Equitable and Affordable Access 

Equitable access means working with students to ensure they have a way to complete assignments on Canvas; to get the reading materials; etc. This often means identifying students who need technology support—some students are attempting to complete their courses on a cell phone, which might be impossible to do for your assignments. Instructors need to check-in from the beginning to see how they might be able to support students or make accommodations. Equitable access also means creating a classroom environment where students feel welcomed, safe, and able to engage with their peers as well as the instructor. 

Equitable access is also about flexibility in your course design, keeping students with disabilities and diverse learning needs in mind. Course assignments and assessments are a good place to examine when considering how equitable your course materials are as how the course rewards or penalizes different ways of demonstrating knowledge.

Consider the Cost of Textbooks

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Many disciplines now have free access to online textbooks through a program called Open Educational Resources (OER). Removing the financial barrier of textbooks can help to create more equitable access to class materials. As with any textbook, the instructor will need to review the content to see if the source is suitable for the course. Free does not always mean high quality or ADA accessible. However, there is a growing number of initiatives to fund OER textbooks, improving the quality of the content of the material as well as ensuring that the website follows ADA accessibility compliance.  

Inclusive Access Textbooks

Inclusive Access is a textbook sales model that adds the cost of digital course content into students’ tuition and fees. Inclusive Access programs usually start with an agreement between an institution, a bookstore, and one or more publishers. On or before the first day of class, digital content is delivered to students, typically through Canvas. Students have a period to “opt out” before they are automatically billed for the cost. After the end of the course, students usually lose access to the content, but in some cases they may still have access to some of the material for up to two years..

There are pros and cons to using Inclusive Access textbooks, otherwise known as automatic textbook billing. Instructors should research these pros and cons before opting to use an inclusive access textbook, since it may not be as inclusive as the instructor thinks it is. The price may not be significantly lower, for example, and the process for opting out of the payment can be confusing for students and could result in a financial hold being placed on the student’s account for non-payment. 

Tips:

• Check the price. Inclusive Access may not be the lowest price on the market and if it is, it may only be so by a few dollars. Consider if this is a worthwhile program for the course.

• If the course opts for inclusive access textbooks, be sure to select a textbook that also has a print copy that can be placed on reserve in the Lura Library.

• Additional materials: if the class is using additional resources that come with the textbook, be mindful of students who opt out and may not have access to those resources. Come up with a plan for how to manage these situations.

Use Technologies That are Available to All Students

Technology is a wonderful tool for engaging students and is often enjoyable and rewarding for students, but only if they have access to that technology. Please consider that not all students have access to high speed internet or reliable computers. They might instead access the class using a phone or tablet and what they see on their screens is going to be different than how one will experience the content on a computer screen. When creating content, be sure to review how it looks on both a computer screen and a phone. There are easy adjustments you can make, such as checking the size of your images,  to ensure that content is not being obscured or truncated on a phone. You can also encourage students to rent laptops and hotspots from our college library. Laptop and hotspot rentals are free and can make accessing the class easier. Also, be mindful of asking students to use software outside of those available at no cost to SBCC students. SBCC students have access to Canvas and Canvas tools, and most Microsoft and Adobe programs, but they will need instruction on how to set up these programs. 

Camera Use

Students with disabilities or who don’t have reliable access to technology/quiet learning environments may find synchronous sessions difficult to attend or participate in. If you intend to use synchronous sessions as a part of your course, you will need a plan to provide alternatives for these students or to accommodate them in a way that allows them to participate. It’s also important to be mindful of the varying environments students are in by not requiring cameras to be on–you never know who may not have access to good internet or may not want to show their screen for personal reasons. You can encourage students to upload an image to their Zoom profile as a way of personalizing their “Zoom box.” This will provide an opportunity for students to express themselves and their identity without needing to have their camera on. On the first day of class, let students know their options, and walk them through how to change their profile settings.

Examples and Best Practices:

• All classes use Canvas and that means students will need access to a computer as well an internet connection both on and off campus. Have students complete a survey on the first day of class to find out which students do not have a personal computer or internet connection, and share with them information about the Lura Library Chromebook and hotspot rentals

• Consider finding free reading materials, such as Open Education Resources (OERs)

• Flexibility with due dates

• Flexibility in the delivery of the assignment—for example, having students share video posts in a discussion board is a great way for students to be creative and have agency, but not all students will be comfortable with this. It is important to have alternatives and multiple options for the delivery of an assignment.

• Flexibility in scheduling meetings both in person and remotely on Zoom or Google Hangouts

• If you require group work in class, be mindful that students benefit from you creating opportunities for students to get to know one another before being asked to work together. Trust must be built for collaborative learning to be meaningful.

RESOURCES

• Authentic Assessments

• California Community Colleges Accessibility Center's Canvas Support Page

• CCCCO DE Guidelines 2019 (see pages 17-19)

• Creating Accessible OER webinar recording

• DSPS Overview of Faculty instructional materials

• Open Education Resources

• OER Automatic Billing/”Inclusive Access”

• OER Accessibility and Universal Design

• Inclusive Access: Facts and Myths

• SBCC Accessibility Guidelines 

• SBCC Faculty Resource Center 

• SBCC Lura Library Chromebook and hotspot rentals