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Accessibility of eLearning
Accessibility of eLearning

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4.4 Activity 3: Working through a scenario

Activity 3

Four scenarios are presented below. Read through the four scenarios and choose one to answer the associated questions.

You will find your list from Activities 1 and 2 useful here. In a real situation, you would need to ask questions of colleagues and students, so think about what information might be missing from the scenario that you would need to find out. Think about which colleagues you might consult to find this information. Make a note in the box below of any assumptions that you make.

Scenario 1. A course with extensive audio

You are planning an eLearning activity for a modern language course. The course uses an audioconferencing system as an important tool for practising and tutoring spoken language. The tool also has a text-chat facility. Students are not assessed on their use of the conferencing but experience has shown that those who use it achieve better grades.

  • Which students may have difficulty using the audioconferencing?
  • What adjustments could be made?
  • What alternatives could be provided?
  • What information would you provide to alert students to potential challenges?

Scenario 2. A course with multimedia

You are planning an eLearning activity, which includes commissioning software that students will use to look at images, listen to audio and complete an interactive quiz. Completion of the quiz is an individual activity that counts towards assessment.

  • What might some students find challenging in this activity?
  • What adjustments could be made?
  • What alternatives could be provided?
  • Would your response be different if it was a group activity?
  • What would you include in your specification to the software developers?
  • What information would you provide to alert students to potential challenges?

Scenario 3. A course with extensive video

You are planning an eLearning activity that includes a DVD video. The video has a large number of short clips: some with interviews, some are situations with voice-overs and some are street scenes with background sounds but no dialogue or voice-over. Students are expected to study the street scenes in detail and to write essays about them.

  • What might some students find challenging in this activity?
  • What adjustments could be made?
  • What alternatives could be provided?
  • What would you include in your specification to the DVD developers?
  • What information would you provide to alert students to potential challenges?

Scenario 4. A course with many diagrams

You are planning an extensive eLearning activity about science topics. Some of the topics use a small amount of mathematical notation and there are large numbers of diagrams and illustrations. Students are expected to study data, maps and charts and to interpret their meaning.

  • Which aspects of the activity might some students find challenging?
  • What adjustments could be made?
  • What alternatives could be provided?
  • What information would you provide to alert students to potential challenges?

There are no right or wrong answers to this activity. It is intended to help you to put into practice what you have learnt about tackling accessibility and to help you to apply the material we have presented in this course to your own situation. Of course, if you have the time, you could try to tackle several of the scenarios presented, but this is entirely at your own discretion.

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