Inclusive Teaching, Synchronous Sessions, and Auto Captions

Since the Lockdown the use of videoconferencing can no longer be denied as a key part of online education.  Whether you are teaching a synchronous course, a hybrid, holding virtual office hours, or providing a sense of community with an optional introduction in an asynchronous session, you will need to select a video conferencing tool the suits your needs.  But which one?

 

Collaborate in Blackboard and Bongos Virtual Classroom in Brightspace are free and are conveniently embedded inside the LMS. However, not everything that is free, such as the flu, is good. Both of these free applications refuse to provide automatic captioning.  They do ‘claim’ to have captions provided you arrange for a transcriptionist to transcribe them in real-time. Free and not toxic at all!

But why should I care if I do not have any deaf students?  First, in many cases you are not aware of all of your students’ disabilities. One in ten college students report having a disability and this should not be ignored.  Second, The American Disabilities Act requires organizations to provide accessible online content and missing captions is frequently cited in ADA lawsuits.  Don’t be that guy - meet WCAG standards.

Captions expand your audience and increase their engagement often in unexpected ways.  In 2022 50% of US citizens surveyed stated they use captions ‘most of the time’.  The study also revealed that 70% of members of Gen Z (ages 11-25) frequently use subtitles. They are a growing demographic of students, and they will expect captioning. 

Luckily, you can easily provide captioning in video conferences by using MS Teams.  When you enter a meeting, you merely select the “more’ feature on the menu – its symbol is three dots.  Go to “Language and Speech” and select “Turn On Live Captions”. Now you have live captions. You could also do this by selecting “Accessibility” and turning on the Captioning tab.  This is an individual feature, so all your students can access it and use it privately.  A similar feature exists in Zoom.

Live captioning also helps you be more inclusive by assisting ELL students or offering translations for non-English speakers.  MS Teams, as well as Zoom (with the Wordly App add-on), not only offer real-time captioning, but language translation.  Once the captioning is on in Teams, select the three dots on the top right corner of the captions bar.  This will offer the following options:

1.       Change the spoken language.  This is handy when your class is not in English.

2.       Translate the captioning language. Yes, this feature can translate your session into more than 30 languages. This helps level the bar for ELL students who may have difficulty understanding their second or third language in the online environment.

The translation tool is not as good as an interpreter. For example, ‘Warming the cockles of your heart’ does not mean to “heating the mollusks inside your cardiac organ”. However, the translation feature is a handy tool when you need something. It is effectively an electronic dictionary/translator to assist your students.

Remember, not all instructional technology is the same, and this definitely applies to video conferencing applications.  Choose one that has auto-captioning and translations.  It is not only more inclusive and accessible but demonstrates your commitment to being so.   

References

Adelson, B. (2021) Google Translate has “an alarming capacity for miscommunication and error, ” U.S. federal judge decides. Bromberg.

Amin, F. M., & Sundari, H. (2020). EFL students’ preferences on digital platforms during emergency remote teaching: Video conference, LMS, or messenger application? Studies in English Language and Education, 7(2), 362-378.

BOIA (2023) Gen Z More Likely to Use Captions When Viewing Video Content. Bureau of Internet Accessibility.

Patil S & Davies P. (2014) Use of Google Translate in medical communication: evaluation of accuracy BMJ 2014; 349: g 7392 doi:10.1136/bmj.g7392

Kaliyadan F, & Gopinath Pillai S. (2010)The use of google language tools as an interpretation aid in cross-cultural doctor-patient interaction: a pilot study. Inform Prim Care 18:141-3.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2018). Table 311.10. Number and percentage distribution of students enrolled in postsecondary institutions, by level, disability status, and selected student characteristics: 2015–16 [Data table]. In Digest of education statistics. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. [Retrieved 2022]

United States v. Ramirez-Mendoza, 4:20-CR-00107 (M.D. Pa. Oct. 1, 2021)

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (2018) Success Criterion 1.2.4 Captions (Live) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. [Retrieved 2023]

Wormeester, Veron (2020) Hoe toegankelijk zijn videoconferentietools? iBestuur Online. 

Youngs, Ian (2021) Young viewers prefer TV subtitles, research suggests. BBC News Nov 15.

