Session 8: Response to Prompt

1. List the two levels of testing as outlined in the presentation and discuss each one in turn. Then describe the types of testing activities for each level of testing.

Level One Test:  To ensure the fidelity of the media used to present the material. Ensure that the media that has been produced is complete and of an up to standard in quality.  Testing activities include:  examines media under a reasonable set of circumstances that end users are expected to encounter and test media on multiple operating systems and in different web browsers (if appropriate).

Level Two Test:  To ensure that the material presented leads to the desired student outcomes.  This test is more complex and involves testing the media as close to the finish product.  Testing activities include: checking HTML codes, CSS coding, and ADA compliance.

2. What is ADA and how does it apply to the design and development of eLearning materials?

According to the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the most comprehensive civil rights legislation adopted to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. Public and private businesses, state and local government agencies, private entities offering public accommodations and services, transportation and utilities are required to comply with the law.  This impacts the design and development of eLearning materials that can be applied to the class.  Keeping ADA students in mind, creators of the eLearning materials must add another level of complexity to the design of the course because they have to consider these obstacles for ADA students like color-blindness, low vision or no vision, seizures, auditory and motor limitations.

3. What is your institutions (You may use CSUSB's) policy towards ADA and eLearning? Explain what this means in practical terms and what you think the strengths and weaknesses of the policy.

CSUSB’s policy towards ADA and eLearning are:

1. Identification of the interest, problem or concern.
2. An analysis of the factors involved, including cost and funding sources.
3. A review of the alternatives possible, including cost.
4. A response to the originator of the item.
5. Implementation of the solution.
6. Closure of the process.

Strengths: The use of a team, available resources that are devoted to ADA students and their accommodations, and simple guidelines that can be utilized and implemented quickly.

Weaknesses: Limited resources due to funding and budget constraints, and the use of the word “reasonable” in the first paragraph.  What does the policy mean by reasonable? Who gets to determine what a “reasonable” accommodation is—the student, faculty member, the ADA management team? And under conditions are the responsibilities of the ADA management met?

4. Revisit the 11 instructional design steps presented in chapter 1 of the text (Design Quickly and Reliably).* Revise this 11 step system using what you now know about development and testing. Try to create your own instructional design process/template that you might actually use. Briefly explain your modifications.

*11 step instructional design process as presented in the text:

Identify your underlying goal

*Analyze learners' needs and abilities/ Instructor’s needs and abilities

Identify what to teach

Set learning objectives

*Modify objectives to fit the scope “reasonable” accommodations for both ADA and non-ADA students

Pick the approach to meet each objective

Decide the teaching sequence of your objectives

Create objects to accomplish objectives

Create tests

Select learning activities

Choose Media  

My changes are denoted by an (*) and I added Instructor’s needs and abilities to Step 2 and Modify objectives as Step 5.  I included Instructor’s needs and abilities to Step 2 because the instructor’s abilities to adapt the needs and abilities of the student to the course material is absolutely crucial.  It’s is not enough to identify students needs and neglect the abilities and needs of the instructor to adapt to those accommodations.  Instructor might need more support from in terms of funding or resources to accommodation to the needs and abilities of the student.  I also added Step 5 because I believe it is also important to make sure all students share a similar learning experience and the content of material stays the same.  It’s easy to say that we have students with special needs and try to redesign or refine an existing design of a course to meet the needs of ADA students, but what about the rest of the class? Will the class be more complicated or disengaging for the other students in the class? I would hate to adjust the class for one group of students and fail at attaining my goal for the rest of the students in class.

Sources:

ADA Procedure and Policies. (2012). California State University San Bernardino. Retrieved from

http://policies.csusb.edu/ada_procedures_and_guidelines.htm

The Americans with Disabilities Act (2012). Center For Psychiatric Rehabilitation. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/cpr/reasaccom/whatlaws-adaact.html

Newberry, B. Testing Online Education Material (Word Document). Retrieved from http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/fall2012/etec_541_fall_2012/