The Online Training Content Journal

Legal and Policy Issues Associated With Accessible e-Learning Development

Here's an article I thought might give you a good overview on some of the legal and policy issues associated with creating accessible e-Learning development.

Distance Learning: Universal Design, Universal Access by By Sheryl Burgstahler, Ph. D.
University of Washington

Abstract: "Distance learning courses offer opportunities for education and career
enhancement for those who have access to the technologies they employ.
However, many people find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide
that separates those with access to new technologies and those without. Even if
they have access to these technologies, some people with disabilities find
themselves on the wrong side of a second digital divide that is caused by the
inaccessible design of coursework. This paper discusses access, legal and policy
issues, and it presents an overview of design considerations for assuring that a
distance learning course is accessible to potential instructors and students with a
wide range of abilities and disabilities. The field of universal design provides a
framework for this discussion. The content of this article can be used to help
distance learning programs develop policies, guidelines and procedures for
making their courses accessible to everyone."

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Usability Glossary

For those new to online training development and usability, here is a Usability Glossary by the Usability First Site

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

FIR Image Replacement

There's a lot of talk kicking around on the web about the Fahrner Image Replacement technique and similar techniques. The basic idea is this: you have a beautiful font that you want to use for the headlines in your web page, but you know that not everyone has that font. Instead of using CSS to specify the font and apply text-transform and other manipulations, you use an image as a background that replaces the text. Why not use just the image with alt text?

The full technique requires a little HTML trickery. For example,

<h3 id="firHeader"><span>Sample Headline</span></h3>

The heading tag has an id. The span tag surrounding the actual text, which is extra tags and does not follow the rules of semantic markup, serves one purpose: hide this text with CSS. The span tag acts as a hook for the CSS to set display to none. Therefore, the text will not be visible, but the background image will be.

Here's the CSS:

#firHeader {
   width: 300px;
   height: 35px;
   background: #fff url(one.gif) top left no-repeat;
   }
#firHeader span {
   display: none;
}

First, we define the background image for the item with the id. Then we use the span tag of that same item to hide whatever content is there. Quite sneaky. This technique breaks some of the web standards, particularly accessibility, as adequately pointed out by Joe Clark. However, such a technique has it's importance for developers as defended by Dave Shea.

Hacks, tricks, and odd layout techniques continue to flourish on the web. The days of using spacer gifs and tables to serve our purposes should be done with, but other techniques like this one pop up and offer designers another way to push pixels around. The question I have is, "Is it worth it?" Maybe. If you're company has a specific font that fits within its branding and doesn't want to settle for Verdana on their website. In that case, yes, this technique may be important, but again, what's wrong with using just a simple image and an alt text behind it?

Al Lemieux
Senior e-Learning Developer
SyberWorks

Free Tool To Convert PDFs To Multiple Formats

Found this on Jane Knight's Blog, looked like a cool little free tool, and might come in handy to help with for your online course development.

Convert to PDF for Free   by www.pdfonline.com It lets you convert it to anyone of these formats: DOC, PPT, XLS, JPG, GIF, TIFF, RTF, PPS, HTML, BMP, PNG,EMF, TXT, PUB, and WMF

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Google, Yahoo, and AOL Now Offer Accessible Search

Google Offers Accessible Search

AOL, Yahoo Add Accessibility

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Instructional Design Case Studies....

The I.D. Casebook: Case Studies in Instructional Design
by Peggy A. Ertmer, James Quinn

From the Back Cover

"With its problem-oriented approach to instructional design, the third edition of The ID CaseBook provides 32 realistic case studies in a wide range of authentic contexts, from K-12 to post-secondary, corporate, and military. The cases and their accompanying discussion questions encourage students to analyze the available information, develop conclusions, and consider alternative possibilities in resolving ID problems."

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Survey Statistics

Online surveys are often used as part of an online training course.  I came across book about survey statistics I thought may be useful resource.

Statistics For Real-Life Non-Simple-Random Samples and Weighted Data
by Sergey Dorofeev, Peter Grant

Book Description: "Samples used in social and commercial surveys, especially of the general population, are usually less random (often by design) than many people using them realise. Unless it is understood, this 'non-randomness' can compromise the conclusions drawn from the data. This book introduces the challenges posed by less-than-perfect samples, giving background knowledge and practical guidance for those who have to deal with them. It explains why samples are, and sometimes should be, non-random in the first place; how to assess the degree of non-randomness; when correction by weighting is appropriate and how to apply it; and how the statistical treatment of these samples must be adapted. Extended data examples show the techniques at work. This is a book for practising researchers. It is a reference for the methods and formulae needed to deal with commonly encountered situations and, above all, a source of realistic and implementable solutions."

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

SyberWorks News:SIRS, Inc., Evansville ARC, Inc., and GCARC Selects the SyberWorks Web-Based Learning Management System

Here is our latest press release:

SIRS, Inc., Evansville ARC, Inc., and GCARC Selects the SyberWorks Web-Based Learning Management System

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Free Online AJAX Programming Course

Found this while I was sifting through my rss feeds,  10-Week Free AJAX Programming (with Passion!) Online Course to start August 4th, 2006

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Timeline Example Using DHTML and AJAX

Here's another great trick for custom online course developers to have up their sleave.  Found a cool example on Jared Spool at UIE on his Brainsparks blog to have a nifty example of what you can do with AJAX:
Timeline: Look Mom, No Flash!

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks