Bb Ally: Adding a Layer of Accessibility to Online Learning

Contributed by Henry Newkirk, Instructional Designer II (HSH)

Ally is a Blackboard integrated tool that helps makes course materials accessible to all students regardless of differences in vision or hearing, specific learning disabilities, or learning preferences. Leveraging the Ally tool in Blackboard helps address students' diverse needs online. Ally provides equitable access to online course materials, not just for accessibility accommodations.

Ally Alternative Formats

Ally creates alternative formats of instructors' course content based on the original. Instructors do not need to do anything to provide these options to students. The user gains access to the automatically created alternative formats via the Ally link that appears next to content items in Blackboard courses. For a complete description of the formats, go to the Blackboard Ally Alternate Format page.

Accessibility Score Indicators

Ally measures the accessibility of each file attached to a course and shows the instructor at a glance how it scores (these scores are not visible to students). Scores range from Low to Perfect. The higher the score, the fewer the issues. For files with Low to High scores, Ally provides the instructor with information about the problems and step-by-step guidance on fixing them. To get the course report from the Add Menu Item on the Course Menu, click Tool Links and select from the (Type row) drop-down menu Accessibility Report. Once you choose it, you must type in a name for the link; you do not have to make the link available to users. Click the Submit button, and the link will appear on the Course Menu.

Course Accessibility Report

The course accessibility report acts as a complement to the existing accessibility indicators. It provides an accessibility summary and overview at the course level.
The report shows instructors this helpful information:

• Accessibility score for the course
• Distribution of course content by content type
• List of all issues identified in the course

The Remaining issues section of the report allows the instructor to address each issue.

Watch the two brief videos, Introduction to Ally and an Overview for Faculty, to learn more about Ally. As always, you are welcome to request a consultation with an Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) team member to learn more about Blackboard Ally or any other instructional design/technology topics. To request personalized assistance, don't hesitate to contact OIT's Support Center at 281-283-2828 or supportcenter@uhcl.edu.

Recommended Articles

Contributed by Jenni Willis-Opalenik, Ph.D., Director - OIT Technology Learning Services

In contrast to last week's recommended podcast, the IDT team offers this week the following recommended articles for your perusal.

Gamrat, C., Tiwari, S, and Bekiroglu, S. O. (2022 March 10). Inclusive ADDIE: Initial considerations for DEI pedagogy. EDUCAUSE. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2022/3/inclusive-addie-initial-considerations-for-dei-pedagogy

Excerpt: Learning environments should foster a sense of belonging and make all students feel welcome, valued, and respected. The instructional design process should avoid negative stereotypes and unconscious bias, encourage respect, representation, access, and communication, and recognize students with varying abilities. To achieve these goals, a more comprehensive, inclusive instructional design model is needed. We propose the INCLUSIVE ADDIE model.

Sheen, A. (2022 March 23). Successfully bringing discussion forums into online learning. Fierce Education. Retrieved from https://www.fierceeducation.com/teaching-learning/successfully-bringing-discussion-forums-online-learning

Excerpt: It's great to see online education shift its focus toward building a social presence and helping students feel connected to a broader college community. But one thing hasn't changed: the old-fashioned discussion forum — and that's a huge problem.

Turner, P. (2022 March 14). Revisiting camera use in live remote teaching: Considerations for learning and equity. EDUCAUSE. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2022/3/revisiting-camera-use-in-live-remote-teaching-considerations-for-learning-and-equity

Excerpt: A thoughtful and equitable approach to webcam use allows students and faculty alike to benefit from the sense of presence that webcams can provide during remote instruction while preserving student privacy.

Adding Closed Captions to Echo360 Videos

Contributed by Jenni Willis-Opalenik, Ph.D., Director - OIT Technology Learning Services

In our previous newsletter, I described how Echo360 videos get accompanying transcripts and how faculty and others can access those transcripts while watching videos. In this week's article, I'll tackle a related topic...how users can caption their audio and video files in Echo360. Faculty and staff no longer have to work with the Accessibility Support Center to get audio or video files sent to a pay-per-minute captioning service, and then wait for the captioned file to return for deployment in Blackboard. With Echo360, generating closed captions for any video (MP4) or audio (MP3) file is a simple process that any user can perform:

1. Upload your new audio or video file into your Echo360 Library.
2. Wait for the auto-generated transcript to appear. NOTE: This can take up to 24 hours, depending on the size of the file and demand on the system.
3. Return to your Echo360 Library and click on the video tile or link to open it.
4. Click the Edit Transcript link located below the video screen.
5. [Optional] Review and edit the transcript text for any inaccuracies.
6. Click the Apply to CC button, located above the transcript text pane. The CC icon below the video will then light up, indicating that closed captions are present and available to viewers.

For a video demonstration of this procedure, please watch our latest Crash Course video, Crash Course - Echo360 Captioning [4:23].

For more information about captions or transcripts, please use the links in this article to review Echo360's help resources. You can also always contact the Support Center and request assistance from OIT's IDT team.

About Transcripts in Echo360 Videos

In 2021, the IDT team enabled transcripts and captioning for videos created in and uploaded to Echo360. However, many users are unaware of these services. This week, we'll reintroduce Echo360 transcripts. As described on Echo360’s support post, Viewing Media Transcripts, “Viewing the text of the speech along with the video/audio can help reinforce understanding and retention of the material. In addition, the transcript can be searched to find specific locations in the media to review, and can be downloaded to augment your study materials.” Echo360 also enables faculty to readily review and edit automatically generated transcripts.

When a transcript is available, a transcript icon will appear below the video for the viewer. IMPORTANT! Faculty will NOT see the icon in their Instructor view within Echo360. However, you will see a link to edit the transcript. When the transcript icon is clicked, a transcript window will appear along side the video and the text for the audio track will be highlighted in the transcript as the video plays.

For more information about transcripts, please use the links in this article to review Echo360's help resources. You can also always contact the Support Center and request assistance from OIT's IDT team

Transcripts and Captioning for Your Instructional Videos

Our team has worked with representatives from both Zoom and Echo360 to enable features within those applications that will provide automatic transcript creation for new recordings in both systems and for new uploads in Echo360. In addition, Echo360 now includes the capability for faculty to click a single button to have the transcript also available as closed captions.

More information about these features is provided in two of our team's "Crash Course" videos:

• Crash Course: Automatic Transcripts and Closed Captions in Echo360 [4:29]
• Crash Course: Activating Automatic Transcripts for Zoom Recordings [2:20]

Faculty may also be interested in the Zoom support page, Audio transcription for cloud recordings, and Echo360's support site, Editing a Transcript Using the Transcript Editor. As a reminder, including transcripts and closed captions benefits a wide range of learners, including those who do and do not self-report having one or more disabilities. For an interesting look at the benefits of closed captions for all learners, we recommend Dello Stritto and Linder's (2017) EDUCAUSE article, A rising tide: How closed captions can benefit all students.