Disability Service
Faculty Response

CURRICULUM TRANSFORMATION AND DISABILITY

Information About the Curriculum Transformation and Disability Project (CTAD)

The population of students with disabilities on college campuses has increased significantly in the last ten years.  Today, 9.2% of first-year college students report having a disability.  Yet despite these gains in access, students with disabilities still are less likely than their non-disabled peers to complete their education.

This disparity troubles many faculty and administrators, who long have recognized the importance of improving students retention rates.  Most faculty and administrators welcome the opportunity to learn more about diverse student populations; many, however, lack sufficient training, information, and resources to effectively teach students with disabilities.

In response to this pressing need, the University of Minnesota's General College and Disability Services has partnered to create Curriculum Transformation and Disability (CTAD), a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education.  CTAD is designed to teach faculty and administrators how to better serve all of their students by creating more inclusive curricula.

Principles for Applying Universal Instructional Design

The following general principles were presented during the CTAD training:

· Create a welcoming classroom climate
· Determine the essential components of the course.
· Provide clear expectations and feedback.
· Incorporate natural supports for learning (study guides, discussion, accessible notes, extended time, tape recorders, etc.).
· Use multi-modal instructional methods.
· Provide for a variety of ways for students to demonstrate knowledge.
· Use technology to enhance learning.
· Encourage faculty-student contact.

Individual Faculty Responses

Faculty Member 1

· Rewrote and shortened the syllabus to clarify expectations; handed it out and reviewed it the first day, regularly references it in class, and asks students to keep track of points earned.

· Requires that students maintain all assignments and exams in a three-ring binder and that they are placed in the binder in sequence and by topic area. Students create a well-organized study resource that is useful as a reference for present as well as future semesters, and also "counts" as much as one exam when handed in for a final review at the end of the semester. This is another mechanism for continually reminding students that learning occurs over time and is supposed to last over time! It is also a great tool for students with organizational and memory challenges. Students have access to calculators for most exams (all if required by disability diagnosis).

Faculty Member 2

· Posts course-related material on the Web to allow students to have repeated access to it.

· Discusses and presents alternative ways of accomplishing the same learning objective.

· Has access to a small room with no windows near the office that some students like to use for testing to reduce distractions that are present in large classrooms.

· Students are given some choice about what days may be better for exams to avoid having more than two exams fall on a single date.

· At the beginning of the semester, this faculty member asks students to complete an optional brief information sheet that includes "tell me anything that you think I should know about you that might affect your performance in this class". All students are writing at the same time, so there is no obvious disability disclosure.

Faculty Member 3

· Gives choices to students between papers and projects (marketing plans versus research paper).
· Students may work individually or in groups, but if they work in groups they must complete peer evaluations.
· Makes course notes available on a website titled "Course Resources."
· Offers extended time for exam completion to all students.

Faculty Member 4

· Includes discussions related to disability access in course content. Students have to analyze the audiences they will be presenting to and incorporate concepts from Universal Instructional Design in their presentations.
· Color-codes all materials related to certain topics because the course is delivered on ITV. This improves organization of materials for most students.

Faculty Member 5

· Completes teaching/lecture modules in advance for upper division courses to allow for advance preparation.
· Posts tutorials for every other chapter on a website.
· Requires group projects, but there is a division of labor within the project so that students have choices about what or how they contribute. Not all have to stand up and present, for example.
· Attempts to establish groups with diverse skills, and may do some informal assessment of this in advance of grouping the students by asking them to self-identify strengths and weaknesses.

Faculty Member 6

· Allows students to develop and bring a "crib sheet" of limited size to exams and believes that the preparation of it results in improved performance as well as reduced anxiety. It also serves as an accommodation for students with short-term memory struggles.
· Includes computer tutorials with course materials.
· Scans and posts key problems that are worked out in class for reference.
· Offers webpage links to the syllabus and tutorials and practice tests.

Faculty Member 7

· Hands out vocabulary sheets two weeks in advance of exam dates to allow for study and review over time. This allows time for students to prepare a variety of study helps such as note cards and computerized study sheets.
· Provides multiple opportunities to see and hear about various plant species with overhead projections, hands-on lab experiences, and text material.
· Creates a word bank for the final exam for all students to use since extensive knowledge of terminology (English and Latin) is required.
· Turned off the overhead fans in the room during lectures since the noise interfered with being heard.

Faculty Member 8

· Allows access to PowerPoint notes for all students.
· Makes specific reference to the disability statement on the course syllabus at the beginning of the semester.
· Improved the website by making it easier to find, posting assignments, and adding tutorials.
· Shortened the exam by a few questions for all students since room arrangements do not allow for starting early or staying late. Everyone appreciated this.

Faculty Member 9

· Tries to create a welcoming classroom environment.
· Enlarges print material for vision-impaired students in advance of the class.
· Provides a website with outlines, readings, interactive reviews, CD of professor lecturing, demos showing some "fun" in lab.
· Varies quiz formats weekly to give practice with different kinds of questions.
· Posts daily activities on the computer and makes hard copies of PowerPoint notes to hand out as well.
· Adds a few bonus points to all exams to reduce stress of questions missed.

Faculty Member 10

· Distributes lecture outlines to promote thorough note-taking and reference points for study.
· Offers multiple ways for students to earn course credit through pre-lab worksheets, lab activities, group projects, frequent quizzes, and regular exams.
· Requires students to meet with the faculty member regarding their projects. This provides an opportunity to clarify questions regarding the project and also to individualize the student's experience with the faculty member.
· Uses web-based tutorials and CDs to promote frequent and individualized study and review.
· Develops exams with a percentage of questions that can be omitted. For example, a 100-point exam will have 110 points worth of questions on it,10 points of which can be selected by the student as "omits."
· Recommends smaller classes for an overall improved instructional experience as well as enhanced student-faculty communication.

