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Accessibility Training Info from Amy Rovner

Hi All,

Thank you again for agreeing to participate in a FLC about accessibility of online courses here at SCC!  I have submitted our proposal to SBCTC and now we wait to find out if we have been awarded funding.  This should happen on June 16 so I will let you know as soon as I hear!

In the meantime, we have an opportunity for some free training on how to improve accessibility in online courses!  SBCTC is providing free training through SLOAN-C and through Quality Matters.  All you have to do is sign up through me.  I strongly recommend that you consider enrolling in at least one of these courses because it will give you a strong foundation so you will be prepared to jump right into things in the Fall.

Here are the details:

SLOAN-C

SBCTC has free seats left (250 to be exact!) for SLOAN-C online training that expire at the end of June.  The great news is that you don’t have to complete the training by then, you just have to have signed up by then!  I just participated in a 4-hour Synchronous workshop on Online Accessibility that was really quite good.  The instructor focused on making Word docs, pdf's and Power Point's accessible for a variety of different disabilities.  There was 'lecture' time interspersed with 'work' time so you could try things out and then come back to ask questions.  There are also asynchronous classes available.  Unfortunately, there are only  2 classes re: Accessibility on the schedule for the rest of 2014.  You can sign up for either of these as long as you are signed up by June 26th!  If you would like to take either of these, please send me an email ASAP and I'll submit your info to SBCTC.

Synchronous 3 hour Workshop Description: 

Oct 14, 12:00pm-4:00pm EST (9:00am-1:00pm PST) (I realize this is right in the middle of the teaching morning!).

How accessible is your online course? What steps can you take to make it more accessible? In this 4-hour synchronous workshop, you will work with your accessibility specialist facilitator to explore and answer these and other related questions. Then you will develop an actionable plan for improving the accessibility of your online course.

Upon successful completion of the workshop, you will be able to

  • Evaluate the accessibility of materials in your online course.
  • Develop an action plan to improve the accessibility of your course materials.

Asynchronous 7 day online class Description:

July 11-July 18

Improving access to online education means, among other things, ensuring your online course materials, teaching and learning activities, and assessments are accessible for all learners. This workshop will provide practical application of procedures for instructional designers, instructors, developers and administrators to create ADA compliant online courses.

Upon successful completion of the workshop, you will be able to

  • Identify types of accommodations needed for different visible and non-visible disabilities.
  • Develop specific accommodation strategies for different disabilities in given scenarios.

Here's the link to the full schedule in case you have other topics that you want to learn more about.  I have taken a number of these so I can let you know my opinion of them (or that of one of my classmates!) if you want it.  :-)

http://sloanconsortium.org/institute/workshops/2014schedule   Links to an external site.

Quality Matters

SBCTC also provides funding for online QM Courses, including Standard 8 – Addressing Accessibility.  This funding is ongoing so no end-of-June drop dead date. J  Last Friday I attended a 4 hour live workshop on this.  It was okay but an expensive way to go and probably not worth it.  However, they also offer online Asynchronous training which I am currently enrolled in.  This is a great, 2 week course that provides more information and good ‘hands on’ practice on improving accessibility in your course.    It is offered again late summer and fall which is great because it will be using the newly updates 2014 Rubric, which will be released in mid-summer.  I heard a rumor at my F2F session that in the new Rubric, every Standard will include something about accessibility!

Description:  The “Addressing Accessibility” workshop invites participants to learn more about assistive technologies and provides them with activities that enable them to experience first-hand the challenges faced by students with physical disabilities.  Institutional accessibility policies are also explored. Participants are introduced to resources and review tutorials about how to create accessible Word documents and PowerPoint presentations as well as the concept of Universal Design.  Upon completion of the workshop, participants will have a better understanding of the challenges students with disabilities face with online course materials and will be equipped with solutions to create accessible course materials.

August 28-September 11, 2014

October 2 – October 16, 2014

Let me know what you can fit into your schedules and I’ll get you signed up ASAP

Thanks!!

Amy

 

Amy Rovner, MPH RD
Instructional Designer, eLearning Services

Nutrition Associate Faculty

Shoreline Community College

(206) 546-6937