Articles

February 5, 2016

Inclusive And Accessible eLearning

To develop online courses that are more inclusive, the role of Instructional Designers must move beyond the orchestration and arrangement of course content to partnering with faculty and support staff to implement curriculums that are mindful of ADA compliance. Furthermore, professional development must move beyond faculty acquiring technical expertise to pairing technological knowledge with principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This article outlines ways that I, as an Instructional Designer, implemented such practices via a professional development seminar, in which faculty and staff learn the principles of Universal Design for Learning and develop skills to create ADA compliant MS Word documents, podcasts, and lecture captures. Excerpts from faculty and staff’s learning journals illustrate how they have grown as educators.
by Sabrina Taylor
February 4, 2016

3 Things Google Can Teach Us About Microlearning

Recently my 10-year-old was working on a school project about state capitals, and he began asking questions about Montgomery, the capital of the state where he was born. But we haven’t lived in Alabama for almost a decade, so I couldn’t come up with much more than it being home to the minor league baseball team with the best nickname in all of sports (Go Biscuits!). In the time it took me to fondly reminisce about the yellow baseball hats, my 14-year-old found a wealth of information about Montgomery history and current events. She was, of course, holding her phone, having just completed a Google search for Montgomery, Alabama, and it occurred to me that she had just gone through a microlearning experience.
by Keith Gibson