Asee peer logo

Accessibility, Usability, and Universal Design in Online Engineering Education

Download Paper |

Conference

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 17, 2015

ISBN

978-0-692-50180-1

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Continuing Professional Development Division Technical Session 2

Tagged Division

Continuing Professional Development

Page Count

18

Page Numbers

26.141.1 - 26.141.18

DOI

10.18260/p.23480

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/23480

Download Count

663

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Sheng-peng Wu University of Wisconsin at Madison

visit author page

Sheng-peng (Hank) Wu is an Instructional Support Project Assistant in Department of Engineering Professional Development, and also a PhD candidate in Digital Media program in Department of Curriculum and Instruction, UW-Madison. Wu's current projects focus on dynamic web design, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, computer language acquisition, and gamified learning management systems.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

   Accessibility  and  Usability  in  Online  Engineering  Education        Accessibility  and  usability  have  been  fundamental  concerns  for  instructional  designs  in  online  engineering  education.  With  the  prevalence  of  online  professional  development  programs  and  course  management  systems  (CMS),  the  delivery  of  accessible  and  user-­‐friendly  course  materials  becomes  crucial  to  a  successful  online  program.  Government  entities,  including  public  universities  like  UW-­‐Madison,  are  legally  bound  by  the  regulations  of  Section  508  of  the  Rehabilitation  Act  requiring  all  web  content  to  be  accessible  to  users  with  visual,  auditory,  or  learning  disabilities.    This  legal  obligation  strives  to  ensure  that  web  content  is  within  reach  of  all  users.  Universal  Design  principles  go  beyond  accessibility  requirements  and  advocate  that  designing  online  education  for  a  diversity  of  user  needs  and  circumstances  enhances  learning  for  everyone.    In  this  paper,  we  explore  key  accessibility,  usability,  and  Universal  Design  issues  to  see  how  the  human-­‐computer  interaction  (HCI)  experiences  in  distance  education  have  been  optimized  to  benefit  all  learners.    We  discuss  the  current  trends  and  potential  best  practices  of  effective  distance  teaching  and  learning  in  continuing  education  under  recommended  frameworks  from  Web  Content  Accessibility  Guidelines  (WCAG)  2.0.    We  will  share  practical  tips  and  lessons  learned  from  our  experiences  developing  online  Engineering  Master  Degree  programs.    Keywords:  Human-­‐Computer  Interaction  (HCI),  Accessibility,  Online  Engineering  Education       1  

Wu, S. (2015, June), Accessibility, Usability, and Universal Design in Online Engineering Education Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.23480

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2015 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015