How will your interactive learning resource specifically ensure that the needs of all learners can be met?
For me, creating accessible learning designs are of great importance, partly because I believe that learning should consider the needs of diverse learners and partly because I have personal experience in requiring accessible learning. In my grade 12 year, I sustained a brain injury that presented many challenges to my academic success. I could not sustain attention or sit in a classroom, I struggled to read and write, my memory became impaired, and it seemed impossible to overcome these barriers. For me, some teachers were willing to help me adapt, giving extra time on exams or allowing me to leave the room. Others, however, did not provide accessible learning options and I was faced with the options of dropping out or failing. These difficulties are not unique to me, and many learners struggle academically simply due to inaccessible learning designs that do not account for differences in hearing, vision, attention, language and more.
Through reading the required posts on accessibility and inclusive learning design, a number of important factors came into light. Firstly, it’s imperative to remember to design for all learners and ensure that we don’t overlook the potential barriers for participants to actively engage with the material. As well, we should think about learning as universal and consider the ways in which the material can be designed for multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression. Finally we should consider equity over equality and design an inclusive, accessible learning resource that benefits all learners.
In our learning resource, which focuses on maintaining mental health, we have designed it to be accessible for all learners. The material will be presented online, through free captioned videos and articles that minimize barriers in the financial cost of textbooks as well as being able to learn at any time or place rather than in a specific classroom. Our videos will be captioned and are approximately 5 minutes long, to reduce attentional demand and allow learners to move quickly through the course. The articles may be adapted to include text-to-speech, accommodating those who may have visual difficulties. Our formative assessment will ask learners to annotate the blog with their own ideas, connections, and insights. To make this accessible, we will not have a time limit on completion so that learners can work at their own pace and we will include a text-to-speech function to include those who may have difficulties writing. The summative assessment will be a self-care journal that asks students to reflect on their experiences and draw connections with the material. We can provide options for completing this task through allowing learners the freedom to create a video, audio clip, drawing, poem, written reflection, skit, dance or anything else that they can create to express their learning. The learning materials will be accessible on any online format and are not restricted to a desktop computer, allowing those without computers to learn. Our course will have no time limits in finishing each section of the material and the due dates for assessments will be flexible, to ensure that all can complete it at their own pace. Our goal is to make our design as flexible and inclusive as possible, to give learners opportunities to engage creatively, and to increase active participation through meaningful assessments. While we want our design plan to accommodate all learners needs, self-advocacy is an important part in creating greater accessibility. We may still overlook some barriers and we want learners to communicate with us if they are facing challenges as we will be able to adapt the material to ensure that all learner are included.
References:
Meyer, Anne, et al. Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice. CAST Professional Publishing, an Imprint of CAST, Inc., 2014, UDL Theory Practice, retrieved from: udltheorypractice.cast.org/
Right to Education – Inclusive Education, retrieved from: https://www.inclusiveeducation.ca/learn/right-to-education/
Linked blog post
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