Towards Inclusive eLearning: Improving Accessibility of eLearning in Higher Education from Universal Design for Learning perspective

The TINEL project (Towards Inclusive eLearning) is a 3-year project (2018-2021) funded by the Erasmus+ programme.

The aims are to:
•Increase awareness and knowledge about inclusive eLearning and Universal Design for eLearning (UDeL).
•Create and test a model for training teachers, to inspire teachers and create a support network for UDeL.
•Develop and test learning material for teachers consisting of “Context cards” showing a diversity of situations a proactive teacher can prepare for; videos with experiences of teachers and students; and articles useful for creating fruitful discussions about UDeL.

In the project we arrange:
•An Open Call for best practices in Universal Design for Learning, where four awarded articles were presented at a conference in Jyväskylä, Finland.
•4 Camps (workshops) and 4 Follow-up webinars, where staff at higher education institutions bring their own cases about inclusive eLearning, share experiences, and learn about Universal Design for eLearning.
•A number of national webinars disseminating the results from the project.
•A Closing conference at York University and online 8-9 December 2021. Abstracts and presentations: https://www.hamk.fi/projects/tinel/?lang=en#conferences

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is about removing thresholds for learning, so students can:
•Engage in learning in multiple ways
•Receive information in multiple ways
•Show their knowledge in multiple ways

CAST guidelines: http://udlguidelines.cast.org
UDeL = UDL with a focus on eLearning and blended learning.