Reflection prompts, tips for your own practice, introductory resources, and case studies. Reflection prompts These reflective prompts are adapted from a Quick Guide for Course Designers created by W. Victoria Lee in the College of Art:Are there opportunities for individual choice and autonomy in assessment methods?Are there opportunities to build variety into modes of teaching?Are learning materials available in advance and accessible for all students?Are students supported and empowered to take responsibility for their own learning?These reflective prompts come from a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) document on how to support students who may not be familiar with Higher Education expectations or the expectations of specific disciplines:Are there norms, practices, and rituals that students are expected to participate in? Have these been explained to students?Is specific terminology used to talk about assessments? How and when do you tell students what this terminology means?What words do students need to know in order to make sense of and engage in their curriculum? Have these been explained to the students? Tips for practice Ideas for course designStudent personae: A useful starting point for building Universal Design into learning, is to reflect on who our students are and how we might anticipate their needs in order to create an inclusive and accessible learning environment. These student personae cards came out of a partnership between staff from the Information Services team and students and represent the sorts of students we might have studying at Edinburgh. You can download the cards as an OER resource to help with course design.Quick guide for new course proposers: This useful resource provides a step-by-step guide to incorporating inclusion into course design at Board of Studies level.Learning activitiesThe below suggestions relate to ways that you can make your synchronous and asynchronous learning activities more inclusive.Accessibility checklist: A website by Information Services listing ways to increase the accessibility of your media and your use of core learning technologies, including information about Teaching Resources, Collaborate, Blackboard Learn, Academic Blogging Service, and Resource Lists. The checklist is a useful way of working through your content to ensure inclusion and accessibility are embedded throughout.Five tips for making your Miro board more accessible: A SharePoint site created by colleagues in ECA on how to familiarise your students with Miro, and how to make your boards easier to navigate and more accessible.Creating Accessible Materials (PowerPoint, 2 slides): These useful slides have been put together by the University's Disability Information officer, Vicky Galt, and provide a brief overview of ways to make PowerPoint slides accessible for all students.Furthermore, the Recognising and Counteracting Sexuality Based Microaggressions resource offers some useful tips on how to avoid microaggressions in pedagogy, and create identity safety (p. 8), for example:Wear a rainbow lanyard or other visible sign that you are safe for queer people, in-person and online.Incorporate diverse identities and cultures into case studies, exemplars, and other learning materials but avoid 'excusing', 'straightwashing', or erasing queer identities.If your curriculum asks students to draw on their own experiences, consider whether this might require them to 'out' themselves, e.g., writing about love, relationships, and family structures.AssessmentUniversal Design for Learning (UDL) Tips for Assessment from CAST (2020):Align assessments to learning goals.Offer authentic opportunities for assessment.Assess engagement as well as content knowledge.Include frequent formative assessments.Reduce unnecessary barriers to access.Support learner variability through flexible assessments.Use and share rubrics to clarify expectations.Involve learners in assessing their learning progress.Reflect on summative assessments for future design.Build communities of practice that support reflective design. Introductory resources The following resources provide a quick entry point for finding out more about universal design, inclusion and accessibility:Accessible and Inclusive Learning: Guidance from the IAD on how to support the University's Accessible and Inclusive Learning policy, including:Course Outlines;Prioritised Reading Lists;Providing Lecture Outlines Before Class;Using Microphones in Lectures.Universal Design: Top ten tips for Universal Design.Introduction to Universal Design for Learning (8 mins): This video provides a useful introduction to universal design and its application within learning. Case studies Flexibility, accessibility and engagement: How the Centre for Open Learning developed positive teaching practice from the pandemic"However, rather than simply recording his existing lectures, David opted for a more compressed format inspired by podcasts. He broke the material into 15-25 minute tightly scripted chunks that students could consume in whatever way suited them. Some students found the accompanying illustrations helped them retain information. Some liked to pause and rewind. One student found he could absorb his medieval politics and warfare best while exercising.Benefits of this approach first became apparent in the tutorial sessions. David began with a ‘debrief’ of his lecture material, inviting students to tease out key themes for that week and clarify anything that was unclear. The tutorials combined full-class discussion, breakout groups, and quiet reading of sources. This structure is much closer to an in-person class, but variety of activity helped combat online fatigue."Mini-series: Student subtitling project to improve accessibility of online media materials"In addition to understanding how to run a subtitling service that is led by students, the project also delivered the following benefits within the scope of its work: (1) More media content is open and accessible to all users; (2) Opportunity for Edinburgh students to participate in the design and delivery of a new service and develop new skills; (3) New training courses for staff and students on DIY subtitling, aiming to move to a position where subtitling of media is standard practice at the point of creation as far as possible; (4) Enhanced awareness of digital literacy and digital skills."Inclusive, equitable, and fair assessment"The August exams, like the ones my peers had sat in spring, were online, 24 hour, and open book. The freedom of taking an exam at home, without distractions of an exam hall, let me approach the exams on my own terms. [...]Where possible, students should be given the chance to make informed decisions in how they are assessed, ideally given opportunities to co-create assessments. If relying on online exams, we need to consider the spaces that students have to take these exams and make provisions for students on campus when necessary." This article was published on 2024-11-06
