The Teaching and Learning Academy (TLA) would like to help raise awareness of digital accessibility and inclusion. The Teaching and Learning Academy are currently developing a plan to audit a number of randomly allocated courses (across schools and levels) to help train, develop, and advise staff on best practices in accessibility.
Problem definition and proposed solution
- Canvas design and content. Each canvas course contains learning content which tutors have added, e.g. PowerPoints, videos, images and text. These are laid out in a design of where these appear in the course and how they are accessed. There is variability within practices around the content and design. Understanding, defining, identifying, and quantifying this will allow the TLA to plan training, develop, and advise staff on best practices.
- Digital accessibility audit. A particular aspect of content and design is its level of accessibility. Auditing content and design to determine the level of compliance to aspects of accessibility, e.g. image alt tag, accessibility of documents, will help the institution to understand where it is at in terms of digital accessibility within Canvas.
- Accessible language: Accessibility research highlights the need to provide clear information to support the learner. Although this is highly contextual, the audit will explore this in order to identify and share best practice.
- Assessment information: A particular elements of the audit will focus on supporting information around the assessment. This will look at clarity of assessment information and access to additional supporting materials like past submission. These are particularly highlighted in accessibility research and good teaching and assessment practice
- Access to rich discussions with students about course design and content. The TLA has limited consistent process by which they understand students’ experiences of Canvas. Working with students on an auditing process will allow TLA to discuss their experiences of Canvas and their reaction to seeing the different variabilities in Canvas design and content.
- Developing auditing process. Through an annual process TLA will be able to develop the auditing process to focus on different aspects. The audits could also be influenced by input from different departments across the institution.
Outcomes
The Teaching and Learning Academy will delivery a number of outcomes, including:
- Accessibility audit report: The process will report internally on the different aspects of digital accessibility and the level of which they occur. This report can be disseminated and help guide staff to adopt best practice in developing their Canvas courses.
- Student development: A number of students will get the opportunity of learning more about digital accessibility and the variability of content and design.
- TLA student experience of Canvas report: A reflective account of the audit will help internally disseminate the students’ voice during the audit.
- TLA staff development opportunity: TLA staff will gain experience from managing short projects with students.
- Auditing process: continuous improvement of auditing criteria to focus on important aspects.
Accessibility in Digital Education Design Project (AiDED)
The Teaching and Learning Academy’s AiDED vision is to use the digital learning environment to help all our students improve their life chances. Find out more about accessibility and the AiDED project over on our AiDED Project page.
