Insights from the Application of Universal Design Principles to Support English Language Learners

The rising number of international students who are English Language Learners (ELL) at English-speaking universities has introduced challenges and opportunities for these students and their instructors. In this paper we present a case study of our experiences using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to guide curriculum design that supports ELL students in a first programming course (CS1). We assess the success of our approach in terms of student grades with respect to the entire CS1 population, student feedback via surveys, and instructor reflections. Our contribution to the computer science education community is an argument for following UDL when designing curriculum to support language needs. We believe that this curriculum will benefit both ELLs and their native English speaking peers in a broad, linguistically diverse student population.