Canvas Course Design with Accessibility in Mind: Making All Learners Feel At Home

deonne_johnson
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
1
4761

Canvas Course Design with Accessibility in Mind: Making All Learners Feel At Home

What’s Included in This Post?
• Why We Built This Course
• Purchase Options

 

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Today my heart is overflowing with gratitude for the incredible Instructional Design team at Instructure. A few years ago, I envisioned creating a course focused on accessibility, a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I wanted to share the knowledge that had dramatically changed the way I put content together in an online course, such as: how to design with mobile in mind, using styles and headings to increase consistency and support screen readers, how to ensure you have sufficient color contrast, as well as best practices regarding alt text, captioning videos, and hyperlinks. And then, when I became more familiar with UDL (Universal Design for Learning) principles and began applying that framework in my own courses, well, it’s safe to say it revolutionized my design process.

Every team member of the instructional design team has shared their time, skills, and knowledge regarding accessibility and UDL by creating an AMAZING course. I’ve observed an unprecedented level of synergy as well as passion in sharing knowledge of how to provide equitable access for all students. I’m incredibly proud to lead this team. Truly, this is absolutely the best course I’ve ever been privileged to see. Not only is it gorgeous, but it’s chock full of amazing content that can be added directly to your own instance, ensuring your faculty and staff always have quick access from the dashboard. Add in some optional assessments (quizzes, discussion, and/or assignments), steeped in best practices, layered with pro tips, and did I mention badging? This course has it all!

How Can I Get My Hands On This?

This course can be purchased in a variety of ways:

  1. Course Only: Purchase as a stand-alone with no annual updates and no facilitation. The course has self-graded quizzes and can be run as-is, making it ideal for those that prefer self-paced learning. This option does not include annual course updates or facilitation by Instructure instructional designer.
  2. Course with Annual Updates: Purchase the course with annual updates but no external facilitation and is great for those that like self-paced learning or have internal experts to facilitate. Annual updates ensure the course content remains up-to-date with product updates and related recommendations.
  3. Add on Instructional Design Hours: Purchase the course with or without annual updates AND instructional design consultation hours for expert facilitation, making it perfect for those that want a facilitated course experience by an expert. This is a fantastic way to build capacity in-house with feedback throughout the course. Hours may also be used to customize and/or color match the course with the client’s branding and Canvas Theme Editor.
Final Thoughts

 

This course is a labor of love, from our hearts to yours; please enjoy.

If you’re catching this blog post before InstructureCon, please stop by the booth and say hi and/or watch a demo in action. And check out other amazing FREE resources in the Canvas Community, such as 2020 Course Design Essentials: Accessibility Clips, Tips, & Tricks...Oh My! Please comment below. We love hearing from you!

For more information, visit Design Services or view the ID: Canvas Course Design with Accessibility in Mind one-pager. Connect with your CSM or CSM team to purchase any of our Design Services offerings. 

Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!

 

Our Instructional Design team offers templates, consultation, badging services, course evaluations, workshops, and more. If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or @deonne_johnson, Manager, Learning Services, via djohnson@instructure.com
1 Comment
JanetLocane
Community Member

Cool! I used to be indifferent to design. And now this is my hobby. Thanks to masterbundles.com/templates/ I learned how to work with backgrounds and fonts. Of course, I have little experience, but I really want to develop in this direction. And now I'm thinking about professional design courses.