Accessible Open Educational ResourcesOhio’s Scaffold to the Stars
Stephen R. Acker, OhioLINK/The Ohio Board of Regents
Ken Petri, The Ohio State University
Agenda
• Open Educational Resources (OER)- hybrid digital and print learning objects
• Ohio’s Scaffold to the Stars- a curricular tool that builds modules from OER
• Building accessible OER course packs– Iterative processes– The special case of math content
• Summary and next steps
OER and instructional content
• OER is gaining traction as individually contributed and “pro-packaged” (Flat World, Connexions, CK-12) materials.– In general, pro-packaged materials are addressing
accessibility needs– In general, individually-created OER are less often
accessible• Lack of creator knowledge• Lack of creator production skills
Ohio’s Scaffold to the Stars
• An Educause Next Generation Learning Challenge project• Modular math and statics resources• Tagged to Learning Objectives in a sequence of math
courses• Value-rated by students and faculty• Described with accessibility metadata field• Delivered through Drupal/HTML5 Platform
Building multiple modular curricula
• Each learning objective can be served by more than one learning module since the resources are offered at no cost in digital format
• Parallel curriculum of accessible content can be customized to serve learning needs and requirements
• Non-accessible content can also be converted to accessible format when alternatives don’t exist– MathJax
Stitz-Zeager LaTex and MathJax
• Ken demo
Google Analytics
Google Analytics• Funnels
– Web pathways toward goals• Can be access- device or access-network triggered
• Multipath funnels– Different (comparable?) paths toward goals
• Goal (actionable end page of a web funnel)– Buy, request information, test-ready
• Conversions– User actions at goal
• Percentage or number of users who purchase, info seek, practice test)
• Revise based on feedback loop– Intelligence events and automatic alerts
Educause/I2 digital textbook pilot- Phase 2
• Phase 1 Educause/I2 pilot offered deeply discounted digital text on CourseLoad platform
• Student uses and accessibility evaluated and found lacking
• Contest between “author’s voice” and “audience ears.”– Parallel curricula of equal effort/equal outcomes
necessary.
Additional Resources
• OER and accessibility Partner Community– California State University, MERLOT, Open
CourseWare Consortium, and the National Federation of the Blind are founding members
Contacts
• Stephen R. Acker, Research Director– Ohio Digital Bookshelf-OhioLINK/The Ohio Board
of Regents– [email protected]
• Ken Petri, Director– Web Accessibility Center- The Ohio State
University– [email protected]