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Making Your Course Accessible

A person wearing large over-ear headphones is focused on a laptop, with one hand on a Braille display in front of the keyboard.

Panorama tool offers easy, accurate remediation within Canvas

How this will help

Built-in tool can identify and fix accessibility issues
Checks that course materials meet federally mandated standards
Helps instructors design equitable lessons for all learners

Reviewing your course materials in Canvas for accessibility ensures all learners can participate without obstacles. As the importance of digital accessibility is demonstrated, the tools available to meet those requirements are more prevalent, accurate, and easier to use. 

Panorama is one such tool and is currently available on Canvas. It can scan, evaluate, and fix content directly within the learning management system. Using automatic scripts and machine learning, Panorama reviews course materials and matches them to accessibility standards for color contrast, text, graphics, tables, and other issues that can pose barriers to learning for students with disabilities. 

Like many major accessibility checkers, Panorama is built around Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG (commonly referred to as WICK-ag), which are considered the universal standard for digital accessibility. The University of Michigan’s Digital Accessibility Strategic Initiative aims to meet WCAG and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations by April 2026. 

Getting Started

Panorama automatically audits all of the items in the course and checks their compliance with the prescribed accessibility standards. 

Once Panorama scans every Canvas course for accessibility issues, and there are several ways to access those results and start making corrections.

Accessibility scores are also found next to each item in your course materials. Those scores appear in three colors: 

Three icons indicate accessibility levels: a red warning icon for scores below 60%, a yellow caution icon for scores between 60–90%, and a green proceed icon for scores above 90%.
  • Red – Warning icon. This indicates significant accessibility issues with this item.
  • Yellow – Caution icon. There are some issues that may be difficult for learners to navigate.
  • Green – Proceed icon. This means the item meets or mostly meets accessibility criteria, which is the ultimate goal for mandated requirements.

You can see the accessibility report for that item when you click on the accompanying icon. Instructors and designers can also open a full course report by selecting Panorama from the left-side navigation menu in your course. It should be noted that these scores are not accessible by students; they are solely to inform you as instructors or designers.

Full course reports give you a snapshot of a course’s overall accessibility and a complete list of items with their accompanying score. From this list, you can prioritize the remediation as issues are filtered by severity or content type, so you can rank the findings accordingly. 

If you are creating pages in Canvas, the Panorama accessibility tool icon, which looks like a temperature gauge, appears underneath the text box. As content is added, any accessibility issues appear as a numeric count on the icon. Clicking it opens a report where you can review a list of all accessibility issues Panorama has discovered.

A screenshot outlines three ways to access an accessibility report for a specific item. The first method is through the Rich Text Editor, shown with a gray gauge icon and a purple badge marked “1.” The second method is via the Accessibility Score Icon next to a page or file, represented by three icons: a red pentagon, a yellow triangle, and a green hexagon, each with a human figure inside. The third method is from the Accessibility Score Icon beside issues in the Course Report, illustrated with a gray gauge icon labeled “70%” in orange text.

Making Corrections

Panorama allows course designers and instructors to create, scan, and fix digital content directly in the Canvas platform.

The most common issues flagged include:

The Accessibility Report featured displays a total of 19 issues with a 0% accessibility score, categorized as 4 minor, 15 major, and 0 severe issues. Below, the "Review Issues" section lists specific problems: 1) A major issue stating "The slide does not have a title," with a "Learn more" link. 2) A minor issue about "Check reading order," accompanied by a "Learn more" link and a "Fix Issue" button. 3) Another major issue identical to the first one. Pagination buttons for navigating through the issues are located at the bottom, with page 1 highlighted.
  • Alt-text – Alternative text is a short description of an image and should be accurate, short, and contextual.
  • Tables – Tables should be used to help explain data, not create a visual layout.
  • Headings – Short text phrases that introduce sections in a document or page, and should follow a hierarchy of levels. 
  • Color contrast – Difference between lightness and darkness of two colors that improves visibility of text. 

Once you access the list of issues by clicking on the relevant icon and viewing that item’s accessibility report, instructors can make repairs using a few different options.

Fix Issue

The easiest way to update a not accessible item is to click the Fix Issue button listed on the accessibility report, if that button is available. 

Clicking the Fix Issue button launches a pop-up box that lays out what the issue is, how you can fix it, and recommends a change. Clicking Add Change will automatically make the correction.

Manual Remediation

The remediation process depends on different factors like the type of item or what accessibility problems are prevalent, so not all issues will have automated repair options. 

In those cases, instructors will have to manually correct the accessibility problem. Solutions can be found by clicking Learn More next to the listed item, which will provide step-by-step instructions on remediation. 

If the issues are with a source file, you can download the file, make corrections as advised, then upload it again using the update document feature in the accessibility report. Panorama rescans the item, then registers the item’s new accessibility score. 

Panorama for Students

Panorama also generates alternative formats for materials in Canvas so students can select the format that works best for them, ensuring equitable access to course content. These files are individualized and only available to the user who created them. Learn more about these accessibility services offered to students.

Don’t Delay

Since reviewing and updating every page, document, and activity in your courses can take time, accessibility advocates advise planning time to work with Panorama and improve content over multiple months to meet your deadline.

While ideally it’s recommended to build accessible content at the beginning, remediation will still need to occur. Working through your materials ahead of time means you won’t be scrambling to make everything accessible on the first day when, for example, a student using a screen reader can’t access a PDF. Trying to remediate content on demand is not only an added stress for instructors, but also forces the student to wait and risk falling behind in the class. 

So, avoid the scramble and the burnout and start using Panorama to check your course materials. Those working with faculty emphasize that progress, not perfection, is the current goal. With such a large volume of materials to review, accessibility advocates hope to see broad improvement rather than 100% accessibility ratings for a handful of courses.

