e-Learning: How To Guides

SOOT is a web application that enables staff other than module tutors to be associate with a unit in SAMIS.  It also enables multiple staff to be associated with programmes of study.  These associations can then be brought through into e-tools such as Moodle and the LMF.

Note:  You do not have to use SOOT – both Moodle and the LMF can be used without it, however the benefit of storing associations in a central location like this is that only one list has to be maintained and only one interface used to do so.  This is not only more efficient, but it also avoids potential problems with membership discrepancies between multiple lists.

SOOT can be used by any member of staff – either by those who would like to request an association with a particular unit or programme (in order  to gain access to it in Moodle or the LMF), or by those who are seeking to give access.  SOOT is located at www.bath.ac.uk/soot and can be accessed from on and off campus.

Upon logging into SOOT with your BUCS username and password you will be presented with a welcome screen (as shown below).

Typical SOOT Homepage

Towards the top of the screen there are four tabs:  ‘Home’, ‘Join units’, ‘Join programmes’ and ‘Manage units’.

The ‘Home’ page is a summary page.  It shows the status of your current enrolments (listing your status as ‘tutor’ or ‘other staff’ as appropriate), and also provides access to a record of pending, approved and declined SOOT requests.

You can request to be added as ‘other staff’ on units and programmes from the relevant tabs – the process for doing so is the same.

Requesting Access to a Unit or Programme.

• Click onto the relevant tab (’Join units’ or ‘Join Programmes’)
• Search for the course you wish to be added to (this can be by title or by SAMIS code).
• Click onto the course to select it

You may repeat the process in order to include multiple courses in your request (as shown below)

Joining units or programmes

Once you have identified all of the courses you wish to have ‘other staff’ access to, simply press the ‘Review’ button and then (on the next screen) the ‘confirm’ button.  This will generate an email request which is automatically sent to the module tutor of the course (or designated SOOT representative).

Note:  Many programmes don’t have a programme manager assigned in SAMIS (i.e. someone who takes ownership of the programme and who can accept requests of this nature).  As this is the case, you may need to contact the e-Learning team in order to join programmes.

Managing Access Requests

Email requests from SOOT will include a link back to SOOT which can then be used to approve or deny access as appropriate.

If you have received requests, your SOOT homepage will display the requests alongside ‘Approve’ and ‘Decline’ buttons (as shown below).

Managing access requests

If you decide to decline the request, you will have the opportunity to provide a reason – your response (whatever it is), is then emailed back to the requester.

A summary of all your access requests (and their status) is available from  the Homepage.

Managing your units

If you are the module tutor (convenor) for a specific unit you may wish to amend ”other staff’ memberships at some point in the future.  As with making the requests, the SOOT interface to can also be used to remove access.

• Select the ‘Manage Units’ tab to see a list of units for which you are the convenor.
• Click onto a specific unit in order to manage memberships (as shown below)

Screenshot of 'Manage Units' page

From this page you can modify the ‘other staff’ associated with your courses by pressing the relevant ‘Add’ or ‘Remove’ icon – it will take up to 24 hours for any changes to ‘other staff’ associations to cascade into e-tools such as Moodle.

Additionally, on this screen you are also able to designate a ‘unit administrator’ for the course.  In this context, the administrator is simply a nominated individual to whom future access requests will be sent.  This can be useful where a unit tutor would prefer access requests to be dealt with by someone else.

Self Unenrolment

Having been given access to units and programmes as an ‘other staff’ member, you may eventually wish to unenrol yourself from them.

• Select the ‘Homepage’ tab
• Click onto the ‘Your Enrolments’ button

You will see a breakdown of courses that you have access to – either as a module tutor (course convenor) or as an ‘other staff’ member.  With the exception of courses for which you are the convenor, you can click choose to leave the unit or programme (as shown below).

Self unenrolment

Note:  If you wish to unenrol from a Moodle course but are listed as an ‘other staff’ member for the unit, you will need to remove the ‘other staff’ association for the course via SOOT (as if you don’t, you will automatically be re-enrolled within 24 hours).

Departmental Access

SOOT also has a bulk request facility (accessible only through the e-Learning Team), which can be used to request and grant access to every SAMIS course (units and programmes) within a Department.

Typically requests for this level of access come from Directors of Studies (or similar) who need to maintain an overview of all supporting course materials in Moodle or the LMF.  Should you require information about this facility or any other aspect of SOOT, please contact the e-Learning Team by emailing e-learning@bath.ac.uk.

• Last updated: 28th February, 2010

Introduction

There are a number of tools available at the University for you to use to help facilitate real time, online based communication. There are also an increasing number of externally hosted solutions. The aim of this how to guide is to enable you to make a more aware of the choices when deciding on the tool(s) you will use.

If you are using externally hosted solution please read the guidelines available at the bottom of the e-learning Tools page <http://www.bath.ac.uk/learningandteaching/themes/e-learning/tools>. It is important to be aware of some of the issues surrounding using externally hosted web 2.0 solutions in your teaching and learning. To help the implementation of an externally hosted solution, such as Skype, Google Chat etc. you might encourage students to include their skype username within their Moodle profile.

University available tools

Text (instant messenger)

There are two instant messenger tools available. One is Moodle Chat available in your Moodle course the other is Pidgin (http://www.bath.ac.uk/bucs/tools/wikisandblogs/PidginHowTo.html). Pidgin is an instant messenger tool supported by BUCS. It will also allow you to integrate your other instant messenger software.

An advantage of both these solutions are they use the University of Bath authentication so students will not need to create more accounts, and they integrate with group management tools and SAMIS unit codes. A disadvantage is not being easily able to include non-Bath people, and these offer text only.

Desktop Conferencing

There are two conference solutions available. Firstly, Megameeting (http://blogs,bath.ac.uk/desktopconferencing). This is provided by the e-Learning Team, it enables people to video conference, share desktop, run lectures, ask questions from your desktop. The second is the Access Grid (http://www.bath.ac.uk/bucs/services/audiovisual/accessgridnodes/) network.

Which ones should I use?

The following questions are intended to try to help you identify what might be the best solution for you. You are advised to contact the e-learning Team if you have any further questions.

• Q. Will text (instant messenger) only conversations meet my aims and needs?
• A. If yes, you are advised to keep it simple and look for the Moodle Chat or Pidgin as University supported solutions. An advantage of these is students will have a university account therefore they will not need to create a new account on an externally hosted solution.

• Q. Will the meeting be 1-2-1?
• A. If yes, the again look for the simplest solution. However, if no, be aware the more people involved the more difficult it maybe to manage the desktop conference. Therefore, I’d inclined to use specialist tools such as Skype or Megameeting. I’d also suggest Megameeting over Skype as you can set up note pages to help manage the meetings and inform people of responsibilities.

• Q. Will it be students arranging meetings with other students or will staff always be involved?
• A. If your session is staff led, i.e., the lecture is presenting and in control, then Megameeting or Access Grid might be appropriate. However, if students need to meet other students then you should focus on a system where they have administrative control, such as an externally hosted solution, i.e Skype, google chat etc., That said, you can easily set up a general room for your course in Megameeting, and share the room name (and password) with your students, They can then arrange their own meetings in the Megameeting service.

• Q. Do you need a recording of the event?
• A. In some cases you might need a recording of the session. In such a case it might be would be easier to use Megameeting or Access Grid.

• Q. Do you want to share and annotate docs
• A. If you need to share and annotate docs, presentations or what is being displayed on your desktop then conference solutions such as Megameeting would be easier to use compared to Skype or MSN.

• Q. Do you want it integrated with your moodle course?
• A. If this is the case, the only available solution is Moodle Chat.

Where do I go next?

You are also strongly encouraged to contact the  e-Learning team at e-learning@bath.ac.uk .

• Last updated / reviewed: 30 October 2009

Introduction

The aim of this how to guide is to provide some support material around the topic of using Moodle for formative objective testing. At the moment. we provide a large number of resources on the topic, so this how to guide will provide pointers to these based on a range of commonly asked questions.

