Data-Driven Instructional Design: Higher Learning Student and Professor Voices

Handouts

Presented at 3:30pm in Windsor on Wednesday, November 16, 2016.

#4585

Speaker(s)

  • Laura King, Ms., Andre-Laurendeau College
  • Mary Jorgensen, Ms., Adaptech Research Network

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format:
  • Expertise Level: Not provided
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

The Adaptech Research Network surveyed 311 college students with an accessible online questionnaire and interviewed 114 professors about information and communication technology use. We frame our findings to reflect the three principles of UDL, learner variability, as well as specific implications for learning environments in higher education.

Abstract

In 2014, the Adaptech Research Network surveyed 311 college students with an accessible online questionnaire. Students were asked to list the ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) that their professors used in their teaching and state which ones did and did not work well for them as a learner. The students were also asked to nominate up to three of their professors who were exceptional in their use of ICTs. Next, we interviewed 114 of the nominated professors and asked them to list the technologies they used, the facilitators and obstacles to using ICTs, and whether they modified their use of ICTs when they had students with disabilities in their classes. Our findings suggest the need for a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and can generalize easily to traditional, blended and online classrooms. Here, we frame the findings to reflect the three principles of UDL and learner variability.

Keypoints

  1. Identify ICTs that higher-education students and professors say work well for them
  2. Note the ICT differences between students and professors
  3. Framework key findings within a UDL perspective

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Mobility, Vision

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Administrative/Campus Policy

Speaker Bio(s)

Laura King

Laura King, M.A., works as a teacher-researcher at Cégep André-Laurendeau (a French college in the multicultural city of Montreal). She received her Master’s degree from Concordia University in 2000 and has taught English as a second language for over 20 years. She began working and doing research on students with learning disabilities (LD) in 2000, and has recently completed a three-year study on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for students with LD and other reading difficulties. She is currently working on a study which examines best practices and student and professor views about technology use in teaching. She offers workshops on student success, screening and accommodation, ICTs for students with LD and other disabilities as well as data-driven Universal Design for Learning practices. Her other areas of interest include applied linguistics and transitions for students with disabilities from high school to college then to university and to the workplace.

Mary Jorgensen

Jillian Budd, M.A., is a doctoral student at McGill University studying School/Applied Child Psychology. She received her Master of Arts in School/Applied Child Psychology from McGill University in 2014. She has been a research assistant at the Adaptech Research Network since May 2007 and project manager of Adaptech’s Free and/or Inexpensive Assistive Technology Database since October 2014. Some of her research interests include learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and assistive technology. She is also a frequent consultant to schools and specialized centers on assistive technology and on universal design for learning. Her most recent, first-author publication examines treating postsecondary students with specific learning disabilities versus those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder differently for research or practice.

Handout(s)