Online Teaching Conference 2012 San Jose, CA presentation by Jayme Johnson, High Tech Center Training Unit and Una Daly, Community College Outreach Manager at the Open Courseware Consortium on how to create and evaluate open educational resources for accessibility.

1. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
The Power of OER to Support
Diverse Learners
Una Daly, Open Courseware Consortium
Jayme Johnson, High Tech Center Training Unit

2. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Una Daly,
Community College Outreach
OCW Consortium

3. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Jayme Johnson
High Tech Center Training Unit
(HTCTU) Instructor
California Community Colleges

4. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Overview
• OCW Community College Consortium
• What is OER?
• Why accessible OER?
• High Tech Center Training Unit
• What is accessibility?
• How to make content accessible
• Demonstration

5. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
CCCOER Mission
• Promote adoption of OER to enhance
teaching and learning.
– Expand access to education for all
– Support faculty development in OER
– Advance community college mission

6. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Education Webinars 2012
Month Topic
January 31 Open Math Home Assessment Systems
February 28 Writing Commons: Open Textbook Community
March 27 Fostering OER-friendly policies at your college
May 1st Finding and Selecting High Quality OER
May 2nd Revolution in Learning: Community College
Consortium for OER
May 22 Open Course Library : Public Speaking
June 26 Faculty Perceptions of OER & Transform Your
Teaching

7. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Open Educational Resources
Digitized materials offered freely and
openly for educators, students and self-
learners to use and re-use for teaching,
learning, and research
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2007

8. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Characteristics of OER
• Digital
– Assistive Technology
• Open License
– Reuse, Revise, Remix,
Redistribute
• Low cost
– Lowers barriers to education

9. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Examples
Includes –
• Course materials
• Modules or lessons
• Open CourseWare (OCW)
• Open textbooks
• Videos
• Images
• Tests
• Software
• Any other tools, materials, or techniques used
to support ready access to knowledge
Creative Commons CC-BY license, Dr. Judy Baker 9

10. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Why accessibility?
• Improve learning
– 50% post-secondary students with
disabilities attend 2-year public colleges
• It’s the law!
– Section 508 Morguefile.com
– Web Content Access Guidelines (WCAG)
Source: National Center for Education Statistics 2011

11. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Diverse Learner Challenges
• Cognitive learning
disabilities
• Sensory & motor
impairments
• English language
deficits
• Lack of engagement Kersti Nebelsiek CC-BY

12. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
OER Accessibility Goals
• Improve learning for all
– Universal Design
• Educate OER authors
– Design with accessibility in mind
• Empower faculty OER adopters
– Evaluate and adapt for accessibility

13. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Open Textbook Accessibility Reviews
Textbook: Collaborative Statistics
Accessibility reviewed by: Virtual Ability, Inc.
http://collegeopentextbooks.org

14. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
High Tech Training Center Unit
California Community Colleges
• State-of-the-art training center for
faculty and staff in:
– Assistive Computer Technology
– Alternate Media
– Web Accessibility
• Programs at 110 colleges serving
needs of students with disabilities.

15. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Accessibility = Usability
• Accessibility should never
conflict with mission of the institution.
• When done right, accessibility is a
natural after-effect of proper design and
effective teamwork.

16. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Accessible by Design
• Closed Captioning for television
• Automatic doors at supermarkets
• Vibrating cell phones
• Volume control pay phones
• Curb cut in sidewalks
Licensed cc-by--nc:
colorblindPicaso

17. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
More Definitions
• Technical Accessibility
– Content developed to meet "X"
technical evaluation standard
• Usable Accessibility
– Content developed to allow an individual
with a disability to interact with it

18. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Digital Accessibility
• A path to consumption/use
• Different media needs
different access strategies
• Structured text is most universally
accessible form of digital media.
• Workflows must include accessibility

19. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Top 3 Access Issues
• Semantic markup
– Structural definitions
• Non-textual content
– Images
– Audio & Videos
• Tables and other complex
information

20. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Creating Accessible Electronic
Documents
• Picking a standard for access
• Semantic Structure: Headings, lists,
and styles
• Using Color Effectively
• Images and Descriptions
• Naming Hyperlinks
• Table Headers

21. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Styles in Microsoft Word

22. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Using Colors Effectively
• High Contrast
– Emphasize differences and similarities
• Color “Coding”
– Multiple means of representation

23. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
High Contrast

24. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Representing with Color
• Provide multiple indications of
meaning conveyed through color...

25. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Images & Descriptions
• A picture is worth a thousand words,
but you only need about 7...

26. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Content vs. Container
• Access capabilities for CONTENT
– Access controlled by author
• Access capabilities for CONTAINERS
– Access not controlled by author
• Container limitations must be alleviated
through content design when possible.

27. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Missing Alt Text Example

28. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Naming Hyperlinks
• Hyperlinks are navigation aids for AT users
• Do NOT use “Click Here”
• Examples
– Download course syllabus (MS Word, 78KB)
– Submit Assignment #3 Here

29. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Table Headers

30. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Demonstration

31. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Video & Audio
• Distance Education Caption
Transcription Grant (DECT)
• Voice recognition software
• YouTube: Easy Do-it-Yourself
Captioning

32. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Distance Education Caption &
Transcription Grant
• Funding to caption or transcribe
– Your own or purchased videos
• Videos delivered through distance
methods for online, hybrid, or on-
campus courses.
• Videos contained in learning object
repositories.
College of the Canyons DECT Grant
Administrator

33. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Voice Recognition Software
• Generates transcription file
– Dragon Dictate for Mac
– Drag Naturally Speaking for PC
– Free Apps as well
• May require editing for accuracy.

34. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
YouTube Captioning
• Create your own transcription file
– Voice recognition software
– Write script
• Auto-Captions on YouTube
– Download the auto-generated file
– Correct the captions in file and upload

35. advancing formal and informal learning through the
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Join our community
• Join the Community College Consortium
http://oerconsortium.org
• Visit High Tech Center Training Unit
http://htctu.net
• Take @One Training: Creating Accessible
Online Courses
http://www.onefortraining.org/

36. advancing formal and informal learning through the
Q&A
worldwide sharing and use of free, open, high-quality
education materials organized as courses.
Thank you for attending this morning
Handout available
Contact us:
Jayme Johnson: jjohnson@htctu.net
Una Daly: unatdaly@ocwconsortium.org