OERs On Campus: Selecting and Creating
Instructional Resources for All Students
Presented by Skip Stahl and Rhianon E. Gutierrez
UDL On Campus
CAST, Inc.
August 25, 2014

Objectives
1. Define and give an overview of the benefits and
challenges of open educational resources (OERs).
2. Define accessibility and Universal Design for
Learning (UDL) and their application in OER
creation.
3. Learn how to select and create OERs that will be
accessible and consider the three principles of
UDL.
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OERs Defined
Open educational resources, or OERs, are “full
courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, videos,
tests, software; and any other tools, materials, or
techniques offered freely and openly to educators and
students to support access to knowledge.”
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Benefits of OERs
✦ Instructors need to plan - learning goals,
materials, assessments; increasing use of
personalization in online practice
✦ Accessibility goes hand in hand with
personalization
✦ Instructors need to be informed so they can be
equipped with tools to select and create OER
content that will enable learners to progress
towards and demonstrate mastery in different
ways
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Challenges of OERs
✦ Educational institutions have limited knowledge or the capacity to retrofit
digital materials effectively in-house
✦ Inaccessible websites block students with disabilities from accessing
resources
✦ Federal education and civil rights statutes compel education institutions to
provide equitable access to educational opportunities for students with
disabilities including technology-mediated opportunities
✦ 2011 Hewlett Foundation/Virtual Ability Study:
✦ 60 open college textbooks reviewed using federal and international
accessibility guidelines
✦ 56% of these materials were web-based
✦ 42% were downloadable PDFs
✦ 42% web-based textbooks had problems with page layout, headers,
and tables; none of the PDFs reviewed were accessible 5

Universal Design for Learning
(UDL)

Higher Education Opportunity Act
of 2008
Section 103(24) UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING.-- The term
`universal design for learning' means a scientifically valid framework for
guiding educational practice that—
``(A) provides flexibility in the ways information is presented, in the
ways students respond or demonstrate knowledge and skills, and in the
ways students are engaged; and
``(B) reduces barriers in instruction, provides appropriate
accommodations, supports, and challenges, and maintains high
achievement expectations for all students, including students with
disabilities and students who are limited English proficient.''

Universal Design for Learning
(UDL)
✦ Learner variability is the norm, not the exception.
✦ Accessibility is the baseline for the larger idea of
creating a flexible curriculum with goals,
methods, materials, and assessments that
support learner achievement.
✦ UDL is based on three principles: representation,
action and expression, and engagement
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The Neurological Foundation
Recognition
Networks
Strategic
Networks
Affective
Networks
The
WHAT
of learning
The
HOW
of learning
The
WHY
of learning

Principle 1: Multiple Means of
Representation
✦ Multimodal representation of
materials via text, images,
symbols, and audio
✦ Options for perception - captioned
and transcribed content
✦ Prior knowledge influences
interaction with content
✦ Meaning-making is critical
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Principle 2: Multiple Means of
Action and Expression
✦ Support learning processes – set
goals, plan, organize, strategize,
modify processes as needed
✦ Vary methods of response -
digital tools offer greater flexibility
for a wider range of learners
✦ Those with assistive technologies
would benefit from amplification or
magnification of content - not for
all, but this option should exist
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Principle 3: Multiple Means of
Engagement
✦ Learners engage in self-assessment,
critical reflection
✦ Content is contextualized to
their lives
✦ Learners are motivated and
seek more information on
their own
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Accessibility and Open
Educational Resources (OERs)
http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/m
edia_oer#.U_MPOVYfLGs
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Accessibility
✦ Accessibility is the baseline
✦ Section 508 compliance
✦ Accessibility Checks
✦ Quick Check:
http://webaim.org/standards/508/checklist
✦ Detailed Review:
http://projectone.cannect.org/
✦ WCAG 2 Technical Details:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/
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Importance of Accessibility
Features in OERs
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4
4
4
4
3
3
3
3
3
Easily available alternative file formats
Ability to customize settings
Transcript for any audio/video…
Information about built-in…
Alternative description for any…
Compatibility with screenreader…
Compatibility with screen…
Compatibility with voice recognition…
Keyboard-only navigation
Rating from 1-5, with 5 being the most important.

508 Functional Criteria
Subpart C — Functional Performance Criteria
§ 1194.31 Functional performance criteria.
 At least one mode of operation and information retrieval
that does not require user vision…
 At least one mode of operation and information retrieval
that does not require user hearing…
 At least one mode of operation and information retrieval
that does not require user speech…
 At least one mode of operation and information retrieval
that does not require fine motor control or simultaneous
actions…

Selection and Creation of
Materials
1. Provide complete navigation.
2. Create meaningful structure.
3. Provide alternative access to media
content.
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Provide Complete Navigation
✦ Outlines and table of contents - adding structure
can auto-generate a navigable table of contents
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Create Meaningful Structure
✦ Document headings and graphic organizers help
connect to content and support executive
functions
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Provide Alternative Access to
Media Content
✦ Alt text and image descriptions
convey the purpose of the image
based on its context
✦ Images:
http://udloncampus.cast.org/pa
ge/media_image#.U_s6KEt8B
Vg
✦ Word 2010 Accessibility
Checker: File > Info > Check for
Issues > Check Accessibility.
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Provide Alternative Access to
Media Content
✦ Transcripts and captions provide access to visual and audio content
and increase search engine optimization (SEO)
✦ Transcripts:
http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/media_transcript#.U_s11Ut8BVg
✦ Captions:
http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/media_caption#.U_s1wkt8BVg
✦ Audio description provides access to visual content
✦ Audio Description:
http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/media_audiodescription#.U_s1z
Ut8BVg 21

Provide Alternative Access to
Media Content
✦ Video: Executive Functioning in Online Learning
Environments
✦ use of captions, collated transcript, and some
audio description
✦ http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/teach_executi
ve#.U_s7EUt8BVg
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Flexible Multimedia
✦ Content creators should choose multimedia tools
that consider learner variability and are consistent
with legal requirements for accessibility
✦ UDL On Campus’ Flexible Multimedia pages
address text, images, audio and video in the
selection and creation of online content
✦ http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/media_ove
rview#.U_s76Et8BVg
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Conclusion
✦ Instructors need to be informed so that they can be
equipped with tools to select and create meaningful OER
content.
✦ Accessibility is the baseline and instructors should ensure
that all of their educational content is accessible.
✦ Instructors should plan for learner variability. Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that emphasizes
learner variability in the design of curriculum.
✦ There are flexible multimedia tools that support the
selection and creation of OER content.
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