As new guidelines are released, Panorama will update to meet those standards. This means that the sooner instructors implement its usage, the better they’ll be prepared to meet the needs of incoming students.

Grackle

Grackle is a Google workspace tool that checks the accessibility in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Grackle can be added as an extension for U-M Google accounts.

Practical Tips

  • Share your experiences and issues with the ITS Service Center. Any problems are sent to the vendor for corrections and updates.
  • Register for a training session or take the Canvas Accessibility with Panorama course from the Canvas Accessibility Service.

Resources

University of Michigan

Additional Resources

For those who don’t have access to Canvas and Panorama, there are external resources that can help check your course’s accessibility.

  • WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools (wave.webaim.org) are available as a browser extension, subscription-based or stand-alone products that identify issues in web content.
  • Axe accessibility testing tools (deque.com/axe) include a free browser extension as well as more in-depth products.

Americans with Disabilities Act Title II Web and Mobile Accessibility

Generative AI (GenAI) tools are becoming increasingly popular for a wide variety of uses, including in classrooms. Whether you’re generating images, building slides, or creating summaries of readings, it’s important to be thoughtful about the tools you’re using and the impact they can have on both your students and our world as a whole.

Bias

A GenAI tool is only as good as its training data; if that data contains content that is racist or sexist, we shouldn’t be surprised when the GenAI tool develops the same kind of bias. Bias can come in a variety of different types: stereotypical, gender, and political. All of these biases can lead to certain groups being inaccurately featured more or less in outputs.

Bloomberg tested the biases present in the Stable Diffusion text-to-image generator in 2023. When they prompted the model to create representations for jobs that were considered “high-paying” and “low-paying,” the images generated of high-paying jobs were typically of people with lighter skin tones. People with darker skin tones featured more prominently in images of low-paying jobs. Bloomberg found similar results when they looked at the gender of the people in the images. Stable Diffusion generated three images of men for one image of a woman. When women did appear in the generated images, they were typically in lower-paying and more traditional roles, like housekeeper. Prompts for jobs like “politician,” “lawyer,” “judge,” and “CEO” led to images that were almost entirely light-skinned men.

Harmful Content

Besides being biased, GenAI can produce content that is harmful in a variety of ways. GenAI can hallucinate content that is not based on actual data, and is instead fictitious or unrealistic. It can be used to produce artificial video or audio content impersonating a person’s likeness. When this kind of video and audio content is done with permission of the person, it’s commonly called “synthetic media.” When people create artificial video or audio content of someone without their permission, it’s referred to as a “deep-fake.” Deep-fakes are often used to harass, humiliate, and spread hate-speech. GenAI has made the creation of deep-fakes easy and cheap, and there have been several high-profile cases in the US and Europe of children and women being abused through their creation. 

Policymaking efforts to combat the proliferation of and harm caused by deep fakes have become common both in the U.S. and abroad, with proposals often including disclosure requirements for the use of synthetic media, at least for certain activities. While educational uses of these technologies are unlikely to be restricted or banned, users should strongly consider disclosing the use of these technologies by default in the interest of transparency and in anticipation of any future requirements to do so that may apply. It may also be worthwhile to consider whether companies offering these products are well positioned to comply with this quickly evolving regulatory landscape as well as whether they are making reasonable efforts to help prevent the misuse of their products.  

Data

The collection of data used to train GenAI models can raise a variety of privacy concerns, particularly around personal and proprietary data. Some personal data collection can be declined, although the methods of how to do so are often buried in lengthy terms of service that most users don’t read. Those terms of service also cover how the GenAI tool can use the data that you put into the tool via prompting, so you should be cognizant of the kind of information you’re feeding it.

Recently, the Cisco 2024 Data Privacy Benchmark Study revealed that most organizations are limiting the use of GenAI, with some banning it entirely, because of data privacy and security issues. This is likely because 48% of employees surveyed admitted to entering non-public company information into GenAI tools. There’s also a general lack of transparency around what kinds of data sets have been used to train GenAI tools. Although some explicitly state where their training data comes from, many are vague about what the training data was and how they accessed it.

Copyright

Right now, many believe that using content, like books, images, and videos, to train GenAI falls under fair use in the U.S., but there are currently multiple lawsuits challenging this notion. If companies are unable to leverage fair use to acquire training data, the effectiveness and availability of GenAI is likely to decrease dramatically. The cost of obtaining licenses for the incredible amount of data needed will likely drive all but the biggest companies out of the market.

The outputs created by GenAI can have their own copyright issues, depending on how much they pull from the training data. If the image generated by GenAI, for example, is substantially similar to an image in the training data, there could potentially be some liability for copyright infringement if or when the image is used. Many GenAI tools are attempting to avoid this by refusing to generate content that is similar to copyrighted material, but there are ways for creative prompters to get around these restrictions.

Although many GenAI tools claim to be trained on openly licensed content, studies show that when asked about licensing requirements, 70% of the tools didn’t specify what license requirements were for the generated work, and if they did, the tool often provided a more permissive license than what the original creator intended.

The use of GenAI brings up ethical issues around authorship that are often related to copyright but are separate. For example, when using information gathered from GenAI, there may be an ethical obligation to cite the original source to avoid claims of plagiarism. GenAI doesn’t typically provide citations, and when it does, those citations are frequently incorrect. There are also concerns about the displacement of human authors and artists by GenAI; this frequently comes up when GenAI is used to create works in the style of certain artists or authors.

Environmental Impact

GenAI has a huge environmental impact. Research has shown that training the early chatbots, such as GPT-3, produced as much greenhouse gas as a gasoline powered vehicle driving for 1 million miles. Generating one image using GenAI uses as much energy as fully charging your phone. ChatGPT alone consumes the same amount of energy as a small town every day. On top of that, the data centers needed to house the training data and infrastructure for these tools require large amounts of electricity and water to keep them from overheating. Right now, it’s nearly impossible to accurately evaluate or know the full extent of the environmental impacts of GenAI.

