SHU: IHE Accessibility in OER Reflection
Overview
This document serves as a reflective piece for faculty and staff who took part in the Accessible OER Academy for Institutions of Higher Education, a freely available program hosted by ISKME and CAST. Participants were equipped with this Open Educational Resource (OER) to conduct a Landscape Analysis, aiming to identify crucial frameworks and aids to steer our efforts in promoting Accessibility in OER. Our team utilizes this document as a platform to exchange ideas within our community, as we advance as an institution towards greater integration and utilization of OER internally, while advocating for accessibility best practices for all.
Landscape Analysis for Accessibility in OER in Local Context
Part One: Initial Thoughts
- Our initial goal was actually a few goals:
- Learn more about accessibility as an institution and identify any new strategies or gaps.
- Learn about OERs and as a baseline, how to start implementing them at our institution.
- Start small and create a plan that prioritizes goals with targeted dates of compliance.
Part Two: Introductory probing questions:
What does accessibility look like in our organization? How do we measure accessibility
Accessibility efforts at SHU are progressing, especially with the recent appointment of a new Accessibility Director. This change is expected to improve accessibility across the board. While some faculty members may need guidance, there's growing awareness within SHU Global about accessibility, though there's room for improvement. We do have a significant number of online instructors facing accessibility challenges, highlighting the need for ongoing support and training. Regarding student involvement, not all students readily self-report or seek Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).
What does OER look like in our organization? How do we measure access to OER?
We do not have widespread OER adoption, rather we just have select faculty or staff who have some knowledge of it. We have no way of analyzing access to OERs.
Part Three: Clarifying questions for accessibility:
What are the organizational structures that supports accessibility?
At our institution, we have an Accessibility Coordinator. Additionally, we have Canvas ' accessibility checker is good; it is easy to caption videos and create alternative text for images, and it shows areas that aren't accessiblie.
Who generates most of the accessibility structures/conversation in our organization?
Currently, a lot of the accessibility conversations happen within the Digital Education space. So OLAC, as a committee is focused on accessibility in online courses, and generates a lot of the conversations surrounding accessibility on our campus.
Where do most educators get support with accessibility?
Educators have a few resources for help when they have accessibility questions. First, the Accessibility Coordinator has a lot of great resources and tools for faculty. Second, the instructional designer acts as a hands-on help with accessibility in instructional materials and courses. Lastly, the Canvas Administrator often reminds and supports faculty with accessibility in their Canvas courses.
What content areas might have the largest gaps in access to accessibility?
There is not a lot of on-ground support for accessibility, mostly because there is no quality assurance process like there is for online courses. When an online course is inaccessible, it is either caught and addressed when working with the instructional designer or during an OLAC course review. That structure is not in place for on-ground courses, so there is no way of identifying or addressing accessibility gaps.
Part Four: Clarifying questions for OER:
What is our organizational structure that supports curricular resources?
We do not have a defined organizational structure that supports curriculuar resources. Our librarian maintains a database for online articles for faculty to use in their courses, which is always a great starting point.
What is our organizational structure that supports OER?
There is no organization structure in place to support OER. Many faculty and staff are unsure of where to start to put this in place.
Who generates most of the curricular resources in our organization?
Faculty generate most of the curriculuar resources.
Where do most educators get support with curricular resources?
Faculty go to their respective departments for resources.
What content areas might have the largest gaps in access to curricular resources/OER?
Since our campus does not currently have an OER initiative, we do not have the data or research to identify gaps.
Part Five: Clarifying questions for Faculty learning and engagement:
What Professional Learning (PL) structures have the best participation rates for our educators?
The support structures in place for faculty that gets the best participation is usually Workshop Week or Common Dialogue day, both of which are hybrid events focused on sharing teaching and learning best practices.
What PL structures have the best "production" rates for our educators?
The PL structures that have the best "production" rates, or best learning outcomes, is the OLAC training course that faculty are required to take prior to teaching online. This is also the case for the Accessibility course.
What incentive do we have to offer people for participating in learning and engagement?
Unfortunately, there is no tangable learning incentive for those participating in learning and engagement. There is a sense of community at our instituion for those who are "lifelong learners" and several people participate for this reason.
Who are the educators that would be most creative with accessibility and OER?
Our OLAC committee memebers are already very aware of accessibility in education and implement best practices into their course. They would be very creative given the opportunity to use OERs in their courses.
Who are the educators that would benefit the most from accessibility and OER?
We believe that all educators would benefit from OER use, especially since many of our instructors are interested in OER use but are unsure where to start.
Part Six: Final Probing questions:
What is our current goal for Accessibility in OER and why is that our goal?
Our current goal for Accessibility in OER is to gain support in getting a baseline for implementation. This includes ongoing resources to help faculty in the "day to day" of OER and Accessibility, rather than just widespread training every year.
Who have we not yet included while thinking about this work?
In speaking with cohort members, someone mentioned grants and seeking out funding to get OERs and Accessibility support started. If we do explore external funding, it would be benefitial to include our institution's grand writer in that process.
What barriers remain when considering this work?
The largest barriers to our work in accessibility and OER is time. Many of us in our cohort are doing the work of 1.5 jobs, so dedicating additional time to implementation is difficult.
What would genuine change look like for our organization for this work?
There would need to be significant structure and organizational changes at our institution for widespread adoption to work. Many faculty and staff are overworked and underappreciated, which needs to be addressed from the top-down.
Team Focus
Identifying and Describing a Problem of Practice
The following questions should help your team ensure that you are focusing your collaboration.
What is your Team’s specific goal for this series? You may consider using AEM Quality Indicators for Creating Accessible Materials to help add to or narrow your work.
Our initial goal was actually a few goals:- Learn more about accessibility as an institution and identify any new strategies or gaps.
- Learn about OERs and as a baseline, how to start implementing them at our institution.
- Start small and create a plan that prioritizes goals with targeted dates of compliance
What other partners might support this work?
We have some support from administration to look into OER and accessibility, particularly identifying gaps.
What is your desired timeframe for this work?
This is an ongoing project, so there is no definitive timeframe.
How will you include diverse voices and experiences in this work?
We have involved several faculty members and staff memebers from a wide range of expertise to weigh in.
Please create a Focus Question that explains your goal and provides specific topics that you would like feedback on. This is what you will share in your breakout groups for feedback.
How do you, as an institution, get started with providing OER resources?
What feedback did you receive from another team during the March 14th Implementation Session?
Team Work Time and Next Steps
Sharing and Next Steps
What was your redefined goal for this series?
Our redefined goal was to get started, as an instution, using OER resources by providing some training to those who were unable to join this training series.
What does your team want to celebrate?
We had a lot of faculty and staff participate in this academy! Considering how busy everyone is, it was great that we were able to make time and all come together for this training.
What did your team accomplish? Please link to or attach at least one resource you have created/adapted.
We have finished this reflection document, which is getting us started thinking and reflecting on OER and accessibility gaps at the institution.
What are your team’s next steps?
A few of us in this cohort are creating an OER resource training for faculty, and we plan to include some of the topics covered in this training series.