success in a turbulent environment. The guiding Agile principles were laid out in a series of values called the Agile Manifesto, with the label “agile” representing the guiding idea of adaptability and change awareness (Agile Alliance). Agile style development is organized around self guided teams that operate under guiding principles of transparency and respect. Agile teams are guided by a list of tasks which need to be accomplished. The team internally ranks these items by prerequisites and value with the aid of the team leader. Agile teams self-organize, meaning they choose internally how goals will be accomplished using available resources. Agile teams follow an iterative process that includes planning, development, and assessment. Agile can best be thought of as a mindset of transparency and accountability that allows maximum flexibility and adaptability.

UDL and Agile

Agile Development can be thought of as the process of attaching value to the engagement of a design team, while UDL attaches value to the learning process for the learner. Agile practices are a scalable methodology that help describe a pathway to creating maximum engagement through maximum inclusivity. (González, et. al)

It is suggested that Agile practices into UDL principles can create an Agile For Learning framework which can use well-defined roles and processes to encourage learner engagement with UDL philosophies. An Agile implementation, such as Scrum, can be easily adapted to a classroom environment. Scrum is one style of Agile that was developed and made publicly available in a document called the Scrum Guide.

Scrum is a simple methodology that describes the mindset and organizational choices necessary to divide a complex problem into a list of tasks to be accomplished (Scrum Guides, 2020). Scrum teams have well defined roles, in which the Scrum master assists the Scrum team in accomplishing well defined tasks. It features well defined roles, well defined communication, and well defined goals. This is compared to UDL, in which common elements of the UDL experience are described as “goal based learning, intentional flexible options, creating access to resources, and students building and internalizing their own learning” (Posey).

While lessons often begin with a syllabus or a set of core standards like the Common Core State Standard (CCSS), Scrum begins with a backlog, or documented list, of all the tasks, called stories, necessary to complete the project. These user stories are written in similar ways to learning objectives, and can be easily adapted. Each story consists of a short description of what needs to be accomplished. Agile for Learning could be defined as designing courses by unpacking objectives, as suggested by Rao and Meo, into the backlog of stories the learner must accomplish in order to complete the course, as well as providing resources to accomplish those tasks in flexible and User Experience (UX)-aware ways. UX focuses on understanding users and their needs in a deep and fundamental way (Usability.gov). Being UX-aware ensures learners can understand and find the value in the learning experience.

UDL recommends providing explicitly taught goals and allowing for asynchronous learning. Scrum has a natural way of including these concepts. Scrum divides a project into well-defined time periods called “Sprints”, in business often two weeks or a month. These sprints begin by selecting tasks from the backlog which can be accomplished in the allotted time, performing the tasks while communicating regularly, followed by evaluation and review. Focusing on the user story of what needs to be accomplished encourages flexibility in providing the solution. For the CCSS standard above, the user stories might be described as “As a writer, I want to be able to write a story as a narrative”. The user story description would be attached to the values, “I want my techniques to be effective. I want my details to be descriptive. I want my events sequences to be clear.” After discussing the options available, some students may prefer lectures, while others may prefer to read example material. While some students may appreciate a variety of exercises, which might increase in length, others may only need a single exercise for confirmation of mastery.

Agile and Scrum have a heavy focus on transparency and mutual respect in order to correctly assess whether value has been obtained. Similarly, UDL recognizes an environment of communication (Rappolt-Schlichtmann, 2020 ), where students state how their goals are progressing and their need for additional support is identified as critical. Daily, or weekly, check-ins are a useful tool for identifying room for improvement, similar to Scrum daily stand-up meetings. These are short discussions of what needs to be accomplished, what the team is currently individually working on, and whether needs are met.

After each Sprint, Scrum is designed to have two separate assessment meetings. The first is an evaluation meeting that determines whether tasks are completed, but the second is a feedback session called the retrospective. Building these retrospective meetings into a curriculum provides built in places to assess whether student needs are being met, and whether all resources are being provided to each learner. This creates not only agency and self determination in the learner, but creates a bond of trust and responsibility between the teacher and student. The process then simply iterates, with the next sprint planning choosing the learning goals for the next sprint, and modifications being made based on feedback.

Example Case

As an example from real-life, a course at Wake Technical Community College called Web Programming and Design with HTML/CSS is taught based on a curriculum following a workshop text by O’Reilly Books. The content in this course can be consumed in different ways, with a singular goal of passing a certification exam. Despite needing to pass a certain set of core requirements in an examination, and despite being based on a specific book, there are a variety of ways to consume the information needed for the exam. There are online videos associated with the course text, the option of instructor led study, as well as the textbook itself and its example problems and activities. Additionally, these same concepts can be learned through independent study, by following how-tos or through self exploration. The course is designed to begin with “Agile Culture”, leading the author to develop the course as a synthesized Scrum team with the goal of accomplishing the necessary HTML/CSS results required by the course. While the pacing of the course is loosely dictated by the schedule, individual classes are modified by student feedback. In the beginning of the course, sprints were given 1 hour blocks, which were extended to weekly blocks later in the semester. This flexibility in length of sprint allowed the students to learn the transparency and communication needed for success and practice it before extending the sprint to a more practical length. Students were given flexibility in how to allocate classroom time, and were welcomed to choose to focus independently rather than participate in class, with regular check-ins to provide self assessment, and for group assessment through in class demonstrations. During the retrospectives done each week between the “sprints”, the students are encouraged to ask for modifications or additional resources, as well as review sessions when needed. While this case study is limited to the current class, the results have so far been promising. Student engagement in the course is active and positive, and students are eager to share their work and learn from each other. Creating a transparent feedback system in which failure is a successful opportunity to learn and critique has enabled lively discussions and support among students from a wide variety of backgrounds and technical skills.

Conclusion

Agile Development Processes and Universal Design for Learning are both user centered mindsets that compliment each other very well. Agile, in particular Scrum, methods give a reusable framework for a classroom structure that addresses common problems with online training programs, such as communication and collaboration, by including frequent communication and feedback inside the structure of a team that is self guided. Agile encourages buy-in from learners on learning objectives through the use of User Stories which may be completed using multiple resources in a variety of ways with guidance from the teacher. The focus on adaptation and responsiveness in Agile methodologies matches the UDL principle of flexibility, and encourages engagement through personal responsibility. Agile methods embrace transparency and encourage a mindset of building knowledge from failures, and iteration to find success. Agile methods can both be used to design classes that are inclusive to learner User Experience related issues, but can also be used as a flexible learning framework to structure classroom learning environments directly.