Equity

There are a variety of different types of equity concerns when it comes to GenAI. Most GenAI tools are trained on data from data rich languages and are less likely to include non-standard dialects or languages. There are also access and efficacy disparities. Not everyone will have access to GenAI tools, whether it’s because of the cost, a lack of internet access, or because there are accessibility issues with the tool. Underrepresented or underserved groups may find their experiences missing from the training data, which is only optimized for some groups, not all, limiting the efficacy of the outputs.

Finally, it’s important to remember that all of the legal and ethical issues discussed so far have a disproportionate effect on marginalized groups. For example, negative environmental effects tend to be felt the worst in more vulnerable communities. Considering the major impact GenAI has on the environment, how are we going to work with these groups to help ensure they’re not further harmed?

Conclusion

Overall, there are pretty significant legal and ethical issues we should consider before using GenAI tools. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t use GenAI tools; it means that we should be thoughtful about when, how, and why we’re using them. And we should know that the way we use them might change in the not so distant future. The current lawsuits will take years to work their way through the legal system, and depending on how they shake out, GenAI tools may have to go through some major changes when it comes to their training data.

Practical Tips

Here are five tips for navigating through these complex issues:

  1. Investigate the reputation of the GenAI tool and the company that created it. Perform an online search for any potential legal or ethical issues. Add search terms like “complaint,” “violation,” or “lawsuit” with the company’s name, and be sure to read product reviews.
  2. Check the terms of service. Review the terms of service and privacy policies before using GenAl. Caution should be taken before publishing materials created through GenAI.
  3. Protect sensitive data. In addition to data shared for training purposes, it should be assumed, unless otherwise stated, that data shared when using GenAI tools will be accessible by the third party tool provider and affiliates. Data sharing must adhere to U-M policies. 
  4. Consider the ethics/limitations. Continue to remember, and remind your students, that GenAI tools are often biased, as the technology is designed to output common results based on its learning model. GenAI can also “hallucinate,” so specific claims should always be verified before sharing.
  5. Consult resources and ask for help. We are still swimming in uncharted waters. Utilize resources available here at U-M, including training and workshops on GenAI that are hosted across U-M. There is also a new GenAI as a Learning Design Partner series led by U-M instructors that is freely available via Coursera.

You may have heard that recently, there have been updates to regulations implementing Title II of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). These updates impact almost all of what we do in the online learning environment. With the aim of reducing burden for members of the disability community and providing equitable access to web content, the updates introduce technical guidelines that large public universities such as U-M must adhere to starting on April 24, 2026. We’ll discuss this further, and some exceptions to the rule, below.

Prohibiting Discrimination in Digital Spaces

The ADA is a civil rights law which blanketly prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. More specifically, Title II of the ADA extends the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of having a disability to services, programs, and activities of state and local government entities, which includes public universities. In April 2024, rulemaking by the Department of Justice updated Title II regulations (added as a new subpart H to 28 CFR 35) by establishing specific technical standards to help ensure that all web and mobile applications are accessible.

Prior to this update, web content under Title II was required to be accessible, but public entities did not have specific direction on how to comply with ADA’s general requirements of nondiscrimination. Many organizations noted that voluntary compliance with previous digital accessibility guidelines did not result in equal access for people with disabilities. With the new guidelines in place, people with disabilities will now have equal access to all web-based content created by state or government institutions.

This is important progress for removing barriers to access in our very web-based world. Universities have become increasingly reliant on technology, whether for learning, working, or for transactions. With more than 10 millions students enrolled in some form of distance education, ensuring all students have equitable access to the same information, are able to engage in the same interaction, and can conduct the same transactions as their nondisabled peers is critical.  As online learning continues to grow, it is important to remember that more than 1 in 4 people in the US have disabilities, this includes an estimated 13.9% US adults with a cognitive disability impacting their concentration, memory, or decision making, 6.2% with a vision disability, and 5.5% with a hearing disability. 

This is not a solution in search of a problem; individuals with disabilities are consistently reporting challenges when accessing the web. The U.S. Department of Education’s  Office for Civil Rights (OCR) noted that they have resolved and monitored more than 1,000 cases, reported by members of the public, in recent years related to digital access. These complaints addressed the accessibility of many facets of the web: public-facing websites, learning management systems, password-protected student-facing content, and mass email blasts of colleges and universities, to name a few.

Technical Standards: WCAG 2.1, Level AA

Web content is defined as the information and experiences on the web, and it now must be readily accessible and usable to those with disabilities. This includes text, images, social media, sound, videos, scheduling tools, maps, calendars, payment systems, reservation systems, documents, etc. This also applies to web content that was made by a contractor or vendor. Universities may no longer rely on alternative versions or other workarounds to address barriers to inaccessible digital content or a reactive response when a student requests accommodations. 

The technical standards themselves, WCAG 2.1, Level AA, are an international set of standards developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the  W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium, an organization that sets standards for web design. Generally speaking, they set clearly defined standards for content so that it is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. 

Though this is a new technical standard that all public universities must adhere to, the practice of producing and maintaining accessible content isn’t new at U-M. Since anyone at U-M can create digital content, our digital accessibility Standard Practice Guide Policy, deployed in 2022, states that any U-M developed or maintained electronic information technology (EIT) must meet the same technical standards required in  updated Title II regulations. This is to ensure that these technologies are as effective, available, and usable for individuals with disabilities as those who do not have disabilities. This applies to a wide range of technologies, from web-based applications, to digital textbooks, to electronic documents. Individual U-M units are responsible for maintaining the accessibility, usability, and equity of their EIT over time, in collaboration with other U-M units.

