There are so many tools to help us guide students with all different types of disabilities.
There are many ways to implement teaching, specifically the seven principles
As summarized by Ron Mace at the Center for Universal Design (UD) at North Carolina State University “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.”. Guidance is provided for using these seven design principles:
1) Equitable use, 2) Flexibility in use, 3) Simple and intuitive, 4) Perceptible information, 5) Tolerance for error, 6) Low physical effort, 7) Size and space for approach and use
The importance of Universal Design and the opportunity for students to access material is underlined by the fact that much disability remains hidden. It is not only for the student that is known to need accommodation but for the student who is struggling that we do not know the nature of their challenge.
Making sure to consider best practices and Universal Design are helpful not just for students with disabilities but for all students. Making sure to focus on getting your course accessible before the start of the course will also make it more possible to be welcoming and available to students.
Universal Design is critical when creatind a course usable for all. When implementing videos in a course, be sure to include a transcript and captioning. Avoid changing fonts and using colors to categorize things (in order to not disadvantage color-blind students).
There are so much information and resources available to assist educators in desigining lessons for their learners. I find that it's already a challenge authoring course work for non-disabled learners. With the added challenges of disabled learners, educators are more than ever relying special education just to learn to include all the nuances needed to accommodate these students. Being an educator today is not just about teaching subject matter, but it also include how to design and deliver your course work to ALL students.
Universal design is essential for all learners. To be provactive the tool should be flexible in use, simple and intuitive and tolerant in errors. I think Media Access Generator (MAGpie) is ideal.
Universal design helps prevent the need to overhaul courses. I also think a course designed with universal design in mind will be better for all students.
Nancy Tosh
OMG, there is so much, I don't know where to begin. I do know that I have not been trained in some of the material, but I have been making use of Panopto video for my class. I just didn't know I should be including a text transcript in the videos I made.
There is a lot of technology to incorporate with little time to learn it. How do we as instructors work through this? I am not afraid of technology, just not having the time to learn it quickly enough.
Gail
Online instructors should encourage contact between students and faculty, encourage active learning, give prompt feedback, emphasize time on task, respect diverse talents and ways of learning and communicate high expectations.
At first, I was a little intimidated realizing how little I knew about making appropriate accomodations to make coursework accessbile to all. While I know there is still a lot to learn, I think what I feel better about knowing is that there are resources, and I can simply speak with my school/department/team to help assist in making sure my class is appropriate for all.
Closed Captioning CC is another great tool to assist the students with different learning needs. It is another tool to keep in mind when trying to meet the needs of all students.
I learned that the Universal Design concepts is very important in a designing course, the professor have the responsibility to meet multiple ways to teach a lessons for all students including with disabilities, he has to facilitate the instructions.
In this module I learnd about thigs to consider when designing content for courses.
I found the different ways to make the course accessible very interesting.
I learned that we need to caption all our videos and recordings for students with disabilities.
It is important to have varying formats and designs for all online material to make all students, regardless of impairments/disabilities, feel welcomed and have every opportunity to succeed
At bare minimum, the instructor can record lectures and ensure that there is a text transcript for lectures available to students to ensure all knowledge is accesible for any student, no matter their disability.
Making courses accessible and beneficial to everyone is important to all students success. Researching the many tools available is a good place to start.