In terms of using Moodle for objective testing, we do not currently recommend using Moodle for high stake summative objective testing – please see the following Moodle Policy statement: http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/moodle/moodle-policy/#high-stake). However, we do recommend and support its use as a formative objective testing tool, in particular, the use of Moodle Quiz and Lesson activities.

What is objective testing?

Objective testing is “a test consisting of factual questions requiring extremely short answers that can be quickly and unambiguously scored by anyone with an answer key, thus minimizing subjective judgments by both the person taking the test and the person scoring it” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/objective+test, Accessed 30th October, 2009).

What evidence is there for success of formative objective testing?

There is a growing base of evidence which describes how objective testing has been effectively in learning and teaching. At the institutional level, a case study of Kevin Renfrew’s use of Moodle for diagnostic assessment in the English Language Centre (ELC) suggests it can have a significant impact on student learning (http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/casestudies/2009/01/21/using-the-moodle-quiz-for-diagnostic-assessment/).

How do I design good questions?

An important point to remember is a key factor in the success of objective testing is the notion of question design. The e-Learning Team at the University of Bristol have written a very useful resource, related to the design of effective questions, titled Writing assessment questions for online delivery: principles and guidelines (http://esu.bris.ac.uk/esu/e-assessment/writing_e-assessments/index.htm).

What support is there available for using Moodle for objective testing?

The e-Learning Team at the University of Bath provide a number of different self-paced support routes. For instance:

• Moodle Docs – useful information on the Moodle Quiz (http://docs.moodle.org/en/Quiz) and Lesson (http://docs.moodle.org/en/Lessons) activities can be found within this Moodle community resource.
• Using Moodle e-Book – This is available within the Staff Area Moodle course. It contains a chapter each on the Moodle Quiz and Lesson activities, and we recommend that you reference the appropriate chapters in the first instance.
• The Creating and Using a Moodle Quiz FAQs within our Moodle FAQ database – http://moodle.bath.ac.uk/faq/category/23/creating-and-using-a-moodle-quiz.html

Where do I go next?

An excellent starting point is the LTSN Generic Centre assessment series (http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/assessment/series.html). You are also strongly encouraged to contact the  e-Learning team at e-learning@bath.ac.uk .

    * Last updated / reviewed: 13th October, 2009

Introduction

The aim of this guide is to explain how to use Evernote (http://www.evernote.com) as a virtual notebook on your mobile phone or iPod.

Some context

Evernote offers both a free and subscription service. This discussion is based upon the free service. Evernote offers an online space where you can store your notes (text, handwritten and/or audio) and your pictures. These can be sorted into different notebooks, arranged by date, type and include tags (keywords). You can also share these with the world or with specific people. If you enable sharing and editing this could become a powerful collaborative space for people to work up ideas and share material. The service also offers the very exciting dimension of having a mobile phone client. Therefore, you can use your phone as your electronic notebook.

There are a number of very obvious learning and teaching scenarios. Firstly, in informal learning where the student captures their notes, thoughts, observations and reflections. These are stored online for easy search and retrieval later. In addition, through sharing these with a supervisor can be used as part of an e-Portfolio. Secondly, the application within field based work. You simply don’t need to carry around pens, paper etc., The use in field work is further strengthened as photos can include GPS coordinates. Thirdly, a tool for supervisors, where they are required to make notes based on observations, such as observing lecturers, or students present.

The process

The following is an example of how I recently used it to record my notes from a conference I attended (Handheld Learning, 2009). It demonstrates the simplicity of using the software.

Scenario 1: Taking notes during lectures (assume going to use it all semester)

Pre-lecture

1.    Create your account on Evernote (http://www.evernote,com)
2.    Create an appropriate notebook. A notebook is like a folder so you can use this to sort your observations, in addition to using specific tags.
3. Set up any sharing options, i.e., you might want to share your notebook with others
4.    Install the appropriate client on your phone

During the lecture

1.    Take your notes. Remember to include appropriate tags etc.,

The following screen shots illustrate the broad process. Note these have been captured using Evernote on a HTC Touch HD.

1. Open the phone client

Shot 2: Assign a tag (key word)

 
Shot 3: Start taking notes
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Post lecture

1. Log onto the online version via your computer
2. Modify and edit notes and images (if appropriate)

The following screen shots illustrate the online space

More information

For more information on how you might use the software and if clients are available see their web site (http://www.evernote.com). Please note, you are strongly advised to read and consider the University of Edinburgh’s Web 2.0 Guidelines (https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/Web2wiki/Web+2.0+Guidelines) as Evernote is an externally hosted solution which the University of Bath has no influence on and the resources are not held on University systems.

• Last updated / reviewed: 15th June, 2009

Introduction

This how to guide is a video (microsoft media format) which walks accessing a QR Code (from the University of Bath’s Library) on a mobile phone.

Location

• http://www.bath.ac.uk/lmf/download/34453

More information

If you’d like any questions about using the technology or effective uses in teaching and learning then please email e-learning@bath.ac.uk

• Last updated / reviewed: 15th June, 2009

Introduction

This how to guide is a streamed video (microsoft media format) which walks through creating a QR Code using the University of Bath’s QR Code Generator and adding it to powerpoint slide.

Location

• http://www.bath.ac.uk/lmf/download/25102

More information

If you’d like any questions about using the technology or effective uses in teaching and learning then please email e-learning@bath.ac.uk

• Last updated / reviewed: 9th June, 2009 

Introduction

This guide will describe how you can use the free Netvibes service to subscribe to podcasts and other RSS published material.

Please note, Netvibes is not a recommended or supported University of Bath service. Therefore, if you are thinking of using this within assessed work, please contact the e-learning team to discuss your ideas.

Some context

Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com) is “a free web service that brings together your favourite media sources and online services. Everything that matters to you — blogs, news, weather, videos, photos, social networks, email and much more — is automatically updated every time you visit your page.”

In other words, it acts as your personal home page for web based information. This means it is really good way of subscribing to podcasts and news feeds without having to install software on your computer.

The process

The following assumes you have previously created your Netvibes account

Step 1: Copy the podcast (rss feed) you wish to subscribe to. In the following example I’ll be subscribing to the e-learning at Bath Podcast (http://www.bath.ac.uk/lmf/group/rss/7798).

Step 2: Open Netvibes, and click on Add Content 

Step 3: Click on Add a Feed button

Step 4: Cut and paste the RSS feed address and click Add feed

Step 5: Click on add

You should now be subscribed to the e-learning podcast. Therefore, when a new episode is available it will automatically be updated in your Netvibes page.

More information

If you’d like any questions about using the technology or effective uses in teaching and learning then please email e-learning@bath.ac.uk

• Last updated 26th May, 2009

Introduction

Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking tool (http://www.twitter.com), which is gaining lots of interest as a useful tool in teaching and learning.

This guide will describe how you can use the rss feed from your Twitter account to update in your Moodle course.

Some context

A potential use for Twitter in teaching and learning is as a means of easily updating students about useful links and references. For instance, quickly sharing a useful article you’ve read in a newspaper. This is very easy to do, as you can simply text (SMS) the message from your phone (or use an application on your phone). The problem is one of equity, for instance, how to ensure that those who are not using Twitter can access the information. The answer is to feed all your twitter updates into your Moodle course.

It is a three step process;

Step 1: From your Twitter account, copy the RSS Feed link. The location is illustrated on the image below. The feed address will be structured similarly to http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/xxxxxx.rss

Step 2: in your Moodle course, ensure editing is turned on, then add the Remote RSS Feed Block

A new block will appear (see below) and select “click here to configure this block to display RSS feeds”

Then select the manage all my feeds tab, scroll to the bottom of the page, enter the RSS Feed address you copied in Step 1, and complete the rest of the form.

Step 3: Displaying in Moodle

Your new block with all the tweets from your twitter account should appear in Moodle.

