With such a rapid rise in online learning, it’s easy to miss best practices, jump to quick solutions, and expect that all online learning technology is mature enough to deliver the best learning outcomes to your course participants.

Importantly, with a new standard of learning comes a series of new best practices. Learning experiences can be improved through online course models, but not without a standard of practice to address common challenges and fulfill the promise of online and hybrid learning.

Let’s explore what you need to know about online learning in 2022 and beyond from over a decade of research through to the latest findings.

First, let’s talk about learning models

Did you know that 15-20% of the world’s population is neurodivergent?

Neurodiversity refers to the concept that not everyone’s brain functions in the same way. People who are neurodivergent think, learn, and process information differently than neurotypical individuals. This includes a diverse range of neurological, neurodevelopmental, and learning differences, including specific disabilities such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia.

Students and employees, no matter if they are neurodivergent or neurotypical, benefit from having choice as to how and when they engage with course content. In addition to considerations around neurodiversity, there are accessibility considerations, such as language, motor skills, hearing and sight disabilities, and more.

Educators use the term differentiated learning to describe teaching in a way that is flexible to a variety of learner needs and preferences, rather than a single type of lesson or assignment given to an entire group of learners. Differentiated learning is moving towards becoming standard practice in many K-12 education spaces and will be the next critical area of focus for employee upskilling.

Historically, educational programs and course models have not supported flexible learning options or provided accommodations for people with disabilities—preferring to offer a one-track path for course participants. Expanding this one track path to offer choice to learners is critical to learning program success. That’s where learning models such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) bring intention to course planning and understanding of how different learners can be supported along their learning journey.

The inclusive education pyramid from the organization AHEAD demonstrates how inclusive education methods differ when moving from universally supporting general learners to specific or special cases.

Importantly, technology can enable the most accessible, flexible, and effective content for all learners, but it’s essential to understand how to realize these benefits.

Let’s look at the research that’s identified practices that elevate online learning

Between the wealth of research that has been conducted over the past decade, along with our ongoing education and training work, we can quantify key impacts on learners. Highlights include:

1. Accessibility and the impact of online education on learners with disabilities
2. Learners prefer online learning
3. Bringing human interaction to online learning
4. Establishing an online course model

Let’s unpack each of these.

1. Accessibility and the impact of online education on learners with disabilities

Learners with disabilities often lack support to succeed in online education. This includes a lack of access to accommodations and appropriate services such as an individual education plan (IEP), audio-supported reading, specialized instructions, and affordable education.

Considering models for removing these barriers, accommodating multiple modes of content, and making online courses more accessible helps to establish an equitable, inclusive, and accessible learning environment that fosters success.

Over 95% of websites have basic accessibility issues. Online courses are no different, but this doesn’t have to be the case.

While there are standards-based approaches to enabling online learning to be accessible to all, it is not a common practice. Not all technology platforms, or Learning Management Systems (LMS), support these best practices. Bringing web accessibility standards to online learning is becoming an industry-wide priority and the next step to ensuring your organization’s success by welcoming all learners to fully participate in learning activities.

2. Learners prefer online learning

Virtual learning has consistently led to increased learner satisfaction.

Learners have benefitted from online learning when they have the flexibility and convenience of completing courses at their own pace and time, with the ability to reinforce learning through repetition that comes with continued course access.

Online courses enable new modes of interaction while offering varied ways of engaging with course content that can radically improve overall course engagement and learning outcomes.

But there are challenges.

Addressing the challenges of online learning

Online learning continues to present unique challenges for learners regarding access to support, self-motivated engagement, course delivery speed, and self-regulated learning.

3. Bringing human interaction to online learning

Historically, human contact and interactions have been limited with online courses. We now know that enabling instructor-learner interactions and communities of practice are critical to keeping learners engaged and encouraged to learn.

Education is inhibited when learners don’t have anyone to ask for help.

Providing online learners with access to instructors, real-time and ongoing feedback, and communities of practice, fulfills the promise of online and hybrid learning to improve learning outcomes over strictly in-class courses.

4. Establishing an online course model

When virtual courses lack structure, learners tend to lose motivation and interest in completing them. Compared to traditional face-to-face courses, the dropout rates for online courses are 20% higher. Furthermore, learning management systems (LMS) can be lacking in collaborative spaces. This can hinder real-time collaboration as online learners may not have the same opportunities to learn or work together with peers unless educators design courses specifically with human interaction in mind.

Furthermore, in-class courses do not directly translate to online delivery. It’s critical to be mindful of the opportunities online affords to improve engagement and interaction, support self-directed learning, and offer modes of learning that serve all learners, in order to design courses that leverage these benefits.

Ultimately, online course structures and models can better facilitate multiple learning models, including learning at a student’s own pace and being able to engage through written, oral, and other means that work best for them. Providing different interactions to increase learner engagement, facilitating teacher and peer support and dialogue, and providing self-regulated learning (SRL) support and collaborative learning communities are critical considerations in your online course planning.

How can online learning best serve all learners?

With intention comes results. The research is clear: online learning provides the best model to serve all users.

You can grow course engagement, improve learning outcomes, and reach more learners by ensuring multiple modes of learning, access to courses, bringing a human connection, and following standards of practice in delivering courses.

Whether you’re just getting started, or have been serving learners online for years, we can help you deliver improved course outcomes.

Our approach and standards-based technology provide a more usable, accessible, and inclusive experience for all.

Leverage features and capabilities that support diverse learners, including self-directed learning, captions and transcripts, a diverse suite of interactions, and screen reader support, all of which follow standards that enable integration with common LMSs.

Our platform removes barriers to accessibility by providing different modes of content access and engagement, including mouse, touch, keyboard, voice, screen reader, and zooming across multiple screen sizes and devices.

