Opportunity to participate in research about promoting digital accessibility at UNL

A research team from the Center for Transformative Teaching is conducting a research study examining the effectiveness of the Digital Accessibility training in the Bridge portal at UNL. Anyone who has completed the training is eligible to participate in this study. The effectiveness of trainings like this has not yet been adequately tested, so this is a unique opportunity to study the effects of this training to both improve the learning of UNL students and to contribute to the wider body of knowledge on the topic.

There are three components to the study: instructor surveys, course reviews, and student surveys. While participation in all components will be of most use to us, you may choose to participate in as many portions as you would like, and any level of participation is appreciated.

  • The instructor survey will examine instructors' attitudes towards and experiences with implementing digital accessibility strategies in their courses. The survey will take approximately 20 minutes and will be completed once per academic year for up to three years.
  • Course reviews will focus on how common accessibility features in Canvas are used by instructors. The reviews will be conducted by the researchers with your permission and will not require any additional time from you. Results from reviews of your individual course(s) will be available to you upon request.
  • The student survey will ask about students’ perceptions of different accessibility features and how that influences academic outcomes. You would help us recruit students by either allowing us class time to have interested students complete the survey, giving us access to contact information for students in your class(es), or posting a recruitment video on Canvas. The 15–20-minute surveys will be administered to as many of your courses as you would like during one semester per year.

If you are interested in participating, please go to https://go.unl.edu/coursedesignstudy. If you have any questions, you can contact Ash Mitchell at amitchell22@unl.edu or Amy Ort at aort@unl.edu.