STEM & Web Accessibility: Best Practices for Adult Student Retention in Online Courses
Session Abstract
Online learning and distance education as continue to grow in popularity and individuals with disabilities continue to be left behind as the technology and course design does not decrease or limit barriers to accessibility. This presentation explores the learning theory associated with universal instructional design for online adult STEM classes.
Target Audience
The target audience for this presentation includes individuals who teach distance education or online education, who have a desire to teach distance or online education, and people who teach STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) courses. Also included in the target audience are instructional designers, online academic support specialists, and learning design and technology specialists. This presentation will be focused for those who work with the adult learning population, online continuing education courses, and non-credit distance learning courses.
Session Description
The trend in distance education and online education has been that the demographics have shifted from traditional aged students to non-traditional students, or adult and returning adult students. This has been a very important demographic of students for post-secondary institutions and in continuing education. Not only does this increase the diversity of students in online, distance and continuing education courses, but in conducting learner analysis in the design process of can prove to be challenging to meet the needs of a very diverse group of learners; veterans, older adult learners, learners with limited technology skills, full-time professionals, parents, mid-career changes, and many other aspects must be considered when creating fair, accessible, and affordable educational opportunities for adults. Many adults are seeking STEM based courses in online, distance, and continuing education opportunities and as a result, the need for web accessible content is an important factor in adult student retention. STEM courses have proven to be the most difficult to maintain web accessibility and retain adult learners. This presentation discusses the learning theory to support accessible online and distance STEM courses, universal instructional design, andragogy and STEM course design, and redefines the word "disability," removing it from the learner.