4-part Webcast Series on Accessible Online Learning
I want to remind you of the 4-part fee-based series starting November
28. I have a fabulous group of
experts joining me in this series. There is nowhere that you will get such
a collection of experts from
across the country dealing with this subject. Once in a while you might
find 4 good presentations at a
conference somewhere, but then think of that cost, air plane, hotel, food
and conference costs itself.
Thanks for your consideration.
December 4-part Onlline Learning Fee-based Series
** You can watch the overview Webcast on Online Learning at:
http://easi.cc/archive/elearnov/
November 28 at 2 PM Eastern, Presentation 1:
Introduction: History and Current State of Online Learning
Presenter: Norman Coombs, Dick Banks, Michael Elledge and staff from U.
Toronto ATRC
(NOTE! registering will give you access to the 4 live presentations as well
as their recordings. Participants
will also be enrolled in a listserv discussion
to promote further interaction).
Coombs brings the unusual perspective of someone who began teaching online
a decade before the Web
came into existence and reflects on the impact of these technical changes
both on the nature of online
learning itself and on their impact on users with disabilities.
Dick Banks has experience, as does Coombs in using Blackboard, eCollege and
WebCT. Mike Elledge is
the Accessibility Specialist/University of Michigan and
part of the Accessibility Team Lead/Sakai Project which is a courseware
system developed by several
major universities. The staff at the U. Toronto's Adaptive
Technology Resource Center played the key role in developing and
maintaining the ATutor courseware
center.
December 5 at 2 PM Eastern, Presentation 2:
Online Learning: Best Practice and Best Policies
Presenters: Robert Todd and Cyndi Rowland
In this presentation, Coombs will be joined by Robert Todd of Georgia Tech
and Cyndi Rowland of Utah
State University. They will focus on defining best
practice in online learning and the importance of clear policies defining
commitment to accessible online
learning.
Todd heads the GRADE Project at Georgia Tech and moderated a recent
leadership conference with
national leaders wrestling with what is best practice and
how best to disseminate information about its importance. Robert will rely
heavily on the GRADE Project
and this summer's symposium.
Cyndi Rowland has lead the WebAIM Project dealing with training Web masters
and administrators on
making institutional Web sites accessible. She has a special
interest in the important role played by an institution expressing its
commitment in a clear policy
statement.
December 12 at 2 PM Eastern, Presentation 3:
Enhanced Accessibility Using Microsoft Accessibility Wizard
Presenters: John Gunderson and Dan Linder
Course content designers rarely work directly with HTML Web code or even
with software designed to
create HTML. They use standard authoring software, unrelated
to the Web, and trust it to output acceptable content for the Web, but word
processors, and similar
software almost never output content for the Web that
meets accessibility needs. This wizard, however, will enable someone to do
that without learning HTML
accessibility.
Coombs will host a presentation by John Gunderson and Dan linder of the
University of Illinois dealing
with making content authoring tools able to assist
the content designer in creating content for the Web that is fully
accessible without their having to
become HTML experts. John and Dan have created a
small program which adds a menu item to all of the Office applications to
output accessible Web pages.
The wizard is fast, simple and user friendly. The
user does not have to know any HTML nor to know anything about
accessibility. It finds the problems in
the content and prompts for the items it needs freeing
the user from being burdened by learning technical jargon or code.
December 19 at 2 Eastern, Presentation 4:
Accessibility Checking and Captioning Multimedia
Presenter: Dick Banks and Norman Coombs
While there are a number of tools to let content providers check the
accessibility of their content for users
with disabilities, most of them will not work
behind the password of a courseware system. The presentation will
demonstrate some really simple
checkers that will work inside courseware systems. The
presentation will help faculty understand which accessibility items are the
ones which most directly
concern their work and which items they will be able
to ignore as they do not apply to their work.
Multimedia is becoming an increasingly popular tool used by faculty in
online courses. A simple,
easy-to-use tool to add captions to multimedia will be displayed.
You can register online at
http://easi.cc/forms/distance.htm
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EASI Online December Courses:
Barrier-free Information Technology
http://easi.cc/workshops/adaptit.htm
Accessible Internet Multimedia
http://easi.cc/workshops/mmedia.htm
(Taking 5 courses earn the Certificate in Accessible Information)
Norman Coombs, Ph.D.
CEO EASI Equal Access to Software and Information
http://www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh
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