How to Use Artificial Intelligence to Support Universal Design for Learning

2026 Equity Conference - KEYNOTE SESSION 2A: How to Use Artificial Intelligence to Support Universal Design for Learning Dr. Thomas J. Tobin | Author & Speaker When was the last time you heard colleagues talking about how artificial intelligence (AI) tools are either a) ruining our collective ability to think and address complex challenges or b) a miraculous solution that optimizes our time and energy, saving us from repetitive labor, low-complexity drudgery, and having to decide which shirt to wear with those slacks? Like most new tools that we’ve encountered in the past many decades in further, technical, and higher education, AI products are, at the end of the day, still just tools—tools that we can learn how to use well and situate in the progression of our learning activities. In this keynote session, we will introduce and expand on the universal design for learning (UDL) framework for creating learner engagements, content, and activities. Whether you are familiar with UDL or are new to the concept, you’ll discover specific actions you can take in order to lower access barriers for a variety of learners. We will also build on the foundation of UDL to discover ways to help learners to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools effectively at all stages of the learning arc, from beginners through proficiency all the way to approaching expertise. As a cap to our conversation, we’ll also note several places in the design process where we as classroom professionals can use AI tools ourselves in order to make materials and activities more engaging and more accessible for learners. Setting: our session will open with a thought experiment about where you or your learners already experience challenges in the learning activities that you do with them. This will set up our later conversations about UDL and AI tools. Welcome: we will establish many different ways that you can “be” in our session, whether you are in the room or joining us remotely. Wicked challenges: as we examine UDL and AI concepts, we will collectively define some thorny problems that many of us face in our design for, teaching of, and support of our learners. Questions & small-group rounds: we will make time to brainstorm three big questions. We will define barriers, predict the elements of UDL that can help to lower such barriers, and then plan for using AI tools in either/both the learner-action and planning stages of learning-activity development. Harvest: as we wrap up our session, we will create a shared record of our ideas, questions, action plans, and take-aways from our time together. This session will provide multiple ways to keep participants engaged (solo, collaborative, and interactive), multiple ways to present information (slide visuals, video sharing, text-chat, spoken audio), and multiple ways to join the conversation and show skills (video, text chat, self-guided reflection). We will use active-learning techniques and provide use-them-now resources for participants. Especially by relating UDL to broader access benefits for all learners, our activities will serve as models for participants to re-frame accessibility and inclusion conversations. This session also posits diversity in its most inclusive form: instead of relying solely on providing accommodation services to learners with disabilities—which is most often a last-minute, ad-hoc, reactive process—adopting UDL as part of an institution’s culture of course design, teaching practices, and support services allows all learners to benefit, regardless of their place on the ability or access spectrum.