A Guide to Quality in Online Teaching and Learning
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Font size can often be regulated on the student's own device, but not for writing published in image formats.
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Visually impaired students need a good contrast between foreground (text and graphics) and background. Dark text on light background is often good.
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Links in text are often highlighted in colour, but students who are colour blind and have poor sight need other types of markings. You can for example write: ‘This is the link to FuN's quality standards’, so that the underlining and verbal message add to the colour marker.
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Graphs and charts can cause problems if the colour is the only thing separating the different figures. Additional descriptions in numbers helps.
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A screen reader is a program that reads the page out loud for the user, thus turning visual communication into audial. It reads behind the visible user interface and reads the code itself. Use the platform's layout for headlines, captions, etc. to emphasise any message instead of using colours and fonts within a text block. Image of text makes the text inaccessible to the screen reader. In the example with the graph, the additional numbers should therefore be written as text outside the image.
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Use the Alternative Text feature to provide a good description of the images that are added to the page. This is not a caption (which complements an image), but a description for the ones who cannot see.
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Try to find videos with sub titles, and written alternatives to audio files. Teachers who record their own material can attach the manuscript.
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Not all students can use a mouse, and will instead use the keyboard to scroll through the elements. With this method, the user cannot jump from element to element, so the order is of importance.
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Students with reduced mobility and/or fine motor skills will benefit from good distance between clickable options, such as line spacing in vertical menus. Many dropdown menus are difficult to use with a mouse as they require precise handling.
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On a well-designed page, colours, placement, design, and size of the elements are used to communicate relevance and encourage the eyes move along a pattern. Users of screen readers will access the elements from left to right and from top to bottom, regardless of relevance. The fewer irrelevant elements there are on the page, the better it is for everyone.
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Avoid videos and sounds that start automatically when the page opens.
Low literacy, attention deficits and inadequate language skills Often there are requirements for prior knowledge and skills when students take a course, but students may be able to meet the requirements even though 70