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A Global Journey to Inclusion Education

Dr. John M. Scott

Product Manager and

Researcher

@johnscottworks

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Inclusion through Connection

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Connecting to Shakespeare in a Jail

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Learning is…

Connections between neurons

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Learning is…

Connections to experience

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Learning is…

Connections between people

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4 Strategies for Fostering Connection

Universal Design for

Learning

Culturally Relevant

Pedagogy Metacognition

Multimodal

Literacy TheoryAccessibility Reflective Practice

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Ways that Ally can help foster inclusion through Connection

Institutional Report: Data and Analytics

Alternative Formats: Flexibility and Choice

Instructor Feedback: Awareness and Training

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1. Connecting to Course Content

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Follow Accessibility Best Practices

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Barriers to Belonging in Michigan*:Scanned PDFs

Accessibility Issue MI Avg National Average

Scanned PDFs 15.6% of PDFs 15.4% of all PDFs

*2019-2020 data; 16 schools represented from MI

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Barriers to Belonging in Michigan*:Untagged PDFs

Accessibility Issue MI Avg National Average

Untagged PDFs 36.4% of PDFs 42.9% of all PDFs

*2019-2020 data; 16 schools represented from MI

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Barriers to Belonging in Michigan*:Missing Headings

Accessibility Issue MI Avg National Average

Missing Headings 24.8% of PDFs,

Word Docs, PPTs

25.8% of PDFs, Word Docs,

PPTs

*2019-2020 data; 16 schools represented from MI

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Barriers to Belonging in Michigan*:Missing Alt Text

Accessibility Issue MI Avg National Average

Images Missing

Description

84.0% of Images 82.2% of Images

*2019-2020 data; 16 schools represented from MI

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Barriers to Belonging in Michigan*:Contrast Issues

Accessibility Issue MI Avg National Average

Contrast Issues 30.7% of PDFs,

Word Docs, PPTs

34.2% of PDFs, Word Docs,

PPTs

*2019-2020 data; 16 schools represented from MI

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Ally’s Institutional Report Dashboard

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Provide Low-Bandwidth Options

Synchronous video

Conferencing video lecturesAsynchronous discussion

Transcripts and slides

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Use Open Educational Resources

Proprietary content is costly

and inflexibleRemix content for

peer-to-peer learning

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2. Connecting to Culture

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Cultural Relevance and Belonging

Culturally relevant

teachers utilize students’

culture as a vehicle for

learning.

- Gloria Ladson-Billings

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Connections between Experience and Content

Lack of meaningful

connections and relevance

Create relevance

Connect with students

funds of knowledge

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Diversify voices and text in Curricula

Do I see myself or people

like me in the curriculum

or in this field?

Balance academic texts with

Blogs, podcasts, multimedia

Global, diverse perspectives

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Assign and rotate roles for group work

Collaboration dominated

by single voiceRoles help create more

equitable relations

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Inspire Activities: Making relevant connections

• Develop rapport with students

• Use as a formative assessments

• Strengthen associations in the brain

• Generate a sense of community and peer-

to-peer learning

Weekly micro-activities establish connections

between student experience-identity-interests

and the learning objectives- course themes.

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3. Connecting to Learner Preference

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Unique Learner Footprint and Metacognition

Research finds

struggling students

often lack Self-

Regulated Learning

Strategies

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Incorporate Reflective Practices: Learning Logs and Journals

We do not learn from

experience …

we learn from reflecting

on experience.

- John Dewey

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Leverage Digital Tools for Learning

Lack of effective reading

comprehension and study

strategies

Use annotation tools and

text-to-speech tools

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Empower Learners with Choice

• Multiple modes of representation (UDL)

enhance cognitive processes

• Learner Preference fosters metacognitive

presence for lifelong learning

• Improved usability impacts time on task

and information retention

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Ally’s Alternative Formats Increase Choice

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Alternative Formats Impact in MI in 2020

Aug: 22,066

April: 6,945Jan: 7,370

•Over 176,000 formats

downloaded in MI in 2020

•Over 25,000 students downloaded

a format during Fall Term

•Over 3,500 students downloaded

6+ formats during Fall Term

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Breakdown of Formats downloaded in MI in 2020

Aug: 22,066

April: 6,945Jan: 7,370

Format Type Downloads

Tagged PDFs 103,280

Mobile-friendly HTML 34,725

ePUB 21,648

MP3 5,575

OCRed PDF 7,029

BeeLine Reader 5,705

Electronic Braille 1,358

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4. Connecting to the Heart

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Practice Empathy

•Open channels of communication

• Responsiveness to changing needs and circumstance

•Anticipate through proactive inclusion

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Engagement with Accessibility Feedback in MI

• Over 51,000 engagements with accessibility indicator

• Over 4,800 launches of Course Accessibility Report

• Over 13,000 files with improved accessibility

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Ally Impact in the Midwest

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Bb Ally Inclusive Learning Pack

File Transformer: https://ally.ac/covid19/?

Accessible Content Authoringhttp://tinyurl.com/a11yauthoring?

Inclusive Course Designhttps://tinyurl.com/InclusiveCourseDesign?