Abstract
The chapter's purpose was to explore the experiences of students with disabilities during the unplanned shift to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A description of the experiences during COVID-19 from the perspective of the institution, the faculty, and the students were presented. Two case studies were presented giving strategies that support learner engagement, lessons from COVID-19, and giving practices for universal design for learning. The literature and case studies support further needs of students with disabilities during online learning. These suggestions were applied by using inclusive teaching and universal design for learning as instructional strategies for the faculty to address the needs of students with special needs. There are a multitude of lessons learned that will further assist university professors in teaching which fosters greater learner engagement, proposes greater accessibility, and allows for greater inclusivity to all learners and various teaching contexts within the college setting.
TopDiscovering the Needed Technology for Remote Learning and Inclusive Practices
During the course of COVID and remote learning, college institutions learned about various outcomes needed to provide inclusive student opportunities for learning. There are three perspectives reviewed in this section. First is the college institutional perspective where internet access and computer availability were issues needed to be resolved. Next, was the instructor perspective in which offering engaging opportunities and transfer of course to remote learning required adjustments to meet the needs of all students. Lastly, included here are the students with disabilities needing to adapt and learn additional digital literacies.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Synchronous Learning: A type of online instruction where the students and faculty meet at a designated day and time.
Accommodations: A change that provides support for a student, an alteration to curriculum format, equipment, or to environment which allows access to the same content.
Digital Divide: A technical and societal term created to demonstrate a separation of people based on inability to access technology. Students who had no or limited internet access where placed at a disadvantage.
Remote Learning: An unexpected change to educational systems which forced social distance, and no in-person experience while society was shutdown.
Community Of Inquiry: Provides a framework for implementing and evaluation an online course with a focus on teacher, cognitive and social presence.
Adaptive Instruction: An instructional approach allowing flexibility in teaching to the diverse needs of students, including differences in achievement, aptitude, and learning.
Learning Management System: A technical tool for managing and implementing online instruction, a few examples include BlackBoard, Canvas, Moodle, and Desire2Learn.
Backward Design: A curriculum method in which the end of the course is first considered, it begins with the learning objectives and ensures alignment with course content, assessments, and activities.
COVID-19 Pandemic: A pandemic which forced a global shutdown while most colleges shifted to remote learning within 1-2 weeks. The Spring 2020 semester was finished remotely.
Universal Design for Learning: An instructional strategy which was first intended for students with disabilities, now it is intended to address the various learning needs of students.
Asynchronous Learning: An online delivery method which students access course material at a convenient day and time.