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Developing Instructional Materials
Once you have defined the learning objectives for your course, you can begin to develop assessments to ensure students achieve those objectives. Once you have created assessments, you can begin to develop materials to ensure students succeed on those assessments. This backward design process—which moves from objectives to assessments and finally to materials—is known as learning-centered instruction, and it directs every course task toward the mastery of certain skills and competencies. This blog focuses on the third stage of this process, the development of high-quality instructional materials, beginning with the idea that robust and engaging online courses contain a mix of created and curated content. Below you will find guidelines for creating and curating instructional materials to help you achieve the optimal balance for your course.
Accessible PDFs
Developing and delivering accessible instructional content—meaning content that students with and without disabilities can readily engage with and use—is essential to the success of an online course. While many accessibility standards and guidelines are broadly applicable, there are also specific considerations unique to different content formats and delivery modes. In this piece, we present recommendations for enhancing the accessibility of PDFs for students.
Hyperlink Dos and Don'ts
When designing a course, you want to ensure that all students can access the websites and documents that you link. Accessible hyperlinks are particularly important for students with screen readers, which read the links out loud. This piece contains best practices for writing and formatting accessible hyperlinks so that all learners can access the content that you have curated for your course.
Accessible Use of Text
Students with diverse cognitive, linguistic, and academic abilities benefit from accessible text. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) establish numerous requirements (known as success criteria) to ensure that text is perceivable, operable, and understandable to all users. This guide discusses the essential criteria related to text accessibility. Following these guidelines when creating course content, such as documents, slides, and pages in a learning management system (LMS), will help you eliminate potential barriers for your learners.
The Need to Rethink Assessments in the Age of Generative AI
The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) technologies has sent shockwaves through the education sector, sparking intense debates about academic integrity, assessment practices, and student learning (Roe et al., 2023; Rudolph et al., 2023; Susnjak & McIntosh, 2024; Swiecki et al., 2022; Yeo, 2023). Since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, educators have grappled with concerns about cheating and the potential erosion of traditional academic values (Gorichanaz, 2023; Sullivan et al., 2023). However, as our understanding of genAI capabilities evolves, so too must our approach to assessment and teaching (Lodge et al., 2023).
Accessibility Considerations for Students With Motor Disabilities
Online courses can offer numerous advantages to students. In order for all students to benefit from these advantages, it is essential to prioritize accessibility needs in all aspects of course design and delivery. This piece focuses on considerations and recommendations for enhancing the accessibility of online courses for students with motor impairments.
No Sweat Alt Text
What is “alt text”? Alt text is descriptive text linked to an image, graph, or other visual content that allows users to understand the visual without viewing it. Any image online should contain alt text, but guidelines differ depending on whether the image is simply decorative or related to other content on the page.