access and inclusion

Access and Inclusion Project FLC Year 1 Case Studies

The faculty who participated in the NSF iUSE grant-funded Access and Inclusion Project have reported back on their strategies and experiences. As we gather more information, these case studies will be made more robust, but for now, here's a sample of the strategies implemented by the Access and Inclusion faculty in the 2016-17 academic year.

*Classroom strategies employed by the 2016-17 Access and Inclusion Project faculty*
Class

Engaging with Student Motivation

Rebecca Johnson--One of my favorite books is How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Susan A. Ambrose and others. The chapter I turn to again and again is “What Factors Motivate Students to Learn?” Ambrose, et al, make it clear that while we may worry about how to engage students, ultimately it’s the students who have to make decisions about how they spend their time and focus their attention.

What We Know about Teaching with Universal Design for Learning

Rebecca Johnson--Both the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the Rochester Institute of Technology have a long history of exploring and advancing issues of access and inclusion in a variety of classroom situations. The first two resources, below, ClassAct and Teach2Connect, were developed at NTID and provide a wealth of resources and stories of how individual faculty have addressed access and inclusion in their classes.

High-Impact Accessibility Practices

Rebecca Johnson--The Disability Services Office at RIT has compiled a list of specific practices for teaching students with particular disabilities. We’ve taken some of that information on their website and turned it around, looking at which practices can help the most students.* This list is a great example of how Universal Design for Learning works. While each of these is an evidence-based strategy for supporting a student with a particular disability, any of these practices can help all of your students.

Rebecca Johnson--Teaching and Learning Services provides support for faculty who wish to foster access and inclusivity in their classrooms. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is helpful framework for many of these activities.

What Is Universal Design for Learning?

Rebecca Johnson--Universal Design for Learning (UDL) combines what we know about how learning works with a commitment to providing course materials that are engaging and accessible to produce a learning experience that benefits all students. David Rose at the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) in Boston first conceived of UDL, and called for instructors to provide multiple means of representation (how can you provide different avenues into course content?), multiple mean

Making Digital Course Content Accessible

Marybeth Koon--As instructors create and adopt more digital teaching resources, they must also ensure that students with disabilities can access those materials. This section of the Accessibility Tool Kit 1.0 provides instructors with resources that will help them make their materials accessible to students with disabilities. As you look at this list, consider that resources for making online courses accessible are also useful to faculty who teach in a blended or flipped modality.

Faculty Stories: Sandi Connelly and How Online Teaching Is Different

Rebecca Johnson—When she moved her large-enrollment biology courses online, Sandi Connelly wanted to create an environment that met the educational needs of both supported and non-supported students.

Teaching and Learning Symposium: Collaboration and Inclusion Resources

Rebecca Johnson—On August 14, Teaching and Learning Services hosted the inaugural Teaching and Learning Symposium. The theme this year was collaboration and inclusion, with four sessions on how faculty across RIT have employed collaboration in a variety of contexts.