More information

If you’d like any questions about using the technology or effective uses in teaching and learning then please email e-learning@bath.ac.uk

• Last updated: 9th March, 2009

Introduction

The University of Bath currently doesn’t provide an integrated service which allows you to capture (create) the material you want to podcast, publish (deliver) this information (include the automatic generation of the RSS address) and allow people to subscribe to this feed. However, it does provide the opportunity to publish (deliver) the material as a subscription podcast through the Learning Materials Filestore (LMF).

This guide will describe how you can use the LMF to deliver podcasts for your students.

Some context

A scenario of use might be that you (the lecture) create a 5 minute audio file (mp3) after each lecture which re-visits the questions raised by students during the lecture. I’ll assume that you have created the audio file (mp3).

Publishing the file

A podcast is a subscription model. Whereby, the individual (student in our case) subscribes to the podcast using a podcatcher (software such as iTunes).

You can use the LMF to publish your file as a RSS subscription podcast, as well as a more traditional download version. The later you can include a link in your Moodle course.

Once you have logged into the LMF (http://bath.ac.uk/lmf), you need to create a new group. When you create the group, give it an appropriate name and description. Then set the group settings to Global. When you upload a file to the LMF which you’d like to podcast from this group, simply upload the file and click on sharing. Then select the group name.

The result is when you upload your mp3, and share with this group then anyone who has subscribed to the group will get an automatic update through iTunes (or equivalent).

To help students subscribe then you need to publise the group’s RSS feed address to your students. One if the simplest means is via your Moodle course. Simply, access the LMF, click on Your Groups, and select the appropriate group. You will note RSS/Podcast feed (top left corner). Click on this, and then copy the url (this is the RSS address that people will need to use in their iTunes). For instance, the RSS subscription address for the e-Learning Team’s Podcast is  http://www.bath.ac.uk/lmf/group/rss/7798.

You can then cut and paste this RSS address into a resource on your Moodle course so students can cut and paste this into their podcatchers

More information

If you’d like any questions about using the technology or effective uses in teaching and learning then please email e-learning@bath.ac.uk

• Last updates: December, 2007

Introduction

The challenge of making online resources and activities accessible can appear daunting. Staff may feel overwhelmed by guidelines which can appear overly technical to them, or they may be deterred from using online resources for fear that these could be inaccessible.  However, it is important to remember that at the most basic level the online environment increases accessibility as it allows more information and resources to be made available to more people.

The main purpose of this guide is to provide a number of practical suggestions for ways in which online learning resources can be made more accessible. It suggests some potential benefits of e-learning not just for those with disabilities but for all students. It is not a checklist for accessibility, but hopefully will help raise awareness and encourage consideration of a “universal design” approach, which aims to make things more accessible for all.

What is web accessibility?

“Web accessibility is about ensuring your website can be accessed and is usable by the largest audience possible, regardless of disability or browsing technology.”
(AbilityNet, Web accessibility – an introduction , http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/webarticle24 )

The legal background

What the law says:

The key points of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) (Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)) are as follows:

• “An education institution should not treat a disabled person ‘less favourably ‘ for a reason relating to their disability.
• An institution is required to make ‘reasonable adjustments ‘ if a disabled person would otherwise be placed at a ’substantial disadvantage ‘.
• Adjustments should be ‘anticipatory ‘.
• The legislation applies to all admissions, enrolments and other ’student services’ which includes assessment and teaching materials.”

(Techdis, http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_12_21)

Who is defined as disabled?

“Someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.” http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/RightsAndObligations/DisabilityRights/DG_4001069

Further information is available from the Disability Rights Commission: http://www.drc-gb.org/the_law/legislation__codes__regulation/keypoints.aspx

Categories of disability

The Act includes people with physical or mobility impairments, visual impairments, hearing impairment and dyslexia.

