While open educational resources (OER) are part of a growing trend toward open education and open access, there are various reasons why instructors remain hesitant to embrace OER adoption for many courses. A typical reason is a concern about quality, but, perhaps not unrelated, instructors are concerned about the time it takes to both locate... Continue Reading →
The open education movement seeks to remove barriers to learner access, and thus the word "accessibility" is important to the conversation. Photo by Jon Moore on Unsplash Availability When many people speak of "accessibility" in the context of open educational resources (OER), they are interested in the foundational open education principle of "availability." Geith and Vignare (2008) define... Continue Reading →
Sometimes we just need to be motivated, and TED Talks are a go-to genre to satisfy this need. Call me a bit behind the times, but I recently discovered two 2016 TED Talks that fit the bill: Astro Teller's "The Unexpected Benefit of Celebrating Failure" and Adam Grant's "The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers." True... Continue Reading →
Headings Mark Sections It's necessary to use headings in order for assistive technology to navigate correctly. Headings also need to be in correct nesting order. The title of the page will typically be heading style 1 (H1), and then major sections will use heading style 2 (H2). Accessible Images If an image is bearing relevant... Continue Reading →
Instructional design, in many ways, is about balancing multiple perspectives–the birds-eye big picture and the ground-level street view. Think of a map. If we want to reach a certain destination, we will quickly realize from a survey of the map that there are multiple routes available to get there. We will also realize that there isn’t... Continue Reading →
If you are an educator who seeks to design and facilitate more inclusive online learning spaces, please check out this webinar event on Wednesday, May 8, 6:00-7:00 p.m. MDT. More information is available at the event's Spark Page. This webinar will explore best practices related to visual, textual, and spatial representations and learner opportunities. The... Continue Reading →
Virtual reality (VR) refers to an immersive experience in which a user enters another world/environment that has been digitally created and is available through a headset. I visited Head Games VR last week, and while the person using the headset has the full experience of interacting with a 360 virtual world through headset and hand... Continue Reading →
Every semester, I rely on PowerPoint slides in my face-to-face classroom, both as a visual aid and to keep myself on track. Every semester, I get at least one comment on a student evaluation that slides are boring and that activities are more fun. Every subsequent semester, I add more images to my slide deck... Continue Reading →
Last summer, I took a weekend trip to Glenwood Springs with my family. We stayed at a small cabin in a campground and did some hiking, relaxing in the hot springs, and adventuring at a local theme park. Each evening, we spent some time playing card games on the front porch and then went to... Continue Reading →
Privacy is a legitimate concern in the digital arena. While working away on our individual devices, it’s easy to feel like we are unseen in a remote, shadowed corner. In reality, we are each one of millions crammed into the playing field of a stadium, being observed by innumerable remote, shadowed third parties. Much of... Continue Reading →