Zajechowski, Matt (2023) Survey: Why America is obsessed with subtitles. Preply

Inclusive Teaching & Academic Rigor

 

Frequently faculty resistant to inclusive teaching pose the following retort:

As much as they want to promote equity and inclusion in their classroom, they cannot adopt many principles because their course must be rigorous.  

Let’s unpack this claim and consider what is meant by “rigor”?   Often this term is vague and does not describe what type of learning environment we want (Clark & Talbert, 2021). As such, invoking ‘rigor’ as an excuse to not adopt inclusive teaching practices is either a conscious or unconscious case of sophistry.  Often there is a bifurcation in meaning of ‘rigor” where it can either mean:

•  Intellectual rigor; that challenges students to explore and master complex content and hone their knowledge through critical reflection.     
• Logistical rigor; that demands adherence to inflexible polices about when and how work or behavior is to be evaluated.

Courses could have either, neither, or both.   

Intellectual rigor directly relates to students meeting the course’s intended learning outcomes.  It is not a plethora of busy-work, but purposeful and transparent. Intellectually rigorous courses push students to learn. This can be done without excessive work, but instead with carefully aligning learning activities and assignments to expected learning outcomes.

In contrast, courses with logistical rigor have strict policies about when and how the student is to be evaluated. These inflexible rules are often short-hands for contributing to a wider grade distribution. However, grading based solely on students’ weight can likewise create a wide grade distribution (Syphers, 2021).  This does not ensure intellectual rigor or students learning the course content.  In fact, it can frustrate learning and help create inequitable barriers. If these barriers have no relationship with the learning outcomes, are they necessary?  Should we penalize ELL students taking calculus because they do not have a master modus auxiliaries and pluperfect tense in English? Why?

 

Logistical rigor can lead to infantilizing students by creating arbitrary barriers based on the faculty’s mistrust in them.  This ‘toxic” rigor assumes that students not meeting the logistical demanded are lazy and not to be trusted.  This adversarial attitude has never been demonstrated to improve learning outcomes, but does disproportionately hurt certain at-risk groups (Pryal, 2022). Toxic rigor sets up obstacles for students and frustrates their success while then criticizing their character for failing to meet these arbitrary barriers. However, this position tends to promote antipathy for students instead of empathy and the desire to guide them. Shouldn’t we believe in our students instead of doubting we should believe them?   

The thing that's really sticking out to me in my research and reading on "rigor" is that so much the rigor discourse is uncomfortably close to the language abusers use to justify themselves to their victims.

— Kevin Gannon (@TheTattooedProf) September 15, 2022

It seems that the appeal for ‘rigor’ is more often an excuse for not changing teaching practices without evidence or in spite of evidence that adopting inclusive teaching practices would improve academic performance. Providing scaffolds to assist student learning has been a best practice is pedogeological theories, such as Universal Design for Learning. Assisting students in successfully meeting learning outcomes isn’t undermining academic integrity.  It is just good teaching.

 

In short, we can retain our academic standards and care about our students at the same time.  Adopting inclusive teaching practices is indeed compatible with intellectual rigor.  In the end, since this is the version of rigor that cares about learning it is the only type of rigor educators should care about.   

References

 Clark, D and R Talbert (2021) Rigor, Seriously, what does that even mean? Grading for Growth, Sep 13.

Jack, J and V Sathy (2021) It’s Time to Cancel the Word ‘Rigor’ Chronicle of Higher Education. Sep 24.

Meyer, A, Rose, D. and D Gordon (2014) Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice. CAST Inc. Wakefield, MA.

Pryal, K (2022) When ‘Rigor’ Targets Disabled Students Chronicle of Higher Education. Oct 6.

Supiano, B (2022) The Redefinition of Rigor Chronicle of Higher Education. Mar 29.

Supiano, B (2021) Teaching: A different way thinking about rigor Chronicle of Higher Education. Nov 18.

Syphers, D (2021) In Defense of Rigor Inside Higher Ed Sep 22.

Wraga, W. G. (2011). What’s the Problem with a “Rigorous Academic Curriculum”? Setting New Terms for Students’ School Experiences. The Clearing House, 84(2), 59–64. 

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 1 - Criterion 2

 

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 1 - Criterion 2

When developing a course using the third principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The first, Recruiting Interest, focuses on how accessible the content is to learners. Information that does not engage the learner’s cognition is effectively inaccessible.

