Policy Issues Facing Online Education
Web Accessibility
The most important policy issue is web accessibility. Under Federal law (section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) and Minnesota State guidelines (State of Minnesota Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility guidelines), electronic information must be formatted in a manner in which it is accessible to all users, or an alternative representation of that information must be readily available. The concept of universal design, that the web content can be used on any browser by any user at any time, is an important principle to follow when developing online content.
It is suprising how many web pages and content pages are poorly designed or simply inaccessible to students with vision or hearing impairments. Establishing clear campus/institutional policies and having a review process will likely be needed if we desire to have content accessible.
There are tools which can help with web accessibility. One such tool is my HTML_Cleaner program, which is available for free in the Tools section of this site. The program helps convert files into accessible HTML formats which work on all web-standards browsers, including mobile devices. At some stage in the content development process, someone with expertise in accessibility needs to review and correct content - and this is likely to raise concerns about academic freedom by faculty. Designing an institutional policy that is tied to Federal and state laws which explains the need for accessibility and the institution's right of review will likely be an important step in ensuring that pages meet accessibility standards.
Copyright / Intellectual Property
Federal Copyright laws govern what materials can be legally posted into online course sites, and unfortunately too many faculty members are claiming "Fair Use" when their uses are not protected under those provisions. Fair use is easily and commonly misunderstood, and faculty must become better informed and given training to help them stay within the legal confines of Copyright. This becomes a larger issue as materials are prepped for web delivery - because the person making the copy is liable for the infringement (and if a faculty member directs a staff member to scan and post a journal article without first securing permission to use - the staff person is placed in an uncomfortable and compromised position). The answer is training, and the easiest answer is trying to locate existing content (available on the internet or through library databases) that can be "linked to" from within a course; if there is not "copy" being made, there is no infringement.
For those faculty working within the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities System, the board policies of 3.26 (Intellectual Property) and 3.27 (Reproduction and Use of Copyrighted Materials) provide a rough framework for addressing these issues, however, additional clarification, documentation, and training will be needed. Under 3.26, problems will likely develop in works that are created through collaboration (one person might be designing the text and writing, another developing visual interface, another creating images and graphics). Who owns and controls which parts, and how might these materials be marketed and used outside the institution will likely be raised, especially in regards to faculty that do outside consulting and for faculty that are adjunct.
Institutional Quality Expectations
In order to have quality and consistent learning experiences for students taking online courses, developing a set of institutional expectations for quality and format is another area for policy consideration. This becomes especially important in the distance education model, as departments and administrators are much less likely to hear student complaints if instructors are not delivering content in a clear and compatible format. These might address several issues, including:
- look and feel of course materials. Should templates be used for consistency of look and feel across multiple courses?
- file formats of documents. Should everything be converted to accessible and portable HTML, or into accessible versions of Adobe PDF documents, or will students be informed in advance of signing up for a course that they will need to purchase Microsoft Office 2007 in order to open and use the documents the instructor is delivering?
- format of learning module. Will each module contain specific learning objectives and specific methods of assessment?
- sufficiency of content. When someone develops a new course, who will be reviewing that course to see if the depth and breadth of the materials are sufficient to allow the students to meet the desired learning outcomes?
- bandwidth and computing requirements. Will the course make use of media that requires students to have access to broadband Internet connections? Will students be required to use specific software within the course? Will there be some method to assess whether or not students have the prerequisite skills in that software?
- periodic reviews. Will the course content be reviewed only at time of initial design, or will there be any type of ongoing schedule of reviews to ensure the course materials meet accessibility and quality expectations of the institution?
- course evaluations. What types of questionnaires will students complete regarding their experiences in the online course, and to what extent are issues specific to online instruction included in those surveys? Should questions regarding the frequency of instructor-to-student feedback, the clarity of materials, the suitability of content, the compatibility of computer software, the timeliness of response to questions, and the clarity of instructions for group-activities be specifically included?
One issue that will be of enormous concern, but which cannot be strongly influenced by the institution, is Net Neutrality.
If Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be allowed to throttle-down certain content for which a publisher (academic institution) has not paid a premium access fee, and because the future of online education will likely be the inclusion of more media (meaning much more bandwidth use), the potential impacts to our students are especially harmful (our media content being slowed or blocked, making it less accessible or inaccessible).
