Creating Accessible Learning Resources
It is critically important to create 'accessibile' content, particularly during this pandemic. This term covers a range of issues from inclusion to barriers with engaging with online resources for students with specific learning needs, learning styles and financial issues. This encourages us to consider all student needs.
The biggest challenge as a learning technology manager in this current climate is trying to encourage educators to factor this into their teaching practice. It is not simply a case of referring students to the in-built accessibility tools on their VLE. The first step is to create content (including recorded lessons) that can be accessed in different ways depending on student needs and to understand why this is important. The second is to ensure that formative and summative assessments are varied to allow for all learning styles. Finally teachers should always be aware that students won't necessarily disclose their needs when they begin their course, therefore tutorial sessions can be a great opportunity to review student needs in a 1:1 setting.
As always, technology is changing day by day and all we can do is to share the range of ways that we can support learners with their studies and to train educators to the best of our ability.
For further guidance please see some handy links below:
https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2017/05/10-tips-for-creating-an-inclusive-classroom-today/
https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/digital-education/2017/06/13/accessibility-of-e-learning-a-summary/
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/steps-to-improve-your-institutions-digital-accessibility-21-may-2020