Online learning is an effective way of supporting students when attendance is disrupted. However, where online learning is implemented without knowledge or awareness of digital accessibility, it can create unintended barriers. Basic accessibility practices are vital to ensuring all students benefit from online materials.

Among the wealth of self-access training materials included on the ETF’s Enhance Digital Teaching Platform are a range of modules focused around accessibility and dealing with difference and diversity. By becoming familiar with the key ideas around digital accessibility and inclusion you significantly increase the chance of your online experiences being more effective for more students.

How can you make virtual classrooms work in practice? This webinar explores how tools that are commonly available in webinar software can be used to create different pedagogical approaches for online delivery.

This webinar shows how you can take a class presentation (PPT) and quickly adapt it for online use, including audio, video and the use of notes to help learners access all the extra information normally given in class. It also explores how to combine tools (Nearpod with Skype/Zoom or Teams) to make structured but interactive online sessions using a presentation as a starting point.

How do we support learners suddenly faced with learning independently online? This webinar looks at tools that build a route through learning content and provide offline support to learners. The session uses Moodle to demonstrate features within a VLE to support online learning and looks at the use of tracking, conditional statements, glossaries and forum.

How do we motivate and engage learners suddenly faced with learning independently online? This webinar will look at tools that can be used within a VLE help to motive and engage learners by adding collaborative activities and gamification. The session will use Moodle to demonstrate features within a VLE to support online learning. The webinar will look at the use of forums, wikis, quiz and badges.

According to the National Literacy Trust, 16.4 per cent of adults in England, or 7.1 million people, can be described as having ‘very poor literacy skills’. There are multiple causes for literacy difficulties, but whatever the cause, students working in isolation via online learning are more vulnerable to discouragement and failure. However, technology offers many ways of supporting learners with their online reading skills. This session will explore these opportunities.

As more courses move online and tutors deliver more content through webinar style sessions, it becomes vital to understand both the benefits and the barriers of webinar-based lessons. The tools and platforms you have available may put constraints on how inclusive your webinar can be, but this session will explore some of the common issues and suggest ways to minimise their impact.