Limited Exceptions to the Ruling

If we build our content accessible, adhering to these guidelines, we are greatly reducing the chances that an individual with a disability is unable to access our content. Similarly to a curb cut in a sidewalk, not only can a person with a wheelchair access the street or sidewalk, but so can bicyclists and strollers. This concept applies to web content as well:If we build accessible web content, everyone can benefit. Given this, there are very few, limited exceptions to WCAG 2.1, AA conformance requirements that are further explained in the Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments. Note: please defer to guidance from your university for interpretations of these exceptions. In summary, some exceptions that come up in your teaching include:

  1. Archived web content:
    Oftentimes, there is web content that is not currently used as it’s outdated, not needed, or repeated somewhere else. If the content was created before the compliance date, only kept for reference/recordkeeping, is held in a special area for archived content, and it has not been changed since it was archived, then it would not need to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. An example could include a 2019 report on the enrollment data for an online degree program that hasn’t been updated and is stored in an “archived” section of a website.
  2. Content posted by a third party:
    When a third party, which is not posting due to contractual arrangements with the university, posts content on a university website or mobile app, these standards likely do not apply. For example, if a student comments on a discussion board within your course, it will probably fall under this exception.
  3. Preexisting conventional documents:
    These documents, such as old PDFs, word processing documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, that were made available prior to the ruling date AND are not currently being used An example could include a PDF for a research symposium event in 2022 that was still posted on the university’s website.

Other exceptions include password protected documents for a specific individual and preexisting social media posts made prior to the compliance date.

Common Questions

What if a student reports they cannot access my web content, despite WCAG 2.1, Level AA conformance?

This is definitely possible, as every person’s needs are different. One wouldn’t have to change their web content in this case, but would need to provide an equivalent alternative to that individual.

Can we just depend on a learner’s accommodation request?

This is considered an undue burden to a person with a disability by having them constantly request access to web content as resolutions to requests could take several days or weeks to comply. By designing web content to be accessible upon its creation, individuals with disabilities will have an equal opportunity to access content.

Are there resources and trainings available to learn more about digital accessibility that are tailored for instructional faculty?

At U-M, there are many opportunities to learn about a variety of accessibility topics, including those relevant to faculty, found on the Accessibility Training page maintained by ITS and ECRT. Additionally, there are many great resources available to increase the accessibility of your web content including:

Copyright exists to promote progress by securing time-limited exclusive rights for creators of original literary and artistic works, including movies, songs, software, photographs,and architecture. On the other hand, facts and ideas do not fall under copyright protection, including methods of operations or systems. A work is copyrighted as soon as it is fixed in a tangible medium, or created in a way that is saved in some way. For instance, if you come up with a new song and sing it at an open mic night, that song is not protected until you either write it down or record it. Specific exceptions to copyright, such as using material in a classroom or making preservation copies for libraries, exist in the US. Fair use is the broadest of these exceptions (or user’s rights) and provides flexible guidelines to help determine how you can appropriately use the work.

If your use is not allowed under an exception to copyright law, permission is needed from the copyright holder. This can be difficult, especially when works are posted online and not connected with a person’s name or contact information. Even if creators were okay with people using their works under certain circumstances, there was no easy way to convey those permissions to the general public. In 2001, Creative Commons created a suite of licenses that would help bridge these gaps and make it easier for creators to give permission for their content and for the general public to find works they can easily reuse. Creative Commons licenses work within the existing copyright landscape, not against it, and explicitly allow for fair uses of the works, even if that fair use would contradict the other terms of the Creative Commons license.

Between 2001 and today, Creative Commons has grown, not only as an organization, but as a movement. The licenses are now used on nearly two billion works online across nine million websites. Creative Commons licenses increase access and “…give every person and organization in the world a free, simple, and standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works; ensure proper attribution; and allow others to copy, distribute, and make use of those works” (About Creative Commons). 

Layers of Creative Commons Licenses

There are three layers of the Creative Commons Licenses. First, a legal code that is a base layer that provides terms enforceable in court. Next, there’s a human readable layer that summarizes the legal code and is easy to understand for non-lawyers.  Finally, there is a machine readable layer that is a summary of key features that technology, such as search engines, understand, allowing for filtering of works by Creative Commons license.

License Elements

There are four license options to pick from when choosing a Creative Commons license: Attributions (BY); Share Alike (SA); Non-Commercial (NC); and No-Derivatives (ND).  More detail about each type of license is outlined below, along with information about the two public domain tools Creative Commons has created.

  • The Attribution license (CC BY): allows people to use and adapt the work for any purpose (even commercially) as long as credit is given to the creator. This is the least restrictive Creative Commons license.
  • The Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA): allows people to use and adapt the work for any purpose (even commercially) as long as credit is given to the creator and any adaptations made are shared under the same or a compatible license.
  • The Attribution-NonCommercial license (CC BY-NC): allows people to use and adapt the work for any noncommercial purpose as long as credit is given to the creator.
  • The Attribution-NoDerivatives license (CC BY-ND): allows people to use the work for any purpose (even commercially), as long as they give credit to the creator and do not create adaptations or derivatives of the work. This includes making any major changes, creating translations, or creating sequels. Under this license, people may adapt the work for their own personal use but may not share any adaptations publicly.

The four license types can be mixed and matched depending on the preferences of the copyright holder. It’s important to remember that all Creative Commons licenses require attribution. 

There are also two Public Domain tools: CC0 and the Public Domain Mark.

  • CC0: Allows creators/owners of a work to waive copyright and put their work in the public domain. This is different from a CC license because it is a choice to opt out of copyright protection.
  • Public Domain Mark: Universal label that shows a work is no longer covered by copyright. Popular with museums, this mark is for works that are free of known copyright restrictions around the world.

Get Involved!

The Creative Commons Global Network is part of the open movement focusing on collaboration and sharing works across the globe. You can learn more about the movement and how to get involved in your local Creative Commons Chapter at their website.

Resources

Visit Openverse or take a look at the Center for Academic Innovation Finding Useable Materials Guide to help you find openly licensed third party materials. 

The Copyright Team at the Center for Academic Innovation is always available to answer any questions you may have about Creative Commons licenses, including licensing your own work and using the works of others. Feel free to contact us at [email protected].

The rapid shift to emergency remote instruction during COVID-19 left many instructors questioning how best to assess students, even well after classes resumed. Concerns about academic integrity left some wondering if using online tests made students more likely to violate academic integrity rules. Online test proctoring made news in many higher education settings as a way to ensure academic integrity. However, others have argued it is a violation of students’ privacy.

What is Online Proctoring?

You may be familiar with proctoring in a face-to-face or residential setting where a designated authority oversees an exam in a controlled, specified environment. Similarly, online proctoring is a service that monitors a learner’s environment by either a person or an artificial intelligence algorithm during an online exam. However, the environment an online proctor oversees is a learner’s personal environment. This monitoring can take the form of videotaping, logging students’ keystrokes, browser data, location data, and even biometric data like test-taker eye movements.

Advocates of online proctoring cite concerns about academic integrity in the online environment as a reason to implement proctoring (Dendir & Maxwell, 2020). Some even suggest that students do not mind the additional security because they believe it supports the integrity of the test and/or degree.

Concerns and Research

While onsite-proctoring for academic integrity may seem reasonable, there have been questions about monitoring a learner’s home environment. Monitoring a learner’s home environment has the potential for harm. Online proctoring can be perceived as invasive by students, as personal information about one’s location and physical data is recorded that is not otherwise necessary for an exam. Several institutions, like U-M Dearborn and University of California Berkeley, have placed limitations on, if not discontinuing altogether the use of third-party proctoring services. Institutions cite issues of accessibility, bias, concerns about student privacy, and institutional culture as reasons to discourage third-party proctoring. Student and faculty groups have publicly advocated for institutions to discontinue security features like locked-down browsers and third-party monitoring. At the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, third-party proctoring generally involves a separate fee and may be expensive, but still available through vendor partners.

Most of the academic research involving the use of online proctoring has focused on academic integrity, rather than the impact of proctoring itself. Wuthisatian (2020) found lower student achievement in online proctored exams compared to the same exam proctored onsite. Those students who were the least familiar with technology and the requirements for setting it up performed the most poorly. In addition, students who have test anxiety may experience even more anxiety in certain proctoring situations (Woldeab & Brothen, 2019). With further research, we may find the problem may not necessarily be proctoring, but rather the burden and effort of technology on students when taking an online exam.

Problems with internet connections or the home testing environment may be beyond students’ control. The lack of ability to create a “proper” testing environment raised students concerns about being unjustly accused of cheating (Meulmeester, Dubois, Krommenhoek-van Es, de Jong, & Langers, 2021)

Alternatives to Proctoring

Ultimately, only the instructor can determine whether proctoring is the right choice for a class and sometimes proctoring may be the best choice for your discipline, field, or specific assessment. Particularly in a remote setting, it may feel like the integrity of your assessment (particularly a test) is beyond your control, so proctoring may feel like the only option. However, there are alternatives to proctoring exams, from using exam/quiz security measures, to re-thinking a course’s assessment strategy to deemphasize exams. If you are concerned about how and what you are assessing, the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching provides resources and consultations to discuss academic integrity and different methods of assessment. We also recommend CAI’s Faculty Proctoring document if you have questions about proctoring.

Resources

How this will help

Describe the key features of an accessible course
Identify ways to ensure a course you are teaching, is accessible for all learners
Know where to find resources on accessible teaching at the University

Although accessibility needs to be at the forefront of an instructor’s mind when designing a course, it is also important for instructors who are teaching a course. Even if it has not been designed to be intentional about making the learning experience accessible to all students, there are important checks and decisions an instructor should make before the first day of class as well as actions an instructor can take during a term to maximize the accessibility of a course. 

Some of these strategies will only be applicable if the instructor has autonomy to make changes to the curriculum, while others are generally applicable.

Prior to the First Day

When preparing to teach an online course, creating a syllabus that demonstrates your teaching philosophy and values is one of the first steps you can make to build a connection between you and your students. Make sure that your syllabus includes language about 

  • How to obtain accommodations for disabilities (sample text available from the Services for Students with Disabilities),
  • Your willingness to hear students’ concerns about the accessibility of course content and the technology used in the course, and 
  • Clear descriptions of the kinds of assignments and assessments in the course so that students can anticipate what kinds of accommodations they may need.

Ideally, the accessibility of the course content was established by the team that designed the course, but you should review the content to make sure all readings/documents are screen reader accessible, all videos are captioned, and all visuals have audio descriptions or alt text. If you have flexibility in what readings/content to use in the curriculum, consider switching out content that is behind a paywall to open access/Creative Commons licensed resources. 

Similarly, if the technologies students are expected to use have a cost associated with them or are not accessible, identify alternative tools to use. Note that sometimes using a tool that has a cost is better than using a free application, especially when the company that owns the tools uses or sells student data in ways that students cannot opt out of.

If there is not one currently in your syllabus, adding a statement informing students that you are willing to accommodate their accessibility needs is a great first step to take. You can find more guidance to adapting your course on the CRLT website. Besides the syllabus, you can also consider verbally telling your students about accommodation in the first class. Although students remain the right to not disclose their disabilities, please do remind students that the earlier they get in contact with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD), the earlier the accommodation can be put in place once requested. If students declare in advance of the start of the course that they will need accommodations to equitably participate in the course, make sure to connect with SSD to identify specific steps you need to take to make your course accessible. This might include setting your synchronous sessions up to be captioned or recording your synchronous sessions so students can access them later.

On the First Day

The first day of an online course may or may not include a synchronous interaction; either way it is important to reinforce the messages around accessibility you put into your syllabus. If you aren’t meeting with students in the first week of the term, this might take the form of an email to students on the first day of the term or an audio or video recording of what you would say during a synchronous meeting.

Set norms, but be flexible. Create a plan that will likely need to iterate and evolve as you understand the needs of your learners better. 

  • One idea for making synchronous sessions more accessible, both to students with disabilities and to learners who aren’t using video to connect to the class session is to ask students to say their name every time they speak. For example, getting into the habit of saying “X speaking” helps everyone orient to a new voice in a videoconference call.
  • Instructors should also develop a clear plan for how students will ask questions and interact with one another, which needs to include considerations for students with hearing and/or visual impairments, who lack of access to broadband internet access, eliminating their ability to use video, and students who can’t or choose not to use video connections to synchronous sessions. 

Throughout the Term

Much of what you need to do during the term is remain consistent with the values and practices you set up at the beginning of the course – enforce best practices for introducing oneself before speaking, monitoring the channels set up for discussion to make sure they are accessible to all, and being responsive when a student needs an accommodation. Other things you can try to include:

  • Using explicit verbal cues as to how to use tools to orient learners who may not be looking at a video demonstration
  • Using descriptive language to describe visuals you might be using in a presentation
  • Provide guidelines to any guest speakers about maximizing their audience’s engagement with their  lecture(s)
  • When possible, provide lecture slides and course materials in advance of a synchronous session.  This practice allows learners to adapt and process materials in a way that meets their needs, as well as providing an opportunity for learners to surface needs.
  • After synchronous sessions, post both the text transcript and recording, if possible.

Practical Tips

  • First day – inform students about SSD and requesting accommodations
  • Be responsive to accommodation requests; students may encounter changes in their circumstances that impact what they need to fully participate, and their requests may not all appear at the start of the term
  • Add captions and/or transcripts to existing videos and audio from the course
  • If possible, replace scanned copies of documents with online versions of the text (library resources, online journals, etc) or versions that have been appropriately OCRed 
  • Make sure the smallest font size in your documents is at least larger than 10 pt. 12+ is preferred. 
  • Ensure high color contrast between text and the background color 
  • Offering additional office hours/student visiting hours can provide space for students to discuss accessibility issues and difficulties navigating the online learning environment

Resources

University of Michigan

U-M Digital Accessibility Strategic Initiative

  –Access to remote instruction

ITS- Adaptive technologies

       – Instructional accessibility tips

Library- Describing visual resources toolkit

Other Resources

Center for Applied Special Technology – Information on universal design for learning (UDL)

Microsoft Office- Making word documents accessible

How this will help

Understand how copyright impacts the items you include in your course
Learn how to verify third-party content availability

The copyright law exceptions for teaching are different for teaching online than they are for teaching face-to-face courses. Assumptions about copyright that you may have about teaching in a face-to-face setting may not apply in the same way to online teaching. When you use third-party content (something created by someone else), you need to consider whether copyright law allows you to use the content.

Imagine these situations: 

  • You have a brief movie clip that you’d like to use in your face-to-face class as a way to illustrate a concept.
  • You found an image online that does a great job of illustrating the cycle of poverty.
  • You have an article that you’d like to share with your class. In your face-to-face course, you would print it out and share with students.

These are just a few ways that third-party content is typically used in courses. When using these types of content in online courses, you should think about how copyright law affects your use.

Copyright law restricts how you can use third-party content in online courses more than in face-to-face courses. It is important to consider copyright law in online course creation; if third-party content is used in a way that does not comply with copyright law, it could be taken down (disrupting the course), the unit could be forced to pay for the use, or U-M could possibly be sued.

Third-Party Content

Faculty members are in a great position to help avoid these risks by asking the following five questions for each piece of third-party content they consider using in their course:

  1. Are there contractual terms, terms of service, or terms of use that limit my use?
  2. Is the third-party content uncopyrightable or in the public domain?
  3. Is the third-party content already licensed for my use?
  4. Is my use of the third party content a fair use?
  5. Can I ask for permission to use the third party content?

1. Are there contractual terms, terms of service, or terms of use that limit my use?

Inform yourself of any contractual terms that might affect the use you want to make (e.g., read the terms of use of the website you’re relying on for access to the work). Ultimately, it is for you to decide whether to follow the terms you’ve agreed to or try to negotiate a different set of contractual terms. If you ignore contractual terms, remember that there may be legal consequences; reach out to the Office of General Counsel if you have any questions.

If the answer to this question is yes, move to question five.

2. Is the third-party content uncopyrightable or in the public domain?

Copyright does not protect everything. Some things are fundamentally not copyrightable. For instance, copyright does not protect any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery. To be protected by copyright, the work needs to embody some spark of creativity and not be purely factual. Works that are not protected by copyright can be used without any restrictions.

This is especially important when you want to use third-party content like charts and graphs in your course. If the chart is not copyrightable, it can be used freely because there are no copyright restrictions. Examples of non-copyrightable charts and graphs are available in the OpenMichigan Casebook.

Some third-party content is no longer protected by copyright, either because the copyright term has expired or because the copyright holder has dedicated the work to the public domain. In the US, as of 2020, all works published in the US before 1925 and all works created by federal government employees are in the public domain. Works published between 1925 and 1989 could also be in the public domain for not following formalities that were required at the time. Consult Cornell’s Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the US chart to see if the third party content you want to use might fall into this category of works.

If the third-party content is uncopyrightable or in the public domain, stop here. If not, move to question three.

