Kremen School of Education and Human Development

Kimberly Coy

Professor

Department of Teacher Preparation | 2066019578

kcoy@mail.fresnostate.edu

Education

My educational path has brought together communication, classroom teaching, special education, and technology. Each degree added a different piece to the work I do today.

Ph.D. in Special Education, Washington State University, 2013
My doctoral work focused on online learning for students with special learning needs, Universal Design for Learning, and the assessment of synchronous and asynchronous instruction. My dissertation, Online Instruction with Universal Design for Learning in the Synchronous K–12 Classroom, grew from my experience teaching students with and without disabilities in online schools.

Master of Arts in Teaching, Goucher College, 1998
My graduate studies concentrated on special education inclusion and prepared me to support students with diverse learning needs in general education classrooms.

Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, University of Washington, 1984
My undergraduate work in communication continues to shape how I teach, collaborate, and make complex ideas more accessible to students, educators, and families.

Courses Taught

Undergraduate and Credential Courses

  • SPED 120 — Introduction to Special Education
  • SPED 136 — Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for Students with Mild/Moderate Disabilities
  • SPED 145 — Designing Effective Environments for Students with Moderate/Severe Disabilities
  • SPED 179 — Differentiated Instruction and Classroom Management
  • SPED 235 — Development and Induction: Mild/Moderate and Moderate/Severe Disabilities
  • SPED 236 — Seminar in Advanced and Applied Pedagogy: Mild/Moderate and Moderate/Severe Disabilities
  • SPED 246 — Specialized Academic Instruction for Students with Mild/Moderate Disabilities

Graduate Courses

  • SPED 248/280T — Advanced Curriculum and Instruction for Students with Mild/Moderate and Extensive Support Needs
  • SPED 280T — Special Education Issues and Trends

Doctoral Courses

  • EDL 580T — Universal Design for Learning
  • EDL 580T — Technology in Education
  • Technology in Educational Leadership — Collaborative Online Doctorate in Educational Leadership at CSU Channel Islands and Fresno State

I am a special educator, teacher educator, and researcher with a long-standing interest in making learning more inclusive, accessible, and engaging. Before joining Fresno State in 2015, I taught students with and without disabilities in kindergarten through middle school settings, including both traditional classrooms and fully online public schools. Those experiences continue to shape how I think about teaching, technology, and the responsibility schools have to create environments in which all students can participate and learn.

At Fresno State, I teach in the Education Specialist credential and graduate programs and serve as a core faculty member in the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. I have also served as Graduate Coordinator for the Master of Arts in Special Education, Coordinator of the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, and Professor in Residence for teacher residency programs.

Mentoring is an important part of my work. I support credential candidates as they develop into special educators, guide master’s students through applied research projects, and chair and serve on doctoral dissertation committees. I particularly enjoy helping students identify questions that grow from their own professional experiences and turn those questions into meaningful research.

I earned my Ph.D. in Special Education from Washington State University, where my research focused on online learning, Universal Design for Learning, and students with special learning needs. I also hold a Master of Arts in Teaching from Goucher College, with an emphasis in special education inclusion, and a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from the University of Washington.

My work begins with a fairly simple belief: learners should not have to change to become better at school; schools should change to become better for learners. Too often, students are described as disabled, unmotivated, or disengaged when the real barriers exist within the learning environment.

Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, gives me a practical way to examine and address those barriers. I am especially interested in how UDL can guide the design of inclusive instruction in face-to-face, online, blended, and postsecondary settings. My research has explored what meaningful access looks like in digital learning, how teachers can provide students with multiple ways to engage and demonstrate learning, and how inclusive course design can benefit all learners.

My current areas of interest include:

  • Universal Design for Learning in K–12 and higher education
  • Inclusive special education and teacher preparation
  • Online, blended, and digitally mediated learning
  • Co-teaching in virtual and technology-rich environments
  • Artificial intelligence in special education and teacher preparation
  • Accessibility and assistive technology
  • Preparation and support of diverse special education teachers
  • Mentorship of emerging teacher-scholars and educational leaders

More recently, I have been exploring artificial intelligence in special education, including educators’ perceptions of AI, their readiness to use it, and the opportunities and challenges it creates for teacher preparation. I am particularly interested in how emerging technologies can increase access and support learning without losing sight of relationships, professional judgment, privacy, and the individual needs of students.

My scholarship brings together special education, Universal Design for Learning, digital learning, and teacher preparation. I try to produce work that is useful both to researchers and to educators working directly with students.

My publications have examined UDL in online and postsecondary education, the roles of special educators in virtual schools, co-teaching in digital environments, inclusive teacher preparation, and the ways universities responded to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. My work has appeared in publications including the Journal of Educational Technology Systems, Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Journal of Special Education Technology, Teaching Exceptional Children, Research in Learning Technology, and the International Journal of Educational Reform.

Recent and selected scholarship includes:

  • “When COVID-19 Disrupted University Teaching: The University Fought Back” (2024)
  • “Co-Teaching in a K–12 Digital World” (2024)
  • “UDL 3.0 and Teacher Education: Opportunity or Obstacle?” with Elizabeth Hartmann (2024)
  • “Co-Teaching in a Digital World: It’s Not Teaching by Title, It’s Teaching by Talent” with Leslie Miller (2023)
  • “Universal Design for Learning Enables Significant Learning in Digital Courses” (2020)
  • “Recommendations for a National Research Agenda in UDL,” with an interdisciplinary team of UDL researchers (2019)
  • “Using Universal Design for Learning in Synchronous Online Instruction,” with Matthew Marino and Barbara Serianni (2014)

I also write children’s books that make disability and difference more understandable to young readers and their families. My books include Covid Baby and Mia with Dyslexia, with Andy with Autism forthcoming. This creative work is another way for me to connect scholarship with the experiences of children, families, and educators.

Sharing scholarship through presentations is also central to my work. I have presented at national and international conferences on UDL, inclusive education, digital co-teaching, teacher preparation, and artificial intelligence in special education. Recent presentations have focused on teacher readiness to use AI and the thoughtful integration of AI into special education teacher preparation. I have also given invited and keynote presentations, including a keynote on Universal Design for Learning at the University of California, San Francisco’s Annual Education Symposium.

My scholarship is closely connected to collaboration and grant-funded work. I am a co-investigator for Project ACCESS, a $1.249 million grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs. The project prepares diverse scholars to become special education teachers serving students and communities in California’s Central Valley. I have also contributed to funded initiatives focused on anti-racist teacher preparation, improvement research, inclusive education, and faculty mentorship.

Across these different forms of scholarship, my goal remains the same: to help educators design learning environments that recognize learner variability from the beginning and create genuine opportunities for every student to participate, contribute, and succeed.