Topic outline

    • And so, ‘tis the season!

      The firelogs are crackling, the chill has fallen upon us and the marshmallows are poised and ready for the toasting! And to commemorate the start of the festive winter season, we decided to bestow you all with the best gift there is - the gift of knowledge! Course design knowledge, to be precise.

      Starting today and up until the 16th of December, our e-Learning experts at Catalyst EU will be sharing 12 top tips to refresh your course design. How to keep your content organised and up to date, fostering collaborative learning, helping your students to stay engaged and on-track, and much, much more!

      Each day we will reveal the next step on how to enhance your course, so make sure to check back every day, and please do share your work - the more the merrier! And if you have any questions please reach out using the #12DaysOfCatalyst hashtag on Twitter or LinkedIn; we’ll be more than happy to help you with your course design needs.
  • Day 9

    • Review Accessibility and UDL


      How can I support students with additional needs?

      Although designing online learning is mainly about providing the correct content to your students and ensuring they are engaging with yourself and their peers, the format of the content, how it is presented and how it can be accessed is also very important. It is so important, in fact, that ensuring that the learning you create is accessible to learners is part of legal accessibility compliance laws.


      What do I need to consider for accessibility and inclusiveness?

      Make sure to consider all learning needs and preferences when designing your online content. For instance, would learners prefer to listen to a lecture or read lecture notes? Will they be using a screen reader? Will different learners use different backgrounds, reading guides or be able to independently change the font size of the text they're given? Are they going to access your content via mobile devices? Do you create transcripts and subtitles to go alongside video content? And so on so forth.

      All of the above would contribute to an inclusive learning experience! Giving learners the tools to adapt their online learning to suit their needs or preferences, you'll be helping them navigate the resources and activities you're creating in a way that's best suited for them.


      What tools do I have in preparing my online content in an accessible and inclusive way?

      Did you know that Moodle has a built in accessibility toolkit which helps you find and fix accessibility issues in courses? Watch the video below to learn more!

       

       


      How can I use course design to be accessible and inclusive?

      Catalyst consultants can support you with creating accessible content and provide demonstrations of tools! Feel free to contact us for more information and we'll be thrilled to help you adapt your content and make it as inclusive as possible.


      What is Universal Design for Learning?

      Universal Design for Learning, or UDL for short, is a framework widely used to improve teaching and assessment for students online. In other words, UDL is all about offering choice to students! Choice in why to learn and engage with learning, choice in what to learn and choice in how to learn and express learning.

      You can learn more on DCU's Teaching Enhancement Unit module:

        

      How can I apply accessibility tools to my LMS?

      To help you better and more easily achieve fully accessible content on your courses, we highly recommend Brickfield Education Labs, one of Catalyst's partners. They aim to inspire and enable institutions to deliver a more inclusive teaching and learning experience. Schedule a demo now to see how the Enterprise Moodle Accessibility Toolkit from Brickfield can help scaffold your staffs awareness, capability and effectiveness in creating accessible courses.




    • Suggested by Jasmin Davies-Hodge, Senior eLearning Consultant.