Supporting Neurodivergent Students

Prior work—a 2019 study by Schreffler, Vasquez, Chini, et al.—investigated the efficacy of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in supporting students with disabilities (SWD) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (STEM). SWD are somewhat more likely than the general population to enroll in STEM majors, but for some disabilities, students are less likely to graduate with those majors. Nonetheless, the authors found a paucity of prior work involving the use of UDL for SWD in STEM. In addition to highlighting the need for future quantitative research overall, the authors noted that it would be interesting to investigate which UDL methods are most effective for SWD. For example, for certain executive functioning disorders or forms of neurodivergence, is it more appropriate to assign a greater number of lower-stakes assessments—providing multiple means to access information—or a smaller number of higher-stakes assessments—reducing the cognitive load of balancing a large number of deliverables? We aim to investigate this question of which UDL methods are most effective, beginning with the number of assessments, through a combination of data aggregation and qualitative interviews. Specifically, our research questions are: (1) How much variability is there in the numbers of summative and formative assessments used in CS courses? (2) What impact does a greater number of low-stakes assessments, or a greater ratio of formative to summative assessments, have for neurodivergent students and students with disabilities? (3) To what extent do these impacts differ across forms of neurodivergence or disabilities? We plan to gather data on what assessment patterns are presently used at Cal Poly, from some or all of the following sources: course syllabi from instructor web pages, campus-wide Canvas repository data (if available through CTLT), data on use of accommodations in Cal Poly STEM courses (if available through DRC). This data gathering process will provide us context for asking our research questions. The next phase, possibly in the term following the SURP project, will be to conduct interviews of faculty, students, or both.