How accessible is online education? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students across the globe have had to adjust to a new normal as colleges and universities rapidly transitioned from in-person instruction to online and hybrid instruction. Though many applauded the newly found flexibility of online instruction, many undergraduate students found new challenges, specifically those students with disabilities. In a recent study published in the journal CBE Life Sciences Education, researchers interviewed science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) undergraduate students with disabilities (SWDs) from large-enrollment universities about the effects of the transition to emergency remote instruction. The experiences of students with disabilities in STEM courses Disability is often overlooked in education and in STEM education in particular, even though there are legal mandates for these students to be supported. Students with disabilities makeup about 5% of STEM undergraduate programs and...

Technology can extend access to content and enrich an educational experience, no doubt. But the flipside is that it can also, unwittingly, create barriers. All learners’ abilities and disabilities affect how they consume information, apply concepts, and achieve mastery. This, in turn, requires everyone involved in course design, development, and delivery to consider and evolve instructional practices. That said, trying to account for all the elements of accessible course design can be dizzying, leaving you with more questions than answers. It can make you wonder how you’ll be able to identify every element, how you’ll ever manage to learn all the skills necessary, and whether you’re getting it “right” when you finally do. (For the record, there are certainly best practices , but the only wrong thing to do is nothing!) In any given situation, having too many priorities often translates into having zero priorities. To avoid this pitfall and begin formulating a plan, simply ask yourself, ...

Imagine you’re a student in an introductory biology course. On an exam, your professor asks: " What is a byproduct of photosynthesis as exhibited by Figure 1.1 below? " Could you answer the question? Figure 1.1 Now imagine you are a student who has a visual impairment and you were asked the same question. Could you provide the answer then? Chances are you may not be able to answer the question based on Figure 1.1 alone. What seems like a well-written question, is actually only accessible to students who are sighted or otherwise have functional vision. For students with visual impairments, assessment questions based solely on scientific images or graphs may create a barrier in the learning process. Being web inclusive means that course content and associated materials are equitably available to all students regardless of their abilities, or type of technological device that they are using. Instead of relying only on scientific images and graphs to showcase data, you can im...

It’s no secret that enrollment numbers are increasing, whether due to a global pandemic or more run-of-the-mill economic changes, workforce needs and demands, or personal and professional enrichment goals. Scaling increases access to high-quality education for a wide swath of learners who may never have even considered it an option, regardless of their socioeconomic status (a hallmark of ASU’s charter). Designing, developing, and delivering courses at scale often necessitates reimagining teaching and learning of a particular topic. This series of articles from  ASU’s Teach Online introduces various aspects of scalable design by focusing on reducing/eliminating costs; accessibility and inclusivity; how learners achieve and demonstrate subject-matter mastery; and a team-oriented approach to see things through from conception to completion. The links below will help you get started: What Does it Mean to Design for Scale? A “No-cost Course” Means New Solutions for Accessible, High-qual...

When it comes to online course design and facilitation, course announcements are often treated as a “nice to have” supplement to instruction, taking a backseat to things like the syllabus, module overviews, and learning pages. Those pages contain valuable information, but announcements offer an opportunity to share content while making personalized connections. However, students often overlook pages that do not appear to contain value to them, including announcements. There's an art and science to crafting valuable announcements that students will want to view. Planning, organization, and frequency play a role in leveraging announcements to be more than unappealing check-ins that students ignore. Here are some effective ways to use announcements to weave student success and a culture of learning into the narrative of your course. Increase Your Presence One of the most common criticisms of online education is the lack of instructor presence. Particularly in large-scale courses, stud...

Many STEM students are seeking the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research at some point in their academic career due to its many benefits. However, finding and securing a research position can be challenging, and may be more difficult for some students than others. In a recent publication in the International Journal of STEM Education, researchers interviewed undergraduates who were involved in undergraduate research and students who were not involved but interested in participating in research in order to compare their knowledge on finding and securing research positions at a research-intensive institution ( Cooper et al., 2021 ). How can students find research? Students who were interviewed said that they found research opportunities by talking with instructors, academic advisors, peers, or teaching assistants or by using online university resources. The study found that there were no differences between students who did research and students who wanted to do research in the ...

The opportunity to attend a university online is an attractive option for many students because of the flexibility in scheduling, the lack of commuting, and the ability to work from wherever. This is a particularly enticing option for individuals working full-time in any capacity such as a 9-5 office job or for taking care of children or other family members. So, as universities begin to develop more of these programs, these online programs open access to college degrees for a larger slice of society. However, who is enrolling in these programs, and are there grade differences for different groups of students in online courses? We know that, on average, students from backgrounds that are historically underrepresented in STEM tend to do worse in the classroom compared to their overrepresented counterparts. This group broadly includes BLNP (Black, Latinx, Native American, and Pacific Islander) people, women, people of lower socioeconomic status, and first-generation to college students. ...

What is active learning? Active learning has been proven to show an increase in student learning and a decrease in student failure compared to passive learning. As a result, many institutions have adopted various active learning pedagogies. Evidence also shows that active learning may decrease achievement gaps between students in traditionally underserved groups, such as women and underrepresented minority students. While active learning has been dubbed as inclusive teaching, it is still unclear if active learning is inclusive for all students. It has now been established that students from certain demographic backgrounds such as students with anxiety and the LGBTQ+ community have encountered barriers in an active learning setting. In a recent study , we interviewed 37 Disability Resource Centers (DRC) Directors from various U.S. Institutions to identify “To what extent is active learning inclusive for science undergraduates with disabilities” What is the DRC and who does it serve? Dis...

As the semester is upon us, being prepared to teach on Zoom is essential. The synchronous time you spend in Zoom with your students should be reconsidered to provide the best learning experience possible. We encourage you to do so! This week we hosted our first Teach Talk webinar for the Fall 2020 semester, presented by School of Life Sciences Instructional Designers, Lenora Ott and Sarah Prosory .  We discussed the process of teaching using Zoom, by focusing more specifically on using Google Slides and its features, live captioning, as well as creating activities for students to do during the synchronous session within breakout rooms in Zoom. The key take-away is to plan for what the students need to do before , during , and after the synchronous sessions, and that will guide you in the preparation for your class meetings too.  The Process Before Class: Share on Canvas any links that students will need for the sync session. Pre-assign breakout rooms if needed, otherwise ro...