Faculty Opportunity - Designing for Student Learning in the Age of AI |
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The GW Libraries & Academic Innovation Center of Teaching Excellence is hosting its second cohort of the Designing for Student Learning in the Age of AI faculty group. This community of practice (CoP) provides a collaborative space for GW faculty to update their courses and assignments in response to emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence.
Several faculty from health professions, including SMHS, participated in the first cohort, and you can see the results of their work. The group will meet virtually four times during the month of July. The deadline to apply is June 30th.
Details and how to apply
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Pass Accessibility Tests with Flying Colors |
Let’s ensure all our course materials are usable by all students, including those who might have trouble visually distinguishing colors. Here is digital accessibility as it relates to color in a nutshell.
There are two aspects to consider regarding color and accessibility: 1) the use of color to convey meaning and 2) color contrast.
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Don’t use color alone to convey meaning |
When considering if color alone is used to convey meaning, ask yourself: if someone could not distinguish those colors would they still understand the text or graphic? Say an instructor is making a lecture slide with a diagram of items in two categories and made the labels for one category red and the other category blue. This is an example of using color alone to convey meaning (the categories) and that is not accessible to all.
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Ensure sufficient color contrast |
There needs to be enough contrast between colors, like between text and the background. There are technical formulas for this and online checkers, but in general please try to err on the side of lots of contrast.
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None of this should make you feel like you can’t use color in course materials. Rather, it’s a heads-up to be mindful of how color is used. In the example of colored text to indicate categories, there could be a short text label in parentheses after each item as a further cue to category in addition to the text. Icons or numbering also work. And for contrast, GW provides accessible color combinations for GW colors, which will provide a good general idea of the accessible levels of contrast.
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Don’t assume AI tools or SmartArt will produce accessible visuals. We’ve seen both of those produce visuals with attractive but low contrast color combinations.
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Test Accommodations in Blackboard Ultra |
With the sunsetting of Blackboard Original fast approaching, we wanted to highlight one of the things Blackboard Ultra does well: test accommodations. We are frequently asked about two different scenarios: giving extra time to learners with a documented need and adjusting the due date for a student with an excused absence. Here’s how to tackle both:
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Giving students extra time (adjusts assessments globally) |
For students with a documented need for extra time, you can set the accommodation at the course-level. This means they will automatically receive the prescribed amount of extra time for every assessment in the course. Set up accommodations in your student roster.
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Giving a student a separate due date (specific assessment) |
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The School of Medicine & Health Sciences IMPACT team:
2000 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Suite 2000
Washington, DC 20006
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