Ensuring resources, materials and reading lists are accessible to all students

A key feature of flexible and inclusive teaching is ensuring that lectures, materials, resources and reading lists are accessible online to all students so that no student is at a disadvantage.  Sharing all resources online also means that teaching can move easily between face to face and remote teaching with minimal effort. Support and training are available to students to ensure that they have the skills to make the most of online teaching resources.

Pedagogical guidance

A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) like Canvas can organise and share your teaching resources in a flexible and inclusive way, making it easy for students and staff to locate all materials related to a paper/set of tutorials. Canvas can be used to:

  • view recorded lectures
  • provide an online reading list
  • engage in related online activities
  • view and complete problem sheets
  • submit student work and store it in a secure location
  • give feedback on student work via video or in-text and global written comments
  • create online discussions or for students to post collaborative or individual work for each other
  • store key information for a course
  • communicate directly with specific groups of students
  • signpost to study skills and technical support
  • integrate live teaching sessions using Teams

If you would like to move your individual teaching resources for tutorials, problem classes or practical classes to Canvas, contact the learning technologist in your department/division or contact digital.education@ctl.ox.ac.uk or assistance in setting up a Canvas site. A number of Canvas course templates have been developed in collaboration with academics and units across the University, to help you structure your course and get started.

Online Reading Lists

Online reading lists (ORLO) allow all students to access material at a time and from a place that is convenient for them. Due to the hard work of many college and Bodleian librarians in TT20, many more textbooks, research papers and resources are now available online, described in subject LibGuides. For resources that are not available digitally the Bodleian Libraries staff have resumed a scan and deliver service. Online reading lists can also be annotated with guidance as to which texts are essential, recommended or represent further readings for the course. This helps students prioritise their reading.

If you would like your students to develop the skills of searching, evaluating and prioritising reading for themselves, you can create online activities for students to try these tasks and then provide feedback on the activity.  

Technical guidance

Use the University’s online reading list tool, ORLO, to provide accessible and convenient links to online resources and the library catalogue.  For help with ORLO please contact your subject librarian or email olishelp@bodleian.ox.ac.uk 

Sensus Access enables staff and students to convert digital materials into a range of accessible formats.

Useful links

Many departments and faculties are reflecting upon how programmes are taught, what materials are assigned and how students are assessed. Academics and administrators who would like to consult with the CTL as they design flexible and inclusive programmes may contact us.

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Helpdesk service


DIGITAL.EDUCATION@CTL.OX.AC.UK

 

Resources for flexible and inclusive teaching


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