Friday, 11/07/2025
Supporting Multiple Ways Students Communicate
At the CTL, our theme this year is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Each Teaching Minute highlights a component of the updated UDL Guidelines and offers practical ideas you can use right away. This week, we’re looking at Action & Expression, particularly around communication.
As we settle into November, the days feel shorter, the workload grows, and energy naturally shifts. Students may seem quieter, tired, or distracted, and you might be feeling it, too. The break is close, but not quite here yet.
In moments like this, it can help to bring in a little ease and flexibility, offering students more ways to express what they understand and how they're doing. We know bandwidth is real - so consider these ideas as small invitations. Even one adjustment can spark new ways for students to show their thinking.
Why Communication Matters in Higher Ed
A question we’ve been hearing lately: How do we really know how students are doing right now? And how do we create a classroom where they feel comfortable expressing that?
Oftentimes, communication in a classroom “shows” as a quick answer to a question, a raised hand, or a comment in discussion. These can absolutely be signs of engagement - but they’re not the only ones. Some think best by sketching, brainstorming aloud, or creating audio reflections. Others prefer writing quietly, sharing feedback online, or moving through ideas visually or physically. And some need a moment to process before contributing at all.
When we honor these differences by offering various communication options, students not only feel seen, but they also learn with more confidence and connection to the material.
Practical Ideas to Try
- Build in brief reflection pauses, such as a one-minute write, silent reflection, or digital sticky notes, before discussion to allow students to process the prompt. (Harvard offers a great example of why giving students that space to reflect matters.)
- Clarify with students that participation and communication can take many forms beyond speaking up.
- Offer multiple ways to participate, such as Polling tips from Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Innovation, using the Teams chat, collaborating on shared documents, sketchnoting, or responding via quick audio/video responses in Brightspace.
- Offer students different ways to show what they know through flexible assignments or choice menus (See Dr. Caitlin Tucker’s example of a choice board for ideas.)
Note: When we give students multiple ways to share what they know, they may get more creative with their responses! It may also change how they approach tools like AI. Rather than just a way to generate a “right” answer, they start thinking about AI as something to help explore ideas. Choice invites curiosity.
Dig Deeper
- From Classwork: “25 Examples of Multimodal Learning to Use in Your Classroom”
- From Faculty Focus: “Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Harnessing Assignment Menus for Student Choice in Learning”
If you want to talk about how UDL could work in your own course, the CTL team is here to brainstorm ideas, share strategies, or connect with upcoming workshops. Schedule a consultation with us to keep the conversation going!
Happy teaching!
Center for Teaching & Learning
www.uvm.edu/ctl
ctl@uvm.edu