3. Is the third party content already licensed for my use?

Your use of a copyrighted work might be covered by a pre-existing license. The most common type of public licenses is a Creative Commons (CC) license [Link to Creative Commons]. CC licenses are blanket licenses that give everyone the ability to use the content as long as they follow the rules outlined by the copyright holder. All CC licenses require attribution. More details can be found in AI’s How To: Attributions guide.

There are also online resources that the U-M library has already purchased. If your online course is for registered U-M students, you can take advantage of these resources in your online course by providing students with the link to the resource (commonly, ebooks and journal articles, but also some image banks) in the library’s catalogue. This will authenticate the student and allow them to view the resource.

For more information about what library resources may be available for your course, contact your subject specialist librarian. 

If the third-party content is already licensed for your use, stop here. If not, move to question four.

4. Is my use of third-party content a fair use?

There might be some third-party content you want to use that is protected by copyright and isn’t openly licensed. If there is no adequate replacement and the third-party content is crucial to the course, you should consider whether the use is a fair use. If the use is a fair use, the third-party content can be included in the course without permission.

Fair use is a user’s right that encourages certain favored uses (like criticism, commentary, and education) without the permission of the copyright holder. Fair use is context specific; there are no brightline rules here. For example, it’s a widely believed myth that 10% of a work can be used under fair use. This is not always true. Sometimes, using 10% of a work is not a fair use. Sometimes, using 100% of a work is a fair use. It is very dependent on the specific use you are making.

For each fair use analysis, consider the following four factors:

  • the purpose of the use
  • the nature of the copyrighted work;
  • the amount used; and
  • the effect on the market

For more information about fair use and some helpful guidance on how to apply the fair use analysis, consult the Library Copyright Office’s Fair Use page.

If your use of the third-party content is a fair use, stop here. If not, move to question five.

5. Can I ask for permission to use the third party content?

If the third-party content is copyrightable, not openly licensed, and your use would not be a fair use, you should ask the copyright holder for permission to include the content in your course. Third-party content can be used in any way if the copyright holder gives you permission to make those uses. When asking for permission, make sure to be clear about how the material will be used, how many people will view it, and how long the content will be used. This will help the copyright holder make an informed decision on whether or not they want to allow the use and how much they want to charge for it (if at all). Although not legally required, it is a good idea to get the permission and terms in writing and save the writing for future reference.

The Library Copyright Office has a Sample Permission Letter that can easily be adapted to fit the needs of the specific course. More information about requesting copyright permission can be found in the Obtaining Copyright Permissions research guide.

If you cannot ask for permission to use the work, you should not include the work in your course. Instead, try looking for a replacement that’s under an open license. AI’s guide on Finding Usable Materials is a helpful place to start.

Practical Tips

The U-M Library Copyright Office is available if you have questions or would like to learn more about how copyright affects what you use in your course. They can be contacted at [email protected]. You can also schedule an appointment with one of their specialists.

Resources

University of Michigan

CAI- How to flip your content: Designed for those building MOOCs, this document can help you find additional open education resources

CAI- Finding usable materials

CAI- Open Educational Resources

Contributors: U-M Library & Academic Innovation

How this will help

Proactively incorporate accessibility into your course design and development processes
Learn specific ways to ensure your course is accessible to all students
Become more familiar with Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

Designing an accessible course is an achievable goal if you spend time sorting out potential barriers during the design process. Yes, designing an accessible course is not something you do after finishing the design of a course. Instead, you should proactively integrate accessibility considerations into major components of your course: content, materials, activities, assessments, and most importantly, the human beings in your course: your students and you. 

While there are widely adopted accessibility guidelines where you can learn about technical tips such as creating accessible PDFs, here in this document we would like to focus more on the big picture of course design by presenting 7 questions that instructors can ask themselves during the design process. These 7 questions cover essential aspects, i.e., content, materials, activities, assessments, and accommodations, that instructors need to pay attention to. We hope that these 7 questions could help instructors reflect on their efforts towards the design of an accessible course.

Seven Questions Instructors Should Ask Themselves

1. Have you let students know that you are willing to accommodate their accessibility needs?

Please consider including a statement on your syllabus to inform students that you are willing to accommodate their accessibility needs. Such template language can be found on the CRLT website. Besides the syllabus, you can also consider verbally telling your students about accommodation in the first class. Although students remain the right to not disclose their disabilities, please do remind students that the earlier they get in contact with the Services for Students with Disabilities, the earlier the accommodation can be put in place once requested. 

2. What are the technologies that students are expected to use in your course? Are they accessible, reliable, and free?

Examples of technologies include Learning Management Systems (e.g., Canvas), video conferencing tools (e.g., Zoom, BlueJeans), engagement tools (e.g., Flipgrid). List all the technologies that students are going to use in your course and confirm the following questions: 

  • Are they accessible? Are students with disabilities able to use them? 
  • Are they reliable? Are they approved for use by the university? 
  • Are they free? If not, are there free education versions offered by the company or the university? 

Your answer to the three questions above should be Yes. Otherwise, make sure you come up with alternatives. 

3. Are there interactive activities in your course? If so, would any of those interactive activities exclude someone with a disability?

Examples of interactive activities include verbal presentations, show & tell, and field trips. When you design interactive activities, do ask yourself the following questions and modify the activities based on your answers:

  • Would I understand the activity if I could not hear or see it? 
  • Could I still participate fully in the activity If I had a mobility impairment?
  • Would I fail the course if I missed part of the activity because of my disability

4. Are there alternatives to visual content (e.g., charts, pictures) in your course materials such as slides?

Keep in mind that students with visual impairment would have difficulty read visual content such as charts and pictures. To make sure everyone has equal access to the information, especially students who use assistive technologies such as screen readers, please accompany visual information with textual alternatives such as alternative text, long description, or a detailed caption underneath the visuals. Besides textual format alternatives, please also be verbally descriptive in your lectures if you are going to explain those visuals. Not only students with visual impairment, students who have learning disabilities or anyone who has difficulty understanding complex visuals will also benefit from your description. 