Criterion 2 of this guideline advocates that we optimize relevance, value, and authenticity of what is learned. 

Learners are more likely to be engaged the content if they find it meaningful or relevant.  This is not just a good idea for instructors to consider, but best practices in adult education. This also accurately applies to the largest growing group of college students, non-traditional learners. When the activities are relevant and authentic to the learner’s individual goals and interest, the learner is more likely to focus more energy on the content and stimulate the learning process.  People are rarely interested in information that has no meaningful connection to their lives. 

To be a more effective educator, you should demonstrate the relevance of the content through authentic activities.  These can be role-play or based on fiction, but in some way have a connection to the students personally.  To assist this process, try offering options that optimize what is relevant, or valuable, to the learner.  Letting the learner self-select the option promotes the sensation of autonomy and allows learners to select the option that they perceive as more meaningful.  

Some tips for assisting connecting learning to experiences in meaningful ways to the learner include:

• Fluctuate activities and sources of information so that they can be:
• Age and ability appropriate
• Personalized and contextualized to learners’ lives
• Culturally and socially relevant and responsive
• Appropriate for different racial, cultural, ethnic, and gender groups
• Design activities so that learning outcomes are authentic, communicate to real audiences, and reflect a purpose that is clear to the participants
• Encourage personal response (while being professional and focusing on the course), evaluation and self-reflection to content and activities
• Promote active learning with tasks that allow for active participation, exploration, and experimentation
• Include activities that foster imagination to solve novel and relevant problems, or make sense of complex ideas creatively

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students in communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line with the Principle of Engagement in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 1 - Criterion 1

 

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 1 - Criterion 1

When developing a course using the third principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The first, Recruiting Interest, focuses on how accessible the content is to learners. Information that does not engage the leaner’s cognition is effectively inaccessible.

Criterion 1 of this guideline advocates that we optimize individual choice and autonomy.

One of Wlodkowski’s (1993) key findings about adult learners is that they prefer to direct their own learning. Most everybody prefers to have some control over what they do. Offering autonomy to students gives them a sense of agency that inspires learners.

While some aspects of the course may be static, such as the learning objectives, how one can achieve those objectives is not. There can be many different ways to demonstrate achieving an objective and through many different tools of mediums.

Offering learners a choice promotes a sense of agency where the learner ‘owns’ their accomplishment by:

·         Taking pride in their accomplishment
·         Developing self-determination

·         Increasing the connectedness to the content.

Offering autonomy helps empower learners to take charge of their own learning.

Because of variation, learners will differ in the degree of the kind of choices they prefer. To better meet every learner's needs, learners should also have the choice in the level of independence in each environment. A few things to consider when promoting autonomy include:

• Promoting as much autonomy, and discretion, as possible by offering choices in such things as:
• The level of perceived challenge
• The type of available rewards
• The tools available for information gathering
• The content used for practicing and assessing skills
• The color, design, or other graphical considerations
• Allow learners to participate in the design of academic tasks. Give the options so they feel in control of their learning
•  Involve learners, where and whenever possible, in setting their own personal academic and behavioral goals

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students in communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line the Principle of Engagement in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

References

Wlodkowski, R. J. (1993). Enhancing adult motivation to learn. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 1 - Recruiting Interest

 

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Engagement - Guideline 1 - Recruiting Interest

The first principle of Universal Design for Learning, ‘provide multiple means of engagement”, helps promote an inclusive learning environment on many levels.  When developing a course and focusing on this principle, there are three guidelines to follow.  They are:

1. Recruiting Interest
2. Sustaining Effort and Persistence
3. Self-Regulation

We are now going to take a deeper look.

The first guideline, Recruiting Interest, again is related to accessibility.  This time it is a different kind of accessibility.  Information that does not engage the learner’s cognition is effectively inaccessible.  From the moment if passes by the student, if the student does not process the information as relevant, the information passes them by unprocessed, or unnoticed.  After this point, instructors will have to devote more energy to stimulate the learner’s engagement with the material or getting the learner’s attention. 

For Example: Recruiting interest is just like marketing a good product.  You could have the best product on the market.  If customers are not aware of the benefits of owning your product, or even that your product exists, then they will not purchase your product.  After they pass it by, more energy will be needed, such as commercial advertising, to get the consumers interest in your product that they currently do not recognize as an item that serves any purpose for them. Just like a product, the information to be learned must have a reason for the learners to engage with it.

Likewise, when teaching, learners need to know why the information is important and that they should be engaged in it. The problem is that not every learner is the same.  They can differ significantly.  Even the same learner can differ over time or circumstance, such as their interests change as they learn more.  Thus, it is important to have several alternate techniques to recruit learner interest.  We can become more inclusive by ensuring that these techniques are able to accommodate the variety of differences among learners.   

Some criteria to help meet this guideline include:

1. Optimize individual choice and autonomy. Adult learners prefer to direct their own learning.
2. Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity. Learners are more likely to engage the content if they find it meaningful or relevant.
3. Minimize threats and distractions

By promoting an inclusive strategy with multiple ways of recruiting interest in a wide variety of learners, your learning environment will be more accommodating and promote student success.

Principle of Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 4

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of  Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 4

When developing a course using the second principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The third, Executive Function, allows us to take advantage of our environment and overcome short term reactions to reach our long term goals. 

Criterion 4 of this guideline advocates that we enhance the learners’ capacity for monitoring progress.

Feedback is essential for learning, whether we are a student learning in a classroom or an educator assessing their course.  Naturally, learners require a clear understanding of their progress, or lack thereof. When assessments and feedback are not informative to the learner or are not timely with the feedback, there is not sufficient time for learning to take place. Students do not know what they need to do differently and do not have time to adapt.  This lack of knowledge, may give the illusion that students are careless or unmotivated, but it is a result of the learner not having access to appropriate feedback and time to utilize it.  This is in part, why Chickering and Gamson’s 4^th Principle of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education calls for prompt feedback.

Without the communication, there is no learning. It is important to provide formative feedback that allows learners to effectively monitor their progress guide their own practices.

A few examples of techniques to meet this criterion include:

• Promote self-monitoring and reflection. You can do this by asking reflective questions.
• Show representations of progress. Often visual representations accompanying these markers assist students understanding.
• Provide differentiated models of self-assessment strategies such as peer-reviews and self-tests
• Ask learners to identify the type of feedback or advice they prefer.
• Use grading rubrics to communicate what is expected
•  Multiple examples of annotated work or performance as exemplars or illustrations of what not to do. 

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line with the Principle of Action and Expression in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

Principle of Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 3

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of  Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 3

When developing a course using the second principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The third, Executive Function, allows us to take advantage of our environment and overcome short term reactions to reach our long term goals. 

Criterion 3 of this guideline advocates that we facilitate information and resource management.

Working memory limits executive function.  The ability to access information during comprehension and problem-solving is limited for all of us and it places more cognitive load for those new to the information or those with certain cognitive disabilities.  While chunking content can help, there are other ways we can assist learning as well.  Those new to course material may be disorganized, absent minded, or appear unprepared.  Whenever working memory is being taxed, and naturally it is not a construct of the lesson itself, it is vital to offer a variety of internal scaffolds and organizational aids to assist students in organizing the information.  These are the exact same organization tools that executives use, so their adoption both assists learning and develops tertiary skills that will further benefit the learner.

Some things you should consider when meeting this criterion are:

• Supplying graphic organizers or templates for data collection and organizing information
• Prompting for categorizing and systematizing the information
• Providing checklists and guides for note-taking

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line with the Principle of Action and Expression in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

Principle of Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of  Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

When developing a course using the second principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The third, Executive Function, allows us to take advantage of our environment and overcome short term reactions to reach our long term goals. 

Criterion 2 of this guideline advocates that we support planning and strategy development.

After setting a goal, skilled problem-solvers plan a strategy for reaching that goal. Adult learners in new domains, or learners with factors that impede executive functions in any domain, often skip strategic planning necessary to complete tasks.  Instead, they inefficiently jump right to a trial and error phase. Offering a variety of options, such as reflection points or graduated scaffolds that encourage implementing strategies, greatly assists learners. It can also lead them on the path of becoming talented mentors, when they share these strategies with others. 

Some features to promote this include:

• Embedding prompts to reflect before acting
• Requiring learners to demonstrate their understanding by showing and explaining their work.
• Provide checklists and project planning templates for understanding the problem. This promotes setting up prioritization, sequences, and steps the learner can schedule and oversee the completion of difficult tasks
• Embed coaches or mentors that discuss or encourage reflection of the process
• Supply advice for the reduction of long-term goals into reachable short-term objectives. Even by structuring a course this way, students learn by example.

