Selecting teaching resources: a guide: Accessibility

Does the resource require any special software to view, download or for interactivity?

Do your students have reliable internet and adequate bandwidth to view a resource, for example, a lengthy video clip or high resolution photograph? Consider providing links to these resources instead.

Allow for varying levels of digital literacy in your student cohort, and introduce new platforms and technologies over time, scaffolding the experience where necessary.

Consider how to reduce the financial cost of studying for students.

• Ascertain the cost for the student of buying a set textbook, and whether a less expensive e-version can be purchased by individuals
• Is there an e-version of the textbook available via the Library? How many concurrent users are allowed?
• Re-consider whether an open text exam is the best kind of examination for your unit.
• Are there alternatives to your textbook such as collating a variety of sources including journal articles, book chapters, video material, case studies, etc.?
• Can you find an alternative Open Educational Resource?

A range of resources can represent different perspectives in the scholarly discourse and provide a rich learning experience for students. Consider presenting information in these formats: newspapers, videos, statistics, data, images, reports, websites.

Know your cohort, includig where they are located, and identify the issues they may face in accessing the reading materials you select.

Did you know that some countries block URLs for YouTube and other websites, or that e-textbooks might not be able to be purchased by students outside Australia?

Again, re-consider whether setting a textbook for courses delivered onshore at partner institutes is appropriate. Partner institute libraries will purchase a small number of textbooks for borrowing by their students, however, many partner students miss out because of lack of availability and the high cost of textbooks. This is partly relieved if an e-textbook can be purchased and made available through the Library, but often publishers do not allow for multi-user licenses for textbooks via Library subscriptions.

If you bury a hyperlink to a resource in your PPT presentation, are you willing to regularly find and check the link works?

Avoid presenting links to resources within Word documents, PPT presentations, and any other document, as they are easily lost amongst the weekly material posted in Moodle. Instead create citations for these resources and direct students to view the weekly readings set up in Learning Resources.

Learning Resources will maintain links for you, assuring ongoing accessibility to readings for students.