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Applicable Tips for Creating Accessible Courses

Distance Learning -- Wed, 10/17/2018 - 8:01am

Continuing an ongoing theme around accessibility, the Office of Distance Learning presented on a number of tools and topics during the Moodle User Group (MUG) meeting Oct. 10.

“We want to make courses more usable specifically for students with special needs, but also for everybody in ways you may not foresee,” said Instructional Designer Carey Hamburg. “That underlies Universal Design, which makes things more usable for everybody by thinking about usability from the beginning.”

Hamburg presented seven concepts with actionable tips for building more accessible courses within Moodle. The full presentation is available in the Moodle User Group course in Moodle. We’ll provide timestamps to easily locate topics throughout the presentation.

  1. Equitable Use (24:15)
  2. Flexibility in Use  (28:22)
  3. Simple and Intuitive (35:10)
  4. Perceptible Information (39:08)
  5. Tolerance for Error (47:02)
  6. Low physical effort (51:30)
  7. Size and Space

1. Equitable Use (24:15)

Ensuring resources are available and usable for everybody.

The goal in executing this concept making sure everyone can access the same information.

“In the case of captioning, if someone can’t hear the audio, they can read it and get the same information,” Hamburg said.

Among the ways to increase usability is paying attention to alternate tags for buttons or images, “to make sure someone knows what an image is even if they can’t see it.” (25:25)

2. Flexibility in Use  (28:22)

Offering material in ways that people have choices in how they consume it.

Adding Moodle pages to your course design (28:55) can streamline what students see and how they navigate your course. It can guarantee they’re seeing the content regardless of what device they’re using.

Moodle page syllabus, course outline, and course layout templates are available from the Office of Distance Learning and can be imported into new or existing courses.

“It’s something we frequently do to help clean up a course page that has a lot of content,” Hamburg said. “Especially something like a syllabus.”

Moodle lessons (32:05) can also offer flexibility by providing adaptive material and offering variable paths through content.

“If you have related content, but there’s not necessarily a correct order, then someone can go through in a way that they choose,” Hamburg said. “It can add a lot of flexibility to your course and will track how students use it. You can see what parts they did and how they scored (in quizzing).”

3. Simple and Intuitive (35:10)

Giving students a clear starting point.

Using clear action verbs means “students don’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out where things are or what they mean, and you don’t have to spend a lot of time answering questions about it.”

Another way to provide clarity is by customizing module names (36:23) by simply unchecking the “default” naming convention when creating your module.

4. Perceptible Information (39:08)

Making information easy to understand for your audience, if not for everybody.

“One thing we found really helps is if you have links in a course, name them for what the link really does,” Hamburg said. (40:55)

For instance, avoid phrases like “click here” in favor of “read this” or “watch this video.”

5. Tolerance for Error (47:02)

Helping students avoid mistakes to reduce stress, anxiety.

Instructors can adjust submission settings (49:22) to allow for multiple submission attempts, while also establishing a due date and separate cut-off date.

Instructors also have the freedom to allow students to submit a draft for review and then a final, revised version.

“Submitting an assignment doesn’t have to be a one-time, all or nothing thing,” Hamburg said.

6. Low Physical Effort (51:30)

Reducing effort to use a course.

Simplify navigation by limiting the amount of content on the front page, especially within what Moodle calls Topic 0.

Using Moodle pages, the book feature, or interactive folders are effective ways to streamline course navigation.

7. Size and Space (54:10)

Considering file size and space.

By using tools like Panopto or VoiceThread, videos stream natively within Moodle instead of requiring students to download large files.

To learn more about these concepts and see demonstrations, view the full presentation in the MUG Moodle course.

Not a member of the Moodle User Group? Email us at distancelearning@louisiana.edu to enroll. If you’d like to present a topic for future MUG meetings, please let us know.

Find the resources discussed during the presentation through the following links: