Consider the learning environment for your current design. What potential barriers can be reduced or eliminated to provide more pathways for learner success?
Our course material is planned to be accessed through a website. Websites are easily accessible and when designed well, they are easy to navigate through. This will assist learners in being able to access the course material from home or anywhere else they might be whenever they want. The convenience of a website over a classroom will benefit learners taking the course. However there are still some obstacles that come with a website. Firstly it has to be easy to navigate through, this will especially help older learners who aren’t as tech savvy as their younger counterparts. This will also help leaners to access different parts of the website with ease in order to provide them with whatever resources they may need. Secondly, the material should be easy to understand and digest. This can be done by providing short examples of problems followed by step-by-step solutions so that learners can clearly understand the problems and learn how to solve them. Another way to assist learners is to provide clear definitions of the key terms in the topic so that learners can understand the material they are reading. Lastly, the website should be made as accessible as possible for people with disabilities, this can be done by adding features such as recorded audio lessons for learners who have difficulty reading. Language barriers are quite common in University courses, in order to solve this the course can be made in multiple languages so that learners who aren’t proficient in English are able to learn the material in their native language in order to better understand the material. There are many barriers that different learners may face when accessing the course. However with a well designed website and clearly defined course these barriers are more easily removed in order to assist learners.