3.5: Multimodal Learning

Criterion Overview

Meaningful learning occurs when students actively engage with course content rather than passively consume information. Effective courses provide a variety of learning experiences that encourage students to interact with ideas, practice new skills, collaborate with others, and demonstrate what they know in meaningful ways.

Rather than relying on a single instructional strategy, engaging courses intentionally vary instructional approaches throughout the semester. Learning experiences may include discussions, interactive media, collaborative activities, self-check quizzes, simulations, guided practice, problem-solving activities, or other approaches that encourage active participation and sustained engagement.

Grounded in the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), engaging courses recognize that students learn in different ways. Providing multiple opportunities to access content, participate in learning, and demonstrate understanding helps remove unnecessary barriers while maintaining consistent learning outcomes and academic expectations.

Why It Matters

Students are more likely to remain motivated and retain new knowledge when they actively participate in the learning process. A variety of instructional approaches encourages curiosity, increases engagement, and provides students with multiple opportunities to build understanding throughout the course.

Engagement is more than simply keeping students busy. Well-designed learning activities encourage students to interact with content, practice new skills, collaborate with others, receive feedback, and demonstrate learning in meaningful ways. Providing a variety of instructional approaches also recognizes learner variability by allowing students to engage with content through multiple pathways while working toward the same learning objectives.

Courses designed using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles benefit all learners—not only those requiring accommodations. By intentionally varying instructional strategies, instructors create learning environments that are more engaging, flexible, and responsive to learner needs.

What This Looks Like

A well-designed course typically includes:

• A variety of learning activities that encourage active participation.
• Multiple ways for students to engage with course content.
• Opportunities to practice and apply new knowledge before major assessments.
• Individual, collaborative, and interactive learning experiences.
• Multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate learning when appropriate.
• Learning experiences designed using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to support learner variability.

Students remain actively engaged throughout the course while working toward the same learning outcomes.

Design Tips

Ask yourself: Do my learning activities provide students with multiple meaningful ways to engage with content and demonstrate their learning, or are students primarily consuming information?

✔ Vary instructional strategies throughout the course to maintain student engagement.

✔ Present important concepts using multiple instructional approaches, such as text, images, audio, video, demonstrations, and simulations.

✔ Include opportunities for students to practice, collaborate, discuss, and receive feedback throughout the learning process.

✔ Scaffold complex learning experiences with examples, templates, guided practice, and timely feedback.

✔ Provide meaningful opportunities for students to demonstrate learning in different ways when appropriate.

✔ Design learning experiences using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to anticipate learner variability.

✔ Balance individual, collaborative, and interactive learning experiences throughout the course.

✔ Regularly review course activities to ensure they actively engage students while supporting the intended learning outcomes.