Online Learning – Page 4

Courseload Releases First eText Platform with Accessible Collaborative Features

A news release appearing in Campus Technology announced that Courseload has launched version 2.3 of its software with a stated focus on Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), touting the release as the first e-text platform to provide a single, unified, collaborative experience for faculty and students of all abilities.

In developing the new version last year, Courseload created an Accessibility Advisory Board (AAB) to guide its efforts to advance accessibility within higher education’s transition to digital technologies. The AAB brought together leaders from nine universities and national advocacy and technology groups.

To read the complete press release: Newest Version of Courseload Focused On Accessibility

Courseload is an online learning and collaboration tool that provides textbooks and other resources in digital form. Courseload allows students to highlight, annotate, bookmark, and search, and also to consolidate and share study notes.

Online Learning Resource Accessibility in a Lunchtime

David Sloan a research fellow in the School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, writes about e-accessibility at e-Accessibility Blog. Via short, regular posts the blog comments on developments in the field of web accessibility and inclusive digital communication.

One of the strengths of the blog is an awareness of the fact that readers will have varying roles of web authorship as part of their work, a range of levels of technical experience in creating web content – but probably less time than they would like to develop skills in inclusive digital content creation.

In a lunch-and learn presentation earlier this year, Dr. Sloan shared a set of short, easy-to-implement activities for evaluating existing web resources for accessibility and addressing any shortcomings found. The information is so straightforward and sensible that it is worth sharing. Dr. Sloan posted his presentation slides at Slideshare.

The presentation discussed five accessibility checks

Keyboard accessibility
Alternatives for images
Use of color
Headings and lists
Accessibility in online resource selection policy

From Classrooms to e-Accessible Classes: Making e-Learning Inclusive

This post from blogger Lucy Greco who writes about accessibility in education for the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict), is an articulate reminder that the technology and tools used in online classes may all too easily exclude students with disabilities.

Today’s fastest-growing trend in education is online teaching (or the resultant e-learning). As instructors want to reach out to audiences around the globe, they find that online education makes their classrooms virtually limitless. Academics everywhere are turning to the Internet as their new classroom. Students around the world are now able to take classes at the university of their choice without having to travel. However, for students with disabilities there are perils in online education which may almost outweigh the benefits. Students with disabilities may be excluded from this online experience when universal design principles are not followed.