Online Learning Update

by Mark Lieberman, Inside Higher Ed
Faculty members often worry that making digital courses accessible to all students will be too time-consuming or expensive — but some of their colleagues want to convince them otherwise. Faculty champions can be inspired as much by individual experiences with students as by their engagement with the broad topic of inclusion. Dustin De Felice, assistant professor and director of the master’s program in foreign language teaching at Michigan State, felt wounded after a student complained late in the semester that she couldn’t take online quizzes because she suffered from extreme vertigo when staring at screens for more than a few minutes. The student ended up failing the class and struggling the next semester as well, De Felice said. Now De Felice encourages colleagues to invite him to discuss pathways to accessibility. He gets fewer takers than he’d like, but he always eagerly agrees when asked. He brings two different copies of the same syllabus — one that’s been run through an electronic disability checker, and another that hasn’t. He lets a screen reader interpret both to show attendees the difference.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/08/29/faculty-champions-accessibility-shed-doubts-about-investing-time