Related Discussions

· Several faculty discussed conversations with colleagues in which colleagues felt that notes posted to a website resulted in lowered class attendance. No faculty attending the CTAD follow-up meeting concurred with that statement, and several had evaluated it rather extensively. CTAD participants indicated that whether course notes were fully or partially available to students, having some prepared resource allowed for more material to be covered in class as well as different activities to be undertaken. One faculty indicated that since notes have been offered, there has been much more time for class discussion and for more in-depth review of concepts.

· Faculty emphasized the importance of students being able to appropriately discuss disabilities that affect work performance with potential employers. Students need to come with solutions in mind, and be prepared to explain or demonstrate how they can do the required work and contribute to the organization.

· Faculty emphasized the need to improve our knowledge and expertise with adaptive technology for students with disabilities.

CTAD-2, Faculty Follow-up Meeting, March 2002

Faculty Member 11

· Part of the content of this course is to learn about accessible web page design.
· Students are coming out of the class with an understanding of the concepts of Universal Instruction Design.
· This faculty member has had course web sites evaluated for disability access and web sites have met standards.
· Stresses simplicity of design to students, and utilizes "alt" tags at key locations to take students to accessible material.
· Web CT interface has proven to be mostly accessible.

Faculty Member 12

· Used "Bobby" program to evaluate existing pages and made recommended changes
· For ITV courses uses 24 to 30 font size on projected materials because all students find it easier to see projected materials
· Use of a button to go to FLASH program speeds up general use for all students and reduces barriers for those who do not wish to load FLASH
· Reported need to obtain improved image quality in ITV classrooms with greater lens resolution capability
· In Excel applications, explanations or "comments" are used in the spreadsheet to help students understand the process for the worksheets the faculty member has developed for them.

Faculty Member 13

· The Center for Learning Foundations temporarily allowed for class size reduction from a maximum of 80 to 45 students, substantially improving the ability of the instructors to engage the students in a foundation course
· Classroom acoustics have necessitated moving out from the teaching station and "teaching from the middle" of the room. To accomplish this, remote infrared computer controls are needed. Eventually, classrooms should be acoustically evaluated and upgraded.
· This faculty member offered several recommendations on needed equipment upgrades in ITV classrooms including: optics systems with greater resolution capability, previewing projected images to identify those projectors that convert colors resulting in narratives not being visible or images lost when colors blend into the background.
· Requires "progress reports" at regular intervals on team projects that become part of the total grade for the project. Progress notes result in overall improved team project progress and higher levels of participation by all members of the team.
· There is no wheelchair accessible lab station for biology or chemistry. Funds are being sought for a portable accessible lab station for biology and the Capital Request for the next biennium includes a request for a renovated chemistry lab.


Faculty Member 14

· Submitted Web CT curriculum materials to be evaluated for accessibility
· Allows on-campus students to have access to Web CT materials utilized by on-line students resulting in additional course resources
· Posted course notes and on-line discussion materials. Making this material more easily available did not result in reduced class attendance.
· Started gathering background information from students at the beginning of the semester using an interview form that allowed for confidential disclosure of disability issues and other issues or situations that impact instruction
· Frequently uses "one minute papers" at the end of class to allow for questions to be asked, points clarified or materials summarized.
· Allows on-line students to choose project topics and the percentage of course points that will be awarded for that effort

Faculty Member 15

· Monitors the "learning environment" closely and sets limits on situations that result in distractions to other learners.
· Expanded syllabus information to include: cross-referenced objectives with the activities that they relate to. Added details about assessment expectations, integrated essential components with assessment and feedback.
· Included peer reviews with team assignments. Reviews include descriptions of what work has been completed, an explanation of how it was done, why it was done, and who did it. This activity fosters greater levels of involvement earlier by most students.
· Allows for some extended time for all learners working on assessments.
· Courses allow for a variety of ways to demonstrate acquisition of knowledge from varied sources such as journals, publications, and pre-approved web sites.
· Beginning to incorporate some WEB CT into coursework.
· Recommends systematic assessment of classroom environments-especially ITV rooms.

Faculty Member 16

· Students with speech disabilities planned with faculty member in advance how presentations would be accomplished. One student requested additional practice time with the faculty member and the other handled preparation on his own.
· Approached internship supervision of a student with a psychiatric disability with greater sensitivity and care. Required more frequent check-ins to monitor stress levels and try to eliminate or minimize any emerging problems.
· Met individually with a student with documented learning disability to clarify on-line instructions that were confusing to the student.
· Set early deadline for "draft" documents to allow for any needed rewrites.
· Notified new adjunct faculty about Disability Services Office on campus.

Faculty Member 17

· Incorporated Web CT into economics courses allowing continuous access to many course-related documents such as the syllabus and PowerPoint slides.
· PowerPoint slides can be printed from the Internet for study purposes.
· Intends to make PowerPoint notes / slides for all lecture components of the courses
· Practice quizzes are available on-line for all courses to enhance study and deepen understanding of materials.
· Scores on quizzes, exams, and assignments can be checked on Web CT.
· Off-campus students have all the information that on-campus students have.
· Offers review sessions outside of class prior to exam time.
· Works individually with students who need or request additional time on content.
· Prepares specific accommodations, such as enlarged graphs, for students with disabilities.
· Provides accommodations for testing such as extended time or readers.

This document is still in progress as of 04/22/02. Final CTAD-2 materials still need to be added.

This publication is available in alternate formats upon request. Please contact: Laurie Wilson, e-mail: lwilson2@umn.edu.