Enhancing Student Learning Through Course Consistency and Accessibility

Course developers (those who build individual courses) play a crucial role in the success of an online degree program by providing expertise and bringing unique perspectives. Accordingly, it is valuable for faculty to customize their course spaces by infusing them with their own knowledge and personality. At the same time, it is also crucial to prioritize structural consistency within and across courses in an online program, as course consistency is a key aspect of accessibility and a key contributing factor to student success. In particular, students must be able to perceive, operate, and understand the course and course materials using program-standard devices and certain assistive technologies, and this should be true across all of the courses in a program. This is where program chairs and administrators can help support faculty in standardizing key elements of courses to facilitate a seamless student experience. In this piece, we discuss how maintaining structural consistency within and across courses can positively impact accessibility.

When building a course, a proficient instructional design team will support faculty in developing learning experiences that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, with its 2008 amendments, and with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. However, accessibility is not a binary characteristic of courses or course materials; accessibility is a spectrum that requires faculty and instructional designers to work together in centering student needs to the greatest extent possible. Course developers should become familiar with and strive to meet all relevant Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that are within the scope of their course design. They should also seek support from administrators and program chairs as needed to ensure compliance. Moreover, course developers should strive to integrate principles and exemplify best practices of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to enhance accessibility.

With this in mind, significant modifications to program-standard structural elements of individual courses within a program can negatively impact accessibility and the overall student experience. For example, significant modifications include the removal of links from the course navigation menu, deletion of course pages, or reorganization of module structures in inconsistent ways. A justified change might be turning a quiz into an assignment to better assess knowledge and skill development, while an unnecessary change could be inconsistently placing readings before videos in some modules and after in others.

We can illustrate these points with a concrete example. If a faculty member wanted to remove features from the course navigation menu that appear consistently in other courses, the following accessibility-related concerns would arise.

Students who rely on screen readers to navigate courses may face confusion or frustration if menu items are removed inconsistently across their program. To ensure a smooth progression through their program, it is crucial to maintain consistent navigation. That is, navigational mechanisms should occur in the same relative order unless changed by the user.

For students who navigate courses using a keyboard, the course navigation menu items provide valuable shortcuts. By allowing students to jump directly to specific item types, such as quizzes or discussions, they can access the relevant assignments without tabbing through numerous preceding module items. This aligns with the keyboard accessibility guideline, which emphasizes the need to make all functionality available via a keyboard.

As mobile learning continues to gain popularity, faculty should consider how to best maintain a consistent experience across devices and platforms. Removing elements from the course navigation menu could have an even bigger impact on students accessing a course on a mobile device than it would on students using a laptop if the mobile interface differs in appearance or functionality.

In general, the course navigation offers benefits to users, accommodating a diverse range of abilities, preferences, and assistive technologies. Students with cognitive, mental health, or visual impairments, for example, may find the left-side navigation preferable to the course home page or other means of accessing course content. Keeping the course navigation menu consistent across courses can thereby enhance their learning experience.

In addition to significantly altering navigation options, some additional changes that could cause issues are as follows:

• Changing the page order within modules (e.g., adding a readings page before a lecture page in one module and after a lecture page in the next module)
• Deleting preparatory module pages (overview, readings, etc.) that are common across the program
• Deviating from established program standards for multimedia accessibility, such as by removing transcripts or disabling captions from videos
• Adding files without organized names or deviating from an established file structure, both of which can confuse students and make learning materials more difficult to locate
• Incorporating unauthorized third-party tools, which can create security/privacy concerns and lead to compatibility issues with the learning management system
• Having a different course landing page, which can confuse students and reduce the efficiency with which students navigate your course

Consistency in program experience and providing multiple means of representation and action are essential for fostering student learning and accessibility in online courses. By considering the specific accessibility considerations outlined above, course developers, program chairs, and administrators can ensure an inclusive learning environment for all students. Accessibility is not only a legal requirement but also a means to empower learners and promote student success.