How can e-learning increase accessibility?

e-learning approaches and/or online resources can be beneficial to students with disabilities, but also others, in a range of ways:

1.    Resources online:

• offer increased flexibility as students can access them at a time, place and for a duration convenient to them.
• can be richer through incorporation of diagrams and the careful use of colour.
• can be hyperlinked to further explanatory or extension materials.
• can be increased or reduced in size by each user
• can be customised by individual learners to meet their own preferences, e.g colours and font style.
• can, in the form of text, in many cases be read by appropriate software.
• can be provided in alternative formats, e.g. audio.

(Techdis “Accessible e-learning” staff pack at http://www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/sites/staffpacks/Staff%20Packs/Accessible%20Learning/Presentn%20eLearning.xml#maincontent )

2.    Advance provision of lecture support materials can help students to prepare for face-to-face sessions, for example by familiarising themselves with terminology and concepts.

“This is particularly helpful for some disabled students who have problems with reading or writing speeds, as a skeletal structure of the lecture will afford them more time to listen and understand”.  (http://www.dur.ac.uk/alert/guidelines.htm )

3.    Online communication tools offer a means for support and discussion with both lecturers and/or peers.

4.    Online collaborative working can be used for group work and problem-solving, which can help foster a sense of community and peer support, as well as reducing the sense of isolation felt by some students.

5.    Online assessment tools can offer timely feedback, convenience, flexibility (allowing students to work at their own pace) and contribute to a balance of assessment methods.

Accessibility and the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)

The following extract introduces some of the issues around accessibility and Virtual Learning Environments, such as Moodle. It is from an article on the Techdis website. Techdis (www.techdis.ac.uk ) is a leading educational advisory service, funded by JISC, which works across the UK, in the fields of accessibility and inclusion.

“Whatever the specific accessibility pros and cons of a particular Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), anything that facilitates making content available to learners in digital formats is a potential accessibility gain because digital formats are generally more flexible than most traditional formats …. The accessibility of any learning experience is also affected by the provision of support – either tutor to student or peer to peer. Good support can negate accessibility difficulties whilst poor support can add to them. Once a learner is logged in to the learning environment there are further layers of accessibility

1) the accessibility of the navigation
2) the accessibility of the content (both technical accessibility – “does this image have a description for a blind user?” and cognitive accessibility – “do contour map descriptions make sense to a blind user?).

… Finally, the accessibility of learning experience itself is part of the mixture. If the learning experience is active and engaging, learners have an incentive to work around accessibility barriers. Dull learning experiences demotivate and create their own accessibility barriers.”

(Techdis , http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_10_6_2  )

A series of useful guidelines and case studies on accessibility in Learning environments and related technologies are available on the ALERT website (http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/alert/index.html).

The University of Bath offers a range of e-tools to give flexibility in meeting the needs of staff and students. The VLE Moodle is currently one of the most widely used applications, so the following guidelines have been drawn up to help staff make their Moodle courses more accessible. Many of them, however, can equally be applied to other online learning environments, including static web pages.
What can I do to make my Moodle course more accessible?

Some aspects of accessibility (e.g. some navigation) relate to the Moodle application itself. However, as editors of Moodle courses, staff have control over what resources and/or activities are added, how they are written and presented, and what support is available. In these areas they can make a significant difference to accessibility.  The following is not a comprehensive or definitive list, merely some suggestions. As mentioned previously, much of the following advice can help make resources more accessible to all students not just those with specific disabilities.

General advice

• Ensure that information is up-to-date.
• Use consistent navigation and logical structure in and across your courses.
• Put key information and instructions at the top of the page.  For anyone using a screenreader it would help for key information to be shown in the top left block of a Moodle page, for example in a course summary block.
• Ensure tasks are clearly structured and explained.
• Use clear headings.
• Ensure links, documents and folders are labelled meaningfully (N.B. If using folders in Moodle make sure the files you have uploaded are clearly named, and if necessary rename them).
• Avoid empty folders or topics. Keep them hidden until they are populated.
• Ensure web links are up-to-date. Delete or update any “dead” links.
• If you choose for web links or documents to open in a new window, make sure that this is clearly indicated.
• Arrange for students to have an induction on using the VLE for their particular unit/programme.

