[Athen] [EXT] How providing course materials in multiple formats may impact the extraneous cognitive load of redundancy

[Katherine Deibel]

It’s been a bit (over a year) since I last tested the output quality of Ally, but I was generally impressed enough to put it among the better of the automated systems. It’s certainly not perfect and should be provided with a caution. However, it was good enough that I sometimes used Ally as a step in my manual remediation process.

As I mentioned in another response to this thread, the audio conversion does not always remove running headers and footers. If I was providing an audio file as an accommodation, that would be intolerable of course. On the other hand, an imperfect recording may be better than having to wait for near perfect version. One of the big issues in remediation has always been the impact of delays on the student’s learning experience due to waiting for materials. It’s a tradeoff game. I think it helps, from a practical viewpoint, to treat medium quality automation like Ally as a placeholder for quality content.

Katherine “Kate” Deibel, PhD
Library Accessibility Specialist
Twitter: https://twitter.com/metageeky
GitHub: https://github.com/metageeky

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Ann Newland
Sent: Friday, December 2, 2022 1:38 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [EXT] How providing course materials in multiple formats may impact the extraneous cognitive load of redundancy

Hi All,

I'm a little suspicious of Blackboard Ally. They use an automated process to make documents "accessible."  Robert, have you done a manual evaluation of the "accessible" files created by Ally or had experienced users test them? How accessible are they really?

Blackboard seems to be stretching the UDL principle "multiple means of representation' to also include multiple file formats. Yes, multiple file formats may be helpful to students, but the UDL principle goes further than simply multiple formats. Robert, your mention of Ally's creation of an " audio file using synthetic speech so they can listen to the content rather than read it visually" is more closely aligned to the UDL principle "multiple means of representation" and the UDL guideline 1 "Perception - Interact with flexible content that doesn't depend on a single sense like sight, hearing, movement, or touch."

Best regards,
Ann

Source:
CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org/representation
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Ann Newland, EdS, CPACC<https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/cpacccertification>
Accessibility Specialist - Center of Online Learning Accessibility <https://cool.columbusstate.edu/accessibility.php>
Columbus State University
706-507-8530


On Fri, Dec 2, 2022 at 1:19 PM Robert Beach <rbeach at kckcc.edu<mailto:rbeach at kckcc.edu>> wrote:
Interesting question. From my experience, students without disabilities have just assumed they are being given options they can choose to best fit their technology needs. It falls into the universal design for learning and universal design for instruction models.

On our campus we are using Ally for Blackboard. This gives students the option to have a file that an instructor posts in one format converted to a different format. For example, if the instructor is posting PDF files, the student can instead have the file converted and downloaded as an HTML file which may work better for the technology they have available to them. They could also have the file downloaded as an audio file using synthetic speech so they can listen to the content rather than read it visually. There is really nothing to indicate that this is a disability thing in Blackboard.

Last spring we had more than two thousand files converted and downloaded as either PDF or EPUB files by more than 1,400 students. We do not have nearly that many students registered for accommodations at our school.

I’m not sure any of this helps, but that’s about the best I can tell you. Students seem to like the ability to convert and download the format they like.


Robert Lee Beach
Assistive Technology Specialist – Student Accessibility & Support Services

Kansas City Kansas Community College
7250 State Ave. - Suite # 3384 - Kansas City, KS 66112
O 913-288-7671 | F 913-288-7678
rbeach at kckcc.edu<mailto:rbeach at kckcc.edu>



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of David McGeehan
Sent: Friday, December 2, 2022 11:50 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [EXT] How providing course materials in multiple formats may impact the extraneous cognitive load of redundancy

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Thank you Robert for your response.

To clarify my question, when addressing accessibility issues and learning modality preferences, one approach is to provide the same material in multiple formats. In so doing, are other issues/problems introduced, i.e., redundancy cognitive overload, students unsure of what material type to choose, confusion about why multiple formats are presented, etc.

I’m speculating that students not living with a disability may not be aware of the accommodations provided to students with disabilities, so redundant material formats may confuse them.

(BTW, this question is not about extraneous cognitive load split attention, though insights into that would be welcome).


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Robert Beach
Sent: Friday, December 2, 2022 12:32 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [EXT] How providing course materials in multiple formats may impact the extraneous cognitive load of redundancy

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I’m not sure I understand your question. When you say multiple formats, are you referring to providing a Word, PDF, HTML, audio, and EPUB format of the same material? Do you mean using multiple stimuli such as having the words highlighted while they are spoken so that there is the stimuli of motion, color, and sound to help with retention and comprehension?

Thanks.


Robert Lee Beach
Assistive Technology Specialist – Student Accessibility & Support Services

Kansas City Kansas Community College
7250 State Ave. - Suite # 3384 - Kansas City, KS 66112
O 913-288-7671 | F 913-288-7678
rbeach at kckcc.edu<mailto:rbeach at kckcc.edu>



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of David McGeehan
Sent: Friday, December 2, 2022 11:24 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [EXT][Athen] How providing course materials in multiple formats may impact the extraneous cognitive load of redundancy

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Hello,

Does anyone have information / insights regarding providing course materials in multiple formats and how that may impact the extraneous cognitive load of redundancy?

Thank you,

David McGeehan
Dr. David Adam McGeehan
Instructional Designer and Accessibility Specialist
Division of Educational Technology
Butler County Community College
107 College Drive
Butler, PA 16002
david.mcgeehan at bc3.edu<mailto:david.mcgeehan at bc3.edu>
724-287-8711 ext. 8019

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