Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

We’re preparing for a busy Winter semester, and this semester we have a large amount of multi-access classes being taught. While not exactly a ‘new’ thing for us, perfecting it is relevantly new, especially with rapid advances to technology.

Multi-Access?

What is a multi-access class? Well, it is a class designed to cater to the needs of two groups of students: those attending face-to-face, and those attending online or at a distance. This type of class allows both groups of students to participate in the learning exchange of the course itself, while creating a greater sense of community by interacting with students in both environments.

Multi-access students are central in this context. They are able to choose when and where they participate; sure, some students may only be able to attend online, but the option is there. They are not restricted by having to register as either an on campus or online student, they can mix and match as their schedules allow.

How is the Multi-Access format beneficial?

Outside of its obvious benefits to student flexibility, the multi-access format allows institutions to increase enrolment opportunities, while providing faculty members with increased delivery options. It also provides increased access to the course content to a broader range of students.

Resources

• Realigning Higher Education for the 21-st Century Learner Through Multi-Access Learning by V. Irvine, J. Code, and L. Richards
• Patterns of Engagement in Connectivist MOOCs by C. Milligan, A. Littlejohn, and A. Margaryan

It was requested by several readers, many months ago, but it’s finally here…

Terminology Tuesday: Year 1 – The Ebook

What do folks in education mean when they refer to ‘accessibility’? Well, in the online learning context, it really means allowing all learners, across all browsers and devices, access to all course content in an equitable manner.

Learning should not be impeded by inaccessible course content. 

In this context, accessibility does not necessarily mean increasing access to course content for individuals with disabilities. Of course, this is always a concern, but the perspective should change to just ensure course content is inclusive of all learners, not just those individuals with self-reported disabilities.

Sure, you should be conscious of ADA/508 compliance issues and include transcripts to all video or audio elements, use ALT tags for your imagery, and ensure your course materials are formatted in a way that can easily be processed by assistive technologies, but you should also look at accessibility from the broader lens of usability. Is your course functional? Is it mobile responsive? Are all applications used within your course accessible to all learners?

A lot of course content developers or Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) simply don’t think of these elements when developing the content, but it’s important, prior to launch, to review your course as a whole from an accessibility and usability perspective.

Content should be chunked into smaller portions to avoid cognitive overload, it should be presented in a logical format, it should be presented using various formats (e.g. text/audio/video) alongside relevant transcripts, the course navigation should be straight forward and/or explained at the beginning of the course, formatting should be consistent, and your assessment strategies should be varied.

Resources:

• Web Accessibility for Online Learning by CANnect
• Improve Accessibility in Tomorrow’s Online Courses by Leveraging Yesterday’s Techniques by Emily A. Moore

As this series on the phases of Instructional Design comes to a close, I’m going to be talking about an under-utilized phase (in my opinion) – Evaluation. I’ve talked about Formative and Summative Evaluation in the past, and I have to emphasize the cyclical nature in which I believe evaluation should occur.

Evaluation is essential to the success of any course. How can you know if your learning outcomes are aligning with the course objectives? How can you identify whether your students are grasping the material in the intended manner? How can you identify training gaps in the course? How can you gauge the overall success of the course? Evaluation. That’s how!

Now, evaluation doesn’t need to just be reserved for post-implementation. You can evaluate your course at various phases in the Instructional Design process. For example, you might want to evaluate your analysis for the course…is a course going to solve the problem? You might also want to evaluate during the design phase…will the design of this course meet the project requirements (is it responsive? Does it meet the needs?)? You may want to evaluate during the development phase…What are the stakeholder’s thoughts on the prototype? And you’ll definitely want to evaluate in the implementation phase, because that’s where your users will likely barrage you with ‘it’s not working!’ emails.

But at the very least, evaluation should always occur at the end of the instructional design process as doing so provides you with feedback and additional context with which you can improve upon the course. No one is perfect, and that can be also be said for courses – no one course is perfect. You can get close, but there is likely always something you could have improved upon. Evaluation gives you the information you need to improve upon your courses.