Course Syllabus

Online Accessibility Course Syllabus 2017

Our mission is to provide meaningful information about student accessibility issues so that participants of this course will use the skills they learn in their personal educational careers to promote the success of all college students.

 

  • Participants of the course will learn what accessibility issues are, how accessibility issues affect student experiences, and why accessibility is so important in educational practices.

 

 

  • Participants of the course will leave with the knowledge and ability to implement skills learned into their personal educational practices, and perceive accessibility issues as manageable / solvable.

 

 

Course Description: The course is fee-free and available to all faculty and staff within the UNC system. This course will expose participants to current accessibility issues and student concerns about resource accessibility. The importance and significance of following accessibility best practices is emphasized through examples and demonstrations. Participants will learn multiple techniques for easily promoting resource accessibility in their personal educational positions.

    The course takes place completely asynchronously online through a Word-Press account website. The course does not have a predetermined schedule, however the course is expected to require approximately 6 hours of participants’ time, for 6 weeks. As a result, the course is divided into 6 separate lessons that contain separate objectives and content. The completion rate of course objectives and requirements will be determined by each student’s level of participation and personal pace through lesson content. Upon completion of all course requirements, a certificate of accessibility course completion will be given. The certificate of completion can be added to any CV or resume as a UNC credential that demonstrates knowledge about and experience with solving accessibility issues that will promote overall student success.

 

Suggested background: Experience instructing, university faculty

Meeting time: Your convenience

Class location: Online

 

Instructor Information: TBD There will be some form of support for students with concerns or questions about the course. The support may become a generic email account associated with the course site that any project member can address.

 

Course Objectives:

  • Introduce participants to online resource accessibility issues and concerns
  • Provide examples of current accessibility resources  (Advice Q15, Access Q21)
  • Practice finding resources on accessibility issues (Advice Q15)
  • Learn about basic principles of accessible document design
  • Create a moderate familiarly with the topic of accessibility (Advice Q21, Access Q20, Q14)
  • Meet students with accessibility issues (Advice Q11)
  • Demonstrate the influence and impact of accessibility issues (Advice Q12, Q3, Access Q19)
  • Explain the importance of acknowledging accessibility issues (Advice Q12, Access Q17)
  • Show participants when accessibility issues should be considered (Advice Q13, Q3, Access Q18)
  • Provide examples of how accessibility enhances learning for all students (Advice Q17, Q11, Q14 Access Q15, Q11, Q19)
  • Expose participants to processes that make resources accessible (Advice Q11, Q3, Access Q16, Q13)
  • Learn about 5 key areas and 7 potential errors made for document accessibility
  • Demonstrate 7 key accessibility techniques specific to Power Points
  • Provide tools such as resources and checklist for future guidance on accessibility
  • Demonstrate how accessibility issues can be managed (Access Q13)

 

Required Course Materials:

  • Online access
  • Word Press account

 

Course Requirements / Major Assignments:

  1. Participation
  2. Forum discussions
  3. What Would You Do Mini-Project
  4. Accessibility Plan

 

Description of Course Requirements / Assignments:

  1. Participation: Participation is an integral part of this course and mostly consists of following directions within online lessons. Actively participating in discussions (e.g., posing questions, relating personal experiences or insights, working in groups, and devising applications) promotes learning for all students. Your participation is important to your learning as well as to the learning of others. Therefore, active participation is expected of all students.

Student participation in this course consist of completing all activities that appear on the course outline, posting appropriate forum responses, and successfully completing two mini-projects about resource accessibility.

 

  1. Forum Discussions: Participants will be asked to contribute to forum posting twice per lesson. An initial forum postings will be guided by prompts related to the lesson content, and a second response post to another participant’s posting will be expected for each lesson. Postings are expected to be thoughtful and meaningful personal reflections related to the lesson content and forum prompts.

 

  1. What Would You Do Mini-Project: Participants will be given an accessibility issue that is important for them to experience given their particular educational position. Participants will be asked to describe an accessibility issue and a real world scenario the issue may arise in. The description will contain a scenario of the appropriate educational practice, how the accessibility issue could be recognized (personally experiencing, disability services notification, student notification, etc.), a list of steps taken to solve the particular issue, and an explanation of the importance behind solving the accessibility issue. The project will consist of five main sections.
    1. An brief explanation of the accessibility issue participants are going to address
    2. What participants would do in order resolve the issue
    3. Who would participants contact
    4. Where would participants go to receive information
    5. Reflections about on how personally addressing and correcting an accessibility issue impacts their personal educational practice

 

  1. Accessibility Plan: Near the end of completing the course, participants will have been exposed to a wide range of  issues concerning resource accessibility and multiple solutions to potential problems. Participants will create an accessibility plan that they implement into their educational career. A two to three page description of participant’s plan will include the following:
    1. Their personal educational environment
    2. Motivation for creating an accessibility plan
    3. Their plan
    4. Implementation strategies
    5. Discussion of anticipated results or adjustments

 

Grading: Course objectives and assignments will be largely self-evaluated through rubrics provided in the course. Participants will not receive official letter grades, however they will receive complete or incomplete statuses of course requirements. All participants of the course will receive a pass / complete status upon completion of all course requirements and objectives.

 

Late / Missed Assignments: Since the course is self-paced, there will not be late assignments. However not completing assignments may reduce participants’ ability to progress through course material and onto additional lessons.

 

Incompletes: Due to unanticipated events, not attributed to their own negligence, students may not be able to complete the coursework. In these instances, students will be given as much time as needed to complete course requirements and objectives.

 

Other Important Information:

Academic Integrity: As academic integrity relates to this class, students will be violating the academic integrity policy if they:

  • Represent the work of others as their own
  • Obtain assistance from another when the student is expected to perform independently
  • Give assistance to another individual when that individual is expected to perform independently
  • Offer false information in support of assignments or requirements

 

Also note, the following points related to cheating and plagiarism:

Cheating:

  • Failing to comply with a specific condition of academic integrity which has been clearly announced in a particular course
  • Submitting, without prior permission of the instructor, any work by a student which has at any time been submitted in identical or similar form by that student in fulfillment of any other academic requirement at any institution.
  • Submitting for academic evaluation any material in whole or part that has been prepared by another individual(s) or commercial agency.

Plagiarism:

  • Submitting written materials without proper acknowledgment of the source.
  • Deliberate attribution to, or citation of, a source from which the referenced material was not in fact obtained.
  • Submitting data, which has been altered or contrived in such a way as to be deliberately misleading.

 

Statement for Students with Disabilities:   

Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with disabilities. Please contact the course instructor for issues or concerns.