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How do you overcome the technical and logistical challenges of e-learning accessibility and inclusion?

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E-learning is a convenient and flexible way of delivering education, but it also poses some technical and logistical challenges for accessibility and inclusion. Accessibility refers to the design and delivery of e-learning materials and activities that are usable by all learners, regardless of their abilities, preferences, or devices. Inclusion refers to the sense of belonging and participation that learners experience in an e-learning environment, regardless of their backgrounds, identities, or perspectives. How do you overcome these challenges and ensure that your e-learning courses are accessible and inclusive for all learners? Here are some tips and strategies to help you.

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1 Choose an accessible platform

The first step to creating accessible and inclusive e-learning courses is to choose a platform that supports accessibility standards and features. These include web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG), which provide a set of principles and criteria for making web content accessible to people with disabilities, such as vision, hearing, cognitive, or motor impairments. You should also look for a platform that offers features such as captions, transcripts, alternative text, keyboard navigation, color contrast, font size, and language settings. These features can help learners access and understand your e-learning content more easily and comfortably.

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Jacob Bader

Professional Educator | Educational Consultant | Administrator
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I have mostly worked with students that have struggled with language accessibility as multilingual learners rather than students with other disabilities. However, many of the tools that help students with disabilities can also help multilingual learners. When picking a platform it is important to know your audience and their needs. There are a lot of great tools that can help make the content more accessible; however, remember that some of these tools have limitations. For example, if you are using a computer-based text-to-speech feature it may make the content more accessible but less engaging if the text is read by a monotone computer-generated voice. Therefore, it might be better to use a program to record yourself reading the text.

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Avery V.

Curriculum Writer | Aspiring Instructional Designer | E-learning specialist
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Many disabled students, especially those with physical disabilities, already know how to use adaptive technology, but not all of them, and those with cognitive/learning disabilities often do not. Instructors shouldn't take for granted that their learners will know how to use these features. Be sure to become familiar with them yourself (and know HOW to use them). Give explicit instruction: point out the accessibility features, demonstrate how to use them, and explain how they might be useful.

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2 Design with diversity in mind

The next step to creating accessible and inclusive e-learning courses is to design your content and activities with diversity in mind. This means considering the different needs, preferences, and experiences of your learners, and providing them with multiple options and formats to access and engage with your e-learning materials. For example, you can use a variety of media, such as text, images, audio, video, and animations, to present your information and instructions, and allow learners to choose the ones that suit them best. You can also use different types of assessments, such as quizzes, assignments, projects, or portfolios, to measure your learners' progress and performance, and give them feedback and support accordingly.

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Naomi L.

AI Pioneer Educator | Inclusive EdTech & Online Learning Specialist
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Educators and course designers can nurture a sense of inclusion by providing assignments that offer students creative freedom. Allowing learners to express their creativity will enable them to feel ownership and control over their learning experience. For example, my upper-level sociology courses require a graded final project with minimal instructions for formatting. Instead, they are encouraged to use the most comfortable medium or choose a format that will allow them to learn new skills. I have had students submit videos of themselves rapping, reading their sociology-inspired poetry, and interviewing their peers. This assignment encourages students to share their unique perspectives, and students love it!

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Jacob Bader

Professional Educator | Educational Consultant | Administrator
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Diversity is often lacking in e-learning courses and needs to be prioritized. It is important to provide choices and options to your students to allow for different needs and interests but also to facilitate student engagement. However, instructors can get carried away by providing too many options and ones that are not equitable in assessing learning. When it comes to instruction I have seen some e-learning courses with different learning paths that the student can choose to master the content. Regarding, having different types of assessments, I recommend that instructors complete these assessments themselves to test their validity and develop good RUBICS for them. Creativity is great but it is important to direct it in the right way.

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3 Apply universal design principles

The third step to creating accessible and inclusive e-learning courses is to apply universal design principles to your content and activities. Universal design is an approach that seeks to make products and environments usable and beneficial for everyone, regardless of their abilities or situations. This includes ensuring equitable use for all learners, providing flexibility in use, making the content simple and intuitive, communicating effectively with all learners, minimizing errors and hazards, reducing the physical effort required by learners, and providing adequate size and space for learners to access and use the content. By following these principles, you can create an e-learning course that is accessible and beneficial to everyone.

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4 Foster a sense of community

The fourth step to creating accessible and inclusive e-learning courses is to foster a sense of community among your learners. This means creating a positive and supportive e-learning environment, where learners feel welcome, valued, and connected. To achieve this, you should provide clear and consistent communication with your learners, establishing clear and realistic expectations, building rapport and trust, and encouraging interaction and collaboration. You should communicate regularly and clearly with your learners, providing them with relevant and timely information, instructions, feedback, and support. Explain the purpose and goals of your e-learning course, the roles and responsibilities of learners and instructors, the assessment criteria and methods, and the policies and procedures for your e-learning course. Show them that you care about them and their learning by acknowledging their diversity and individuality, as well as respecting their opinions and perspectives. Create opportunities for learners to get to know each other by sharing their backgrounds, interests, and experiences. Finally, provide various ways for them to interact or collaborate with each other through tools such as forums, chats, blogs, wikis, podcasts or webinars; or tools such as Google Docs, Padlet or Kahoot for online collaboration or brainstorming.

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Jacob Bader

Professional Educator | Educational Consultant | Administrator
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I believe that one of e-learning's greatest challenges is often the lack of community among learners and one of the reasons why in-person learning is often preferred. Blogs, forums, and chats can help with this but still seem impersonal compared to actual human dialogue and interaction. The way that I have seen this done the best is by using Zoom breakout rooms which allow students to discuss, collaborate, and connect more. Additionally, the facilitator can check in with the groups and be a part of the learning process and provide feedback. I would also recommend having instructors make themselves available for virtual office hours giving time for students to talk with their instructors, get feedback, and build relationships with them.

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5 Evaluate and improve your accessibility and inclusion practices

The final step to creating accessible and inclusive e-learning courses is to evaluate and improve your accessibility and inclusion practices. This involves collecting feedback from learners, instructors, and other stakeholders to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your e-learning courses in terms of accessibility and inclusion. You can collect this feedback through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or analytics. Questions should focus on the ease of access, satisfaction with the content, engagement with activities, support from instructors and other learners, inclusivity of the environment, and suggestions for improvement. Subsequently, analyze the feedback to make changes and improvements to your e-learning courses. Monitor their impact and continue to evaluate and improve your accessibility and inclusion practices over time.

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Jacob Bader

Professional Educator | Educational Consultant | Administrator
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Data-driving instruction is extremely important along with the need for constant updating and improving courses. I have worked with a number of e-learning platforms that are static and have no one that manages the courses to develop and improve them. I think that the danger of e-learning development is to think that once a course is created it is done; however, learning requires constant reflection and revisions to grow and develop and e-learning is no different. Additionally, it is important to make sure that the feedback that you are getting from your students is targeted and focused on improving the course and not just personal preferences.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How do you overcome the technical and logistical challenges of e-learning accessibility and inclusion?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Choose an accessible platform

2 Design with diversity in mind

3 Apply universal design principles

4 Foster a sense of community

5 Evaluate and improve your accessibility and inclusion practices

6 Here’s what else to consider

E-Learning

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How do you overcome the technical and logistical challenges of e-learning accessibility and inclusion?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Choose an accessible platform

2 Design with diversity in mind

3 Apply universal design principles

4 Foster a sense of community

5 Evaluate and improve your accessibility and inclusion practices

6 Here’s what else to consider

E-Learning

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