Inspire Blog Category: Accessibility/UDL

Creating Effective Learning Environments: Lessons from UX Design

As educators and instructional designers, one of our tasks is to create online learning environments that students can comfortably use to complete their course activities effectively. These platforms need to be designed in such a way as to minimize extraneous cognitive load and maximize generative processing: that is, making sure that the learners’ efforts are spent on understanding and applying the instructional material and not on figuring out how to use the website or app. Research and practice in User Experience (UX) design – more specifically, usability – can give us insights that we can apply to improve our course page design and organization. Getting Started: General Recommendations Steve Krug, in his classic book Don’t Make Me Think: A Common … Creating Effective Learning Environments: Lessons from UX Design
by · June 12, 2023

12 Ways Instructional Designers Can Be Inclusive of Low-Income and First-Generation Students

The following is a guest blog post from Michelle Coxey. Michelle completed an Instructional Design internship with OSU Ecampus during the Fall of 2022. Ian Wilkins is a high school language arts teacher, but besides the students, his passion is social justice. He shares a powerful metaphor that education is like a heavily gated castle. Those inside the castle are comfortable and safe and do not realize that the people outside are hungry (Chardin & Novak, 2021). If someone opens the gate and admits a person from the outside, would that person feel comfortable and safe inside like everyone already there? Would they know the rules of the castle? Would they feel like they fit in and deserved to be … <strong>12 Ways Instructional Designers Can Be Inclusive of Low-Income and First-Generation Students</strong>
by · December 19, 2022

Make Your Canvas Pages Accessible in a Few Simple Steps!

One of the major advantages of digital learning is that we can ensure our materials are accessible to all students. As such, at Ecampus, we are striving – and encouraging others to strive – for universal design, that is, design that anyone can use comfortably regardless of any impairments. In past posts, we have covered various ways of improving accessibility in a course, including how to fix PowerPoint or Word files. Today I’d like to focus on making Canvas pages accessible and making use of the on-page Accessibility Checker available in the Canvas Rich Content Editor. Common Issues Here are the main things you can do to ensure your Canvas pages (including assignments, discussions etc.) are accessible: Find and Fix … Make Your Canvas Pages Accessible in a Few Simple Steps!
by · December 5, 2022

Make Your Word Documents Accessible for All

In this post I’m returning to an important topic: accessibility. In a previous blog my colleague Susan Fein explained how everyone benefits from more accessible materials and that a large number of our students have some degree of disability. Word documents are ubiquitous in our courses, as well as for other work-related activities. If a Word document is designed for digital consumption – such as posting in the Learning Management System or on a website – it needs to comply with accessibility standards. Fortunately, Word includes excellent tools for making your file accessible! I will first go over the main accessibility features, and then show you how to implement them in the video below. Accessibility checker: Word includes a tool … Make Your Word Documents Accessible for All
by · May 9, 2022

Five Tips for Making Accessible PowerPoint Slides

By Susan Fein, Ecampus instructional designer If you use slide presentations to deliver information and then provide a digital version of the slides to support learners, this post is for you! Instructors teaching online or who use a companion LMS or website to accompany in-person classes often upload the slide file to aid students in notetaking. However, you may not be aware that digital files are not automatically accessible to those using assistive technologies, such as screen readers. Following a few simple and easy guidelines will improve accessibility of your materials for all students and demonstrate your thoughtful attention to inclusivity and equity. Who Benefits from Accessibility? Everyone, not only those with disabilities, benefit from accessible learning materials. The U.S. … Five Tips for Making Accessible PowerPoint Slides
by · April 11, 2022