5. Have you run any auto accessibility checkers as you create Word Docs, PDFs, PowerPoints and correct the errors and warnings as you work?

Word Doc, Adobe Acrobat PDF, and PowerPoints have built-in auto accessibility checkers that can help you identify the majority of accessibility issues. Please run the auto checker (simply click the button) as you create documents and follow the instructions to fix identified issues. If there are remaining issues that can not be addressed by auto-check, please reach out to professionals to ask for help.  

6. Have you created a welcoming environment for students to give you feedback? 

Please always keep an open mind to students’ feedback and create a welcoming environment for students to share their honest feedback with you. Allow students to share with you their thoughts through different channels, e.g., email, office hour, video/audio chat. Provide guidance for students on how to make the best use of various channels to communicate with you. 

7. Are you aware of the institutional resources that can support your efforts in designing an accessible course?

You are not alone in designing an accessible course. Please keep yourself informed of campus resources about accessibility. Who can help you with brainstorming about improving the accessibility of an interactive activity? Who can help you with converting your documents into accessible versions? Please do reach out when you encounter accessibility-related questions that you do have answers to. 

UDL Learning Guidelines

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines chart with strategies for Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression.

An interactive version of the UDL guidelines graphic can be found on the CAST website.

Practical Tips

  • Select videos that have captions to use in your course. 
  • Select audios that have transcripts to use in your course. 
  • When it’s possible, avoid using scanned copies. If you have to, make sure they are appropriately OCRed. (OCR, Optical Character Recognition, it is a technique to recognize text inside images, such as scanned documents and photos)
  • Keep your materials (such as slides) clean and formatted by using consistent heading structures. 
  • Apply built-in layout when creating slides and word docs.
  • Make sure the smallest font size in your document is at least larger than 10 pt. 12+ is preferred. 
  • Ensure high color contrast between text and the background color.

Resources

University of Michigan

U-M Digital Accessibility Strategic Initiative

CAI – Home Recording Accessibility Considerations

Other Resources

Research

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from the UDL Guidelines.

How this will help

Identify the benefits to using open educational resources
Locate available open resources that can be used in a course

The cost of textbooks and other learning materials can be a major barrier for students who cannot afford required or supplemental resources. Luckily, as the online world grows more vast, access to open educational resources becomes increasingly available.

Open Educational Resources

An Open Educational Resource (OER) is an openly licensed text or other digital work. OERs include a wide range of materials such as textbooks, videos, and even full courses. OERs are openly licensed, meaning their authors allow others to utilize and repurpose the materials without needing to ask for permission. This is in contrast to non-openly licensed materials, which can only be used under a user’s right, like fair use, or with permission from the copyright holder. 

Why Use Them?

There are many benefits to using OERs. Many instructors use OER readings to replace traditional textbooks as a way to help mitigate costs for students. The hope is that more students will be able to acquire and engage with open readings regardless of financial status. Beyond price, OERs can reduce time of content development. By using an OER, you can focus important development time on materials specific to your course, rather than creating new content. In these ways, using OERs ensures all students have access to your course content on day one. Similarly, an instructor can use OER lesson plans, curricula, or activities to supplement their course content. OERs help keep courses up to date, diverse, and adaptable for today’s higher education needs. 

Is it Really Free?

Yes! OERs are specifically designed to increase access to content. There has been a major push for collaborative teaching and open resource practices, resulting in an abundance of free materials co-created and shared for educational purposes. However, it is very important to remember that just because something is online for “free,” is not automatically an OER. You should look for an open license (like a Creative Commons license) on the work. Typical license terms include an attribution requirement, a limit to non-commercial uses only, and restrictions on how the work can be changed. You are required to follow the terms of the license, so read it closely. 

Identifying OERs

How can I tell if something is an OER?

Simply check the resource’s license to ensure it is labeled for reuse. Most OERs use Creative Commons licenses. Creative Commons licenses are an easy way for creators to tell other people how they can use their content. The licenses come in a variety of types that allow the creator to pick the license that best suits their needs. Keep an eye out for phrases such as ‘public domain’, ‘Creative Commons’, and ‘open access’ or their representation by their logos.

How do I find OERs?

OERs can be found just about anywhere on the Internet. The Center for Academic Innovation has a very helpful guide on Finding Usable Materials that can help you find a variety of open content.

How do I label my own content as an OER?

We encourage faculty to consider making their content open for others to reuse. If you have content you would like to allow other people to reuse, include a Creative Commons license on your materials. You can specify what kind of license you want to apply to any resource you create. For example, if you do not want your resource to be used by others for commercial purposes, you can apply a CC BY-NC (noncommercial) license. 

Keep in mind that you can only legally apply a license to material when you hold the copyright. You cannot apply a license to someone else’s work without their explicit permission.

Practical Tips

  • The U-M Library Copyright Office is available if you have questions or would like to learn more about how to find OERs. They can be contacted at [email protected]. You can also schedule an appointment with one of their specialists.
  • Quick search tips: some tips for finding popular media types
    • YouTube Videos:
      • Click “Filter” on your YouTube search and under “Features” select “Creative Commons”.
    • Google Images
      • Search for the material you want
      • Click “Tools”
      • Under “Usage Rights” select “labeled for reuse” in the drop down menu; your search will then show only openly licensed images

Resources

University of Michigan

AI – Finding usable materials

AI – Online and Hybrid Program Copyright Toolkit

Other Resources

OER Commons – Open Educational Resources Commons

Research

Sparks, S. (2017, April 12). Open educational resources (OER): Overview and definition. Education Week. Retrieved March 2, 2020.