Collaborative Learning

Although research shows that asynchronous discussion forums can promote critical thinking and help students achieve high levels of learning, simply placing students in group discussions does not automatically lead to collaborative learning (Picciano, 2002; Meyer, 2003). Rather, the quality of learning depends on the depth of student discussion and the scaffold provided by the teachers.

This section revolves around two questions that are critical to designing an engaging and effective online discussion forum:

1. To what extent does instructor presence affect the overall level of discussion among the learning communities?

2. Does assessing the discussion encourage learners to engage in the learning activity?

The Instructor Role and Presence

The instructor's role and presence are central to the success of online discussion forums because students weigh the importance and relevance of their participation by the instructor's involvement (Mazzolini & Maddison, 2004). Students are more satisfied with the class and reported that they learned more from the discussion forums when instructors were actively present (Lowes, Lin, Wang, 2007). 

To engage students in online discussions and enhance student-student interactions, instructors should set clear and explicit expectations, create a norm of open communication, and promptly address any concerns.  

Instructors can encourage student participation by guiding students through the thinking process. Things you can do include, but not limited to: 

• asking prompt and follow up questions.
• posting conflicting views to elicit thinking and reflection.  
• providing extra resources to support discussion.
• providing timely feedback, encouragement, and support.
• offering summaries of discussions.

Although instructor participation is important to the overall student learning outcome, one should avoid overly dominating the conversation. There are no simple answers as to how to strike a balance between overly present and completely absent, but one thing to consider is to "stop telling and start asking". Be aware of telling students what you think about a question or what is the "right way" of approaching a question, instead, asking more questions like "have you ever considered...", "how about....", and "what if...".

Use informative link text

Screen readers can scan for links, so informative link text is helpful. It's best to use the title of the page as the linked text. For example, if you're linking to your profile page, the link text should say "my profile," not "click here" or the full URL.

Use comments and suggestions

Use the commenting and suggesting features instead of writing notes within the text of your document or presentation. Screen reader users can jump to comments using keyboard shortcuts rather than hunting through your file. The file owner can also receive email notifications or review comment threads.

Use numbered and bulleted lists

Any content that needs to be organized as a list should be created using the list controls that are provided in document authoring software.  Most authoring tools provide one or more controls for adding unordered lists (with bullets) and ordered lists (with numbers). When lists are explicitly created as lists, this helps screen readers to understand how the content is organized. When screen reader users enter a list, their screen reader informs them that they’re on a list and may also inform them of how many items are in the list, which can be very helpful information when deciding whether to continue reading.

Use text to support formatting

It's best not to rely on visual formatting alone to communicate meaning. Screen readers might not announce formatting changes, such as boldface or highlighting. For example, to mark an important section of text, add the word "Important."

Check text size and alignment

Except for captions and images of text, text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200% without loss of content or functionality. For traditional computer monitors, a font size of 12-14 points/pixels is generally recommended for body text (depending on the audience). 

To make your document or presentation easy to read, use large, left-aligned text when possible. Justified text is more difficult to read because of extra space between the words. To change the alignment, press Ctrl + Shift + L (Windows or Chrome OS) or ⌘ + Shift + L (Mac).

Share a presentation in HTML view

Google Slides HTML view displays your whole presentation in a single, scrollable HTML page, instead of displaying the presentation one slide at a time. This is a helpful feature if your audience includes people who use screen readers. To access a presentation in HTML view, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Shift + p (Windows or Chrome OS) or ⌘ + Option + Shift + p (Mac).

Avoid using images to create text content

Whenever possible, use text, not images, to create text content. Images of text lose fidelity when enlarged, which can make the text difficult to read, especially for users with visual impairments. 

Avoid reliance on visual characteristics

Some users are unable to perceive color differences, or may not perceive color the same way you do. Therefore it is important to avoid using color alone to communicate information.

Make sure every image has alt text

If the image (graphic, photo, chart) contains words that are important information to the viewer, include them in alternative text (alt-text). If the image is decorative/ contains no relevant information, leave it null. For more information, see the article "How to Ensure Your Images Are Accessible" in the Digital Accessibility Toolkit. 

Check for high color contrast

High color contrast makes text and images easier to read and comprehend. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 recommend a minimum ratio of 4.5:1 for large text and 7:1 for other text and images. For example, avoid light gray text on a white background. To check contrast, use the WebAIM contrast checker.

Support for applying Quick Wins to your content

For detailed information on how to apply these Quick Wins using the authoring applications you create documents with, please see the article "How to Create Accessible Documents" in the Digital Accessibility Toolkit.