Our expertise will help you complete the transition from limited in-person learning to leveraging online and hybrid learning to improve enrolment, satisfaction, and learning outcomes.

We support established instructional design teams and new learning and training initiatives.

Get in touch

References

Aragon, S. R., & Johnson, E. S. (2008). Factors influencing completion and Noncompletion of Community College Online Courses. American Journal of Distance Education, 22(3), 146–158. doi: 10.1080/08923640802239962

Baber, H. (2020). Determinants of students’ perceived learning outcome and satisfaction in online learning during the pandemic of covid19. Journal of Education and e-Learning Research, 7(3), 285–292. https://doi.org/10.20448/journal.509.2020.73.285.292

Basham, J.D., Stahl, S., Ortiz, K., Rice, M.F., & Smith, S. (2015). Equity Matters: Digital & Online Learning for Students with Disabilities. Lawrence, KS: Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities.

Hu. M & Li. H. (2017). Student Engagement in Online Learning: A Review. 2017 International Symposium on Educational Technology (ISET), 39-43. doi: 10.1109/ISET.2017.17.

Leong, P. (2011). Role of Social presence and Cognitive Absorption in Online Learning Environments. Distance Education, 32 (1), 5-28. doi: 10.1080/01587919.2011.565495

Lin H. F. (2007). Measuring Online Learning Systems Success: Applying the Updated DeLone and McLean Model. Cyberpsychology & Behavior: 10 (6), 817–820. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2007.9948

Neurodiversity. National Cancer Institute. (2022).
https://dceg.cancer.gov/about/diversity-inclusion/inclusivity-minute/2022/neurodiversity

Nguyen, Tuan. (2015). The Effectiveness of Online Learning: Beyond No Significant Difference and Future Horizons. MERLOT The Journal of Online Teaching and Learning. 11. 309-319.

Sim, S., Sim, H., & Quah, C. (2021). Online Learning: A Post Covid-19 Alternative Pedagogy For University Students. Asian Journal Of University Education, 16(4), 137. doi: 10.24191/ajue.v16i4.11963

Sit, J. W. H., Chung, J. W. Y., Chow, M. C. M., & Wong, T. K. S. (2005). Experiences of online learning: Students’ perspective. Nurse Education Today, 25(2), 140–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2004.11.004

Wong, J., Baars, M., Davis, D., Van Der Zee, T., Houben, G., & Paas, F. (2018). Supporting Self-Regulated Learning in Online Learning Environments and MOOCs: A Systematic Review. International Journal Of Human-Computer Interaction, 35 (4-5), 356-373. doi:10.1080/10447318.2018.1543084

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The event will take place online, featuring a series of three panels focused on different lenses of inclusion across research and product design. Experts from across the UX industry who have a focus on accessibility and inclusion in their work will share their perspectives, challenges, and opportunities for all of us to bring more mindful and inclusive practices to our work.

The three jam-packed panels include:

1. Beyond Accessibility with Jennifer White-Johnson and Liz Jackson
2. Failure of Diversity with Stacey L. Houston, II, Anne Diaz, and Sharon Bautista
3. And Design as Resistance with Ploipailin Flynn, Sarah Fathallah, and Daly Barnett

Check out the event’s website for more information and exact times for panels.

Get the details

Grab your ticket or sign up to receive the recordings

Join live for the event on November 12th, or watch whenever’s convenient for you (all panels will be recorded). Either way, you’re sure to learn a lot about UX research and inclusive design!

Register for the event

Not sure how to get started with an inclusive design process?

From our inclusive public sector work to our insurance, banking, and other private sector work, we continue to develop our inclusive design practice and bring impactful service design and product strategy outcomes to the organizations and communities we work with.

Get in touch

The post Critical UX by Hmnty Centrd: November 12th, 2021 appeared first on Say Yeah!.

With 40% of people having brains that work in neurodiverse ways that can impact comprehension, learning, and engagement, understanding how to accommodate neurodiversity is an important part of your product strategy and service design work.

What is neurodiversity?

At its most basic level, neurodiversity describes the differences in how people’s brains work, solve problems, think, and process information. This can include the impact of various neurodiverse conditions like ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Autism.

In design, all of these ways that people’s brains differ from one another also affect how they will interact and whether they will enjoy using your product or service. Benton et al in “Diversity for Design: A Framework for Involving Neurodiverse Children in the Technology Design Process”, 2014, note that children and people with diverse needs are “at risk of growing frustrated or bored with existing interactive technologies because their needs…are not well understood or identified.”

When designing for a neurodiverse population, consider these factors to minimize frustration with your product or service.

Tactical approaches to accommodating neurodiversity

• Avoid flashing images, excessive animations, and rapid changes to the interface or pictures. These changes can be both distracting and disorienting for people.
• Use highly-readable typefaces, such as sans serif typefaces like Open Sans, to increase readability and clarity (particularly for people with Dyslexia)
• Ensure you show information in a range of different ways to accommodate for different ways of learning. This includes a mix of text, images, video, and audio.

The ROI of inclusive design

As with many accommodations related to what have historically been defined as “edge cases”, planning for neurodiversity affords a series of benefits that include improving your products and services for everyone and reducing long-term development and maintenance costs.

Making products and services work for neurodiverse customers makes it easier for everyone to engage with your product or service. Alternatively, designing without considering neurodiversity risks alienating part of your market.

When 40% of people have brains that work in neurodiverse ways, not considering neurodiversity in your work limits your success and negatively impacts customer experience.

Whether it’s choosing colours that are less distracting to read or look at or avoiding disruptive animations or images, to making more fun, dynamic experiences, changes and designs that build on neurodiverse needs ultimately benefit all users of your product or service.

Let’s get started

Looking to bring inclusive design considerations to your product strategy and service design work?

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