Making an Impact: Inclusivity Through the Lens of Higher Education and Ed Tech

Concurrent Session 5
Leadership

Brief Abstract

 Drawing parallels of best practice of inclusivity between Higher Education and the Educational Technology sectors, as well as exploring differences in design, measurement, and best practices, presenters share individual perspectives from service in varied roles within Higher Education support. Exploring Inclusive Design theories and practices along with changing instructional technology tools, standards, and models, this session provides a truly unique approach by spotlighting the role of Inclusive Design across all models of learning in the Higher Education sphere, leveraging unique lessons learned from presenters recently transitioning out of Higher Education into the Higher Education corporate space.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Sherri Restauri, Coastal Carolina University

Sherri is an Associated Faculty with the Psychology Department at CCU, and specializes in teaching upper division level classes in lifespan psychology, such as Child Development, Adolescent Development, and Gerontology. Sherri has served in academia within the field of online learning for over 20 years in the role of instructional designer, LMS administrator, faculty, and over the last decade plus as a university-level administrator, having recently transitioned into faculty-only role. In addition to her work with Coastal, Sherri also serves the MERLOT organization as the Editor of the Professional Coaching board, as well as Associate Editor for the Psychology MERLOT board. She serves as the Associate Editor for the Journal of Educators Online (JEO), and enjoys volunteer work with the Alzheimer's Association. Her current research focuses on methods for improving student success in the academic environment, to include all modalities of learning (online, face-to-face, hybrid, flipped, etc.) and inclusive design and tools. She also enjoys consulting for a number of organizations to support the development of online learning initiatives. Sherri is the recipient of the 2021 OLC Gomory-Mayadas Leadership Award in Online Education.

Co-presenter: Doug Geier, Springboard (Virtual Presenter)

Doug Geier has 30 years of experience working in educational publishing and higher education as a science writer, content developer, producer, and instructional designer. He is currently Instructional Design Lead at Springboard.

Co-presenter: Megan Kohler, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

Megan Kohler is a Learning Designer with the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute at Penn State. She has presented at international conferences, such as Open Ed 2010 in Barcelona, Spain, the International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the Online Learning Consortium in Orlando, Florida. Megan relies on her training and experience as a professional actor to create a fun and engaging experience within her presentations and design work. Among her professional accomplishments, she is recognized for her work as the lead instructional designer and project manager on Penn State’s highly-rated Epidemics MOOC. She conceptualized the MOOCs by Design Webinar series and served as the pedagogical lead for the Penn State Digital Badges Initiative. She continues to explore interesting opportunities focused on improving the online learning experience for higher education.

Extended Abstract

The topic of Inclusivity in course and learner experience design has had more visibility over the last couple of years, and for good reason.  Emergency online and remote instruction during the pandemic, in particular, highlighted the challenges involved in ensuring all students feel welcomed, valued and supported.  For administrators, faculty, and learning experience designers, it was also a time of doing our best under high stress with sometimes few resources, both of instructional technology as well as training and design approaches. The unique combination of high demand for online and remote instruction as well as increased application of instructional technologies forced campus faculty and staff to more readily engage with these challenges and developed varying perspectives along the way.  
 

Curating best practices and lessons learned into future iterations and innovations of online and blended instruction is the opportunity that lies ahead of us.  This will allow us to take a more proactive approach to inclusive course design, rather than a reactive approach. But even with a new perspective gained from critical designs and student support needs during the recent pandemic, the question remains: how might design better, and learn more to support faculty, staff, and students in holistically inclusive course design and administration?  

 

One way is to learn from the challenges and successes from varying lenses beyond Higher education, such as through Ed. Tech or career-focused online education models, including such innovative design programs as bootcamp programs. Even though our organizational models are all quite, we all have missions that are consistently student-centered. In that regard, we all aim to be inclusive in our course environments by maintaining accessible platforms and course content, to develop course content and activities that ensures representation from various backgrounds and celebrates our differences,  alongside achieving critical business metrics such as enrollment figures and data metrics needed to ensure survival of the organization as a whole. .

 

In this session, the presenters will offer their varying perspectives from Higher Ed as administrators and faculty members as well as from their experience in the private sector working within Ed. Tech and alternative providers of career-focused education programs. Presenters will provide specific best practices as well as lessons learned, sharing a perspective that outlines both the similarities as well as the differences that exist across the varying sectors, as UX and student success are targeted from an inclusive design framework. Examples of Core Practices addressed herein include:

  1. Standards of UX

  2. Communication Pathways

  3. Reporting and Outcomes

 

Level of Participation

Understanding that we are always learning from others and benefit from each others’ perspectives, the session will seek input from attendees throughout the presentation itself. Presenters will use a collaborative document to gather input from attendees regarding live poll questions that may be completed remotely by attendees. Additionally, presenters will allow for open discussion during a planned Q&A period. 

 

Session Goals

Individuals attending this session will:

  1. Gain additional background on inclusive design best practices relating to UX, theory, and student support

  2. Learn individual elements of overlap between Higher Education roles (faculty, administrator, instructional designer) and corporate/Ed Tech roles, as well as important distinctions in how these sectors may approach the UX and inclusive design work from varied perspectives. 

  3. Collaborate with a11y colleagues to explore models of best practice that work well across and within particular sectors of education, and extrapolate those models for implementation within their unique scenarios.