Effective, Free and Open Accessibility Training for Adult Education Providers
Session Abstract
Accessibility is one of key factors for educational success of adult learners; however, professional development opportunities on how to design and teach accessibly have been lacking. This session introduces a free and open professional development course on accessibility and related research on its effectiveness.
Target Audience
The target audience for this session are any individuals working with adult learners using any form of technology, either fully online, blended courses, web-enhanced, and fully face-to-face environments in higher education or community and workforce development. The session is designed to be beneficial for course developers, trainers, instructional designers, faculty, educational technologists, administrators, disability services providers, and other individuals interested in designing and delivering accessible educational experiences to adult learners.
Session Description
With increased urgency, higher education, the federal government, and advocacy groups insist that courses meet accessibility thresholds. The availability of accessible courses will help many students complete or begin degrees that they may not otherwise have had the opportunity to do. To meet this challenge, a team of educators developed a massive open online course as a professional development opportunity. Accessibility: Designing and Teaching Courses for All Learners ran as a live, facilitated session and is now available in a self-paced format on Canvas Network. This presentation will discuss the importance of accessibility and the results of the following research questions to gauge the effectiveness of the course in meetings it’s goals:
- To what extent did the participants perceive a change in their knowledge and understanding of each of the three course goals from the start to the end of the course?
- Those who attempted the peer assessments, were they successful in showing they mastered the content that map to the three course goals?
- Those that expressed desire to be active, did they earn all the course badges?
- Where there any trends in participants’ perceptions, motivation, and completion based on their roles, campus type, or demographics?