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Making your own learning resources
As a tutor, you may be involved in creating supplementary resources such as graphics, audio files and videos to better assist your students. Please indicate to students that these created supplementary resources are not a course requirement but to assist them.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
When creating resources, it is advisable to follow the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines which is an education design framework. One of the aims of UDL is to create and adapt resources so that a wide range of diverse students are able to access and meaningfully engage with it.
Guidelines:
Some basic online accessibility guidelines which are helpful when developing online learning materials (adapted from Blackboard Ally’s accessibility checklist).
- Text font size should be a minimum of 12px.
- Ensure that there is sufficient contrast between text and background (black text on yellow backgrounds works well for students with low vision).
- Ensure that proper heading styles are used (use the formatting provided in word processing programmes as these are usually accessibility compliant and will allow screen readers to recognise headings).
- Make sure you include an alternative text description for images that can convey the full meaning of the image (i.e. for an Early Childhood Development lecture on the role of play don’t just say ‘picture of child’; explain why there is a picture of a child --for example: picture of a preschool child playing with lego).
- Don’t use tables for text layout - only use tables for data that needs to be displayed in a table form. Otherwise screen readers will not be able to read the text appropriately for the student.
- Ensure that all tables have column headings.
- When creating lists - make use of the word processing built-in list formatting so that it can be interpreted by screen-reader software.
- When using hyperlinks in text, create a short text description of the link target.
- When creating a powerpoint presentation, use one of the given templates (don’t create your own style) - also for screen reader compatibility
- Don’t use PDF or scanned document formats - these cannot be read by screen readers (they are often interpreted as a single image).
- Video lectures should also have subtitles for those who have impaired hearing. Subtitling/ captioning also benefits students whose home language is different to the mode of instruction.
- Text transcripts of the video lectures serve the same purpose and can also benefit students with limited internet connectivity. Text transcripts can be created by editing the script you wrote for the lecture; or by using transcription services or software.
Below is a list of tools that you can use to create different resources. Please note that you may have to use other tools depending on which faculty you are based in.