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line with the Principle of Action and Expression in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

Principle of Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 1

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of  Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 1

When developing a course using the second principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The third, Executive Function, allows us to take advantage of our environment and overcome short term reactions to reach our long term goals. 

Criterion 1 of this guideline advocates that we offer guidance for setting appropriate goals.

Not all learners will set appropriate goals in order to guide their work.  When learners do not set the goals, it is not productive in the long run to provide the goals for them.  Instead, it is better to foster the development of new strategies and skills that will benefit the learner in the long term. Courses should inculcate effective goal setting by embedding graduated scaffolds to assist learners in the skill of setting realistic personal goals.

When developing frameworks to accomplish this, it should:

• Provide models or examples of the process of goal setting and its results
•  Provide guidelines and checklists for accurate goal setting
• Supply prompts and guides to allow accurate estimates of required resources, effort and difficulty.
• Clearly post goals and objectives to help guide the learner

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line with the Principle of Action and Expression in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.

Using Ally to be an Instructional Ally

 When you are an ally, you are someone who promotes and aspires to advance the culture of conclusion through intentional, positive and conscious efforts that benefit people as a whole.  You foster relationships based on trust and accountability with marginalized individuals or groups.  This requires that your effects not be self-defined and that your work is recognized by those who you are seeking to ally with. One such way of doing accomplishing this is to adopt inclusive teaching practices.

 

Blackboard Ally is a tool that can assist you on your path to promote inclusive practices. This platform tool scans for inaccessible content and offers advice for faculty on remedying inaccessible content. Besides contributing to courses accessibility, the tools also promotes principles of Universal Design for Learning, by offing students’ alternative formats to the content within the course. Impressively, it does this while being architecturally agnostic, i.e., Blackboard Ally works in D2L, Moodle. Canvas as well as Blackboard Learn.

 

Content is reviewed and a gauge illustrate how accessible it is.  Those with a low rating will appear in red while highly accessible content will have a green color.  Only faculty see this gauge and selecting it will provide the specific issues, if any, with the content and solutions to fix those issues.  This can help guide faculty through developing a perfectly accessible course.

 

Another feature of Blackboard Ally that helps promote inclusion is that alternative content option it provides students.  At a click of a button, students can have the content presented to them in various modalities, including: Tagged PDF, Beeline Reader, or MP3 Audio.  This can not only benefit students with disabilities, but all students can choose the modality the best suits they way the need to learn.  Likewise, Blackboard Ally can translate material in over 75 languages.  This can be very helpful to any student wishing assistance because English is not their first/preferred language.

Principle of Action and Expression - Guideline 2 - Criterion 2

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Action and Expression - Guideline 2 - Criterion 2

When developing a course using the second principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The second, Expression and Communication, focuses on how learners effectively communicate and express their knowledge. 

Criterion 2 of this guideline advocates that we use multiple tools for construction and composition.

Avoid focusing too much on traditional tools while ignoring current tools.  Educational institutions tend to favor traditional forms to composition, such as writing research papers, while not staying current to contemporary trends in digital environments. Restricting learners to ‘old school’ techniques does not prepare them for the future, but instead restricts their learning and the range of teaching methods that you can adopt.  It also bars many students from succeeding. 

For example: Many educational institutions have policies baring cell phones, however their narrow conception of mobile devices does a disservice to students.  For the most part a standard smartphone has more computing power than the computers used to navigate the Apollo 8 mission to the moon.  The student’s device is more of a microcomputer that can receive phone calls than a telephone.  Moreover, smartphones are the primary means of access for a disproportionately higher number of non-whites and lower income Americans.  Many students have to choose between a smartphone or a laptop, and select the former for easier access, better safety, and affordability. To adopt policies that discriminate against mobile devices effectively targets these groups.  It also send the message that the school would rather be antiquated than adopt new technology.

Professionals have to stay current with the tools of their trade, and developing learning environments should prepare the learners instead of provide a skill in an archaic behavior.

When developing a learning environment, be sure to consider:

• Encourage mobile devices and non-traditional tools
• Provide spellcheckers and grammar checkers
• Encourage outline tools and concept mapping tools
• Use web applications
• Provide computer aided design and notation software

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line with the Principle of Action and Expression in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.