Advice with regard to specific types of disability

For an overview of specific disabilities see the Techdis section on Disabilities at http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=9_2 . The Simdis website contains simulations of various aspects of disability, and are intended for awareness-raising. (http://www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/sites/2/simdis/index.htm )

Colour blindness

• Ensure text is well-contrasted against the background.
• Avoid distracting background images.
• Avoid colour-dependant navigation, e.g. “Click on the green button.”
• Avoid using colour alone to convey meaning. If colour is used consider adding a textual cue as well. For example it is common practice to highlight quotes in a different colour in online discussion forums. Adding speech marks and/or the quoted person’s name in brackets provides additional textual clues.

Mobility and/or Motor impairment

• Provide tests or quizzes in alternative format if limited dexterity would affect a student’s ability to answer, for example drag and drop questions in Hot Potatoes.
• Allow students ample time for completion of activities e.g. quizzes
• Avoid making hyperlinks too small. The smaller a link, the more difficult it will be for someone with limited fine muscle control to click on it.
• Use online announcements in the News Forum to let students know in advance of changes to face-to-face schedules.

Visual impairment

• Provide quick and easy navigation to activities and resources. For the benefit of screenreader users it may help to place the activities block near the top left of the course where it can be accessed quickly.
• Always provide alternate text for images.
• Provide tests in alternative format if questions rely on image recognition. Use alternate text if this can convey the sense of the image without giving away the answer.
• Ensure that any documents you upload are accessible (see section on “Creating accessible documents” below for further information).

Hearing impairment

• Provide a transcript as an alternative to any audio used.
• Consider providing synchronized captions or a transcript for video. People who are deaf need this if the video does not make sense when the sound is turned off.

Dyslexia

• Place salient points first.
• Use clear, concise and simple language. In discussion forums, for example, use meaningful and clear subject headings for discussion threads.
• Break content down into bite-sized chunks e.g. by using bulleted points or numbered lists.
• Choose an appropriate font. Techdis recommend the use of sans serif fonts such as Arial (Helvetica) or Comic Sans.  Other suggestions include Verdana, Georgia, Tahoma and Trebuchet MS.
• Allow ample white space on the page.
• Avoid using justified text.

For further advice see “A Dyslexic Perspective on e-Content Accessibility” at http://www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/files/dyslexia.pdf .

Making webpages accessible

Resources added to or created in Moodle can be in the form of webpages. Moodle has its own web editing toolbar which allows staff to create pages of content. For general guidelines on making web pages accessible see the University Web Publishing Accessibility Guidelines: http://www.bath.ac.uk/web/guides/accessibility

Further information and resources

Further information is available from the following sources:

• University Learning Support Service: http://www.bath.ac.uk/learning-support/
• Assistive technologies initiative – http://www.bath.ac.uk/bucs/assistive/ – provides students who have disabilities and learning difficulties access to a laptop computer with specialist software designed to aid studying at the University.
• http://www.bath.ac.uk/web/guides/accessibility -  the University Web Publishing Accessibility Guidelines
• http://www.techdis.ac.uk – advice and guidance for the education sector on disability and technology
• http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_20 – Techdis Accessibility essentials series
• http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/edu_resources – Free factsheets and skillsheets from AbilityNet, covering a wide range of assistive technology
• http://www.skillsforaccess.org.uk/index.php – Resources on issues relating to accessibility and e-learning, including case studies and articles
• http://www.webaim.org  – advice on web accessibility, e.g. how to create accessible resources

If you would like to test out resources using a screenreader, then download Thunder, a free screenreader, at http://www.screenreader.net/  which also comes with Webbie, a text browser (http://www.webbie.org.uk/ )

Natural Reader is text-to-speech software. The free version can be downloaded at http://www.naturalreaders.com/ and will read text aloud e.g. from a Word document

Dspeech (which can be downloaded from http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/ ) is a free text-to-speech program which also allows you to convert your text to an MP3 file, if you wish to provide audio alternatives for text.