Author: Anne E Preston

By Gabriella Ezeani

Productivity Type	Tool	Description
Reading	Sticky Notes	So many things to do- I forget……….. ·         Find Windows sticky notes- (Accessories) ·         When you open sticky notes a blank post it will appear- type your reminder. ·         Add more notes to your screen using the + button ·         Right click to change colour (different subjects) ·         Your notes will appear when you restart your computer ·         Delete a note when task complete
	Claroread Chrome  (Text to Speech)	Too much to read or slow reading speed You can use the Claroread Chrome/ Clarospeak iOS app to: read text to you. –          Works with web pages, PDFs (viewed in browser) and Google Docs. –          You can change voice settings, background screen colour –          Claroread will highlight the sentence it is reading
	Evernote Web Clipper	Not easy to see text/ easily distracted while reading on a screen. Use Evernote web clipper’s simplified article setting to simplify  processing information
Organisation	Wunderlist	Need to plan a project or collaborate with others/ simply need to remember food shopping? Available as a Chrome extension, website & app. Extension- New tabs take you to current to-do lists (add more tasks or complete existing) Website & app- create folders for different types of ‘To-Do’s’. Add deadlines or stars for priority. Share list with others (e.g. flatmates- shopping) Get notifications when others have added to-do/ completed tasks.
	Xmind	·         Structure and rearrange thoughts ·         Display visually as an aide memoire ·         Compile documents in one place ·         Plan projects ·         Paid software- can then export to Word in linear format
Notetaking	Sonocent Recorder App	Use Sonocent recorder/ full version of Audio notetaker * Record Capture brief notes Match to slides/ images Create topic sections Categorise info by colour Easily navigate and edit audio* Search for key words* Filter by colour* (cut down listening)
Writing	Google Docs – Voice Typing	If you find it easier to talk through your ideas, or if spelling gets in the way, you may like to try writing with your voice. You can use speech recognition for whole paragraphs or individual words- whichever works best for you.
Distractions	Noisili	Too difficult to work when lots of things are going on around: Using headphones, you can use Noisli to block out external noise and replace with sound combinations to boost productivity or help relax. ·         Save & share favourite noise combos ