2013 FACET Retreat May 17-19, 2013

1. Improving the Student Experience: Making course documents “User Friendly”Suzi Shapiro, PhDIndiana University East 2013 FACET RetreatMay 17-19, 2013

2. AbstrACT • Technology is a valuable tool for the creation and transmission of information, but we do not always use these tools • optimally to support the real human beings in our classrooms. We often create documents for our way of thinking • and with tools that we find comfortable. We imitate the forms we have experienced in the classes we have taken. • It is easy to forget that students may have perspectives that are not the same as our own. Many of our “first • generation” students are unaware of the academic conventions we no longer question. It is common for students to • be uncomfortable with complex sentence structure and jargon ridden language. Students may be affected by limited • vision or mobility or even their ability to pay attention for long periods of time. And – as we commonly hear in • the faculty lounge - “ People don’t read!” You learned to write in your college classes and you make use of your • considerable skills in preparing syllabi, assignments, and instructions. Your documents are organized, thoughtful, • and grammatically correct with no spelling errors. So why do your students fail to understand (or remember) what • you have written? Recent experience in writing for online reading has demonstrated that people do not READ the • way we think that they do. They scan documents: Jumping around and looking for important or relevant words and • phrases. They quit if bored or confused and often ignore a large percentage of the information later in the document. • How can you use what has been learned about human behavior when “consuming” information to improve the • usefulness of your class documents? Make that word processor do all the things it can do better than a typewriter!

3. You write for yourself! • Teachers create course documents: • For ourselves • The way we were taught • To demonstrate our skills • organized, • thoughtful, • grammatically correct • no spelling errors.

4. Why do your students fail to understand (or remember) what you have written? • People do not READ the way we think that they do. • They scan documents: • Jump around • Look for important or relevantwords • They QUIT if bored or confused • They often ignore a large percentage of the information later in the document

5. How do people read? • Scanning a web page for an answer to a question • Visual Impairment

6. “ People don’t read!” • Students may: • Be first generation college students • Have different perspectives • Be unaware of academic conventions • Be uncomfortable with complex sentence structure • Be unfamiliar with jargon ridden language. • Be affected by limited : vision mobility ability to pay attention

7. Use a word processor • to do all the things it can do BETTERthan a typewriter!

8. Preparing course materials? • But this is the way my professors did it when I was in school. • Not smart enough to understand the instructions? Those folks don’t belong in college! • If a student has a disability, the accommodations people will take care of it.

9. U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 • Prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability.

10. Section 504 • "No otherwise qualified [sic] individual with a disability in the United States shall, solely by reason of his/her [sic] disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

11. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 • extends anti-discrimination legislation to all institutions of higher education regardless of whether or not the institution receives federal funds

12. National Statistics (1999) • Number of undergraduate students in the United States who report having a disability • 6% of the student body • An Institutional Perspective on Students with Disabilities in Postsecondary Center for Educational Statistics, Postsecondary Education Quick Information 1999 (Taken from DO-IT Faculty Room Page, 12/12/08: • http://www.washington.edu/doit/Faculty/Rights/Background/statistics.html)

13. Survey Data • 5,976 of the 240,122 students • six reporting schools, • approximately 2.5%

14. disabilities reported by student

15. Disabilities NOT reported by students? • Common disabilities: • Too tired • Too busy • Too stressed • To think clearly & attend to tasks.

16. How can we be sure…. • We are: • communicating effectively? • giving all students an equal opportunity to learn? • not unintentionally creating barriers?

17. The solution • Research on creating information that is accessible and understandable to the widest possible variety of students. • UNIVERSAL DESIGN

18. How do we create documents that Communicate effectively? • Simple is good!

19. Step 1 • Determine your objectives • or outcomes • for an assignment • or course.

20. Step 2 • Ask yourself • “What are the questions a student should ask about the course or the assignment?” • Then, at each point • “What does a student need to know to continue?”

21. SAMPLE: Assignment instructions • What is the name of the assignment? • When is the assignment due? • What am I supposed to learnfrom the assignment? • What resources do I need to complete the assignment? • What should I do first? Second? . . . • How do I know that the assignment is complete?

22. Your Assignment • Cross out information that is not essential.

23. Step 3 • Put information in an orderthat will • Answer frequently asked questions FIRST • Build information

24. Sample Assignment • Number the components of the assignment in the order that they should be completed.

25. Sample assignment • Add notes for missing information

26. Step 4 • Write for • Accessibility • Scanning

27. USE Document STYLES • Heading levels • (Not format changes)

28. Why write for scanning • Facilitates online reading and use of screen reading software • Helps people to find information quickly • Organization assists people with attention problems

29. How to Write for scanning • Structure • Expectancy • Redundancy • Visibility

30. Structure • Answering common questions • Most important information at the top • Use headings and subheadings • Replace paragraphs with bulleted lists • Numbered lists for items • that must all be completed or • that must be done in sequence.

31. Expectancy • What information do your students expect to find in the document? • – don’t guess, ASK! • Where do they expect to find it? • What do they expect it to be called?

32. Redundancy • Put important information • in several places • Use the same cueing • for each type of item • Use images when applicable • Use multiple types of coding • – style, color, etc.

33. Multiple Coding Without hatching With hatching

34. Multiple Coding

35. How to Increase visibility • CONTRAST • Font • Color • Position

36. Large Font size • 12 Point minimum for print and online viewing • 14 point minimum for low vision, children, or older people (Over 40)

37. Simple Font style • San Serif • Ariel • Verdana • Serif • Times New Roman • Century Schoolbook Avoid Special Effects

38. Color Blindness Watch out ! for combinations that are hard to discriminate for people with color blindness

39. AVOID • Combinations of • RED and GREEN • Or • BLUE and YELLOW

40. Step 5 • Create a check list and/or a grading rubric for the assignment

41. Improving Printed and Online Materials Other cognitive organizers

42. Color Blindness Simulations

43. Mind Map

44. Mind maps

45. Other Supporting materials • Transcripts • Auditory

46. Transcripts • From Lecture: • In today’s class we will be discussing the way that understanding our similarities and differences can benefit us in work and in our personal lives. • Before we begin, are there any questions on last week’s reading? John?

47. Support visual with auditory • Podcasts • Teleconferences • Screen reader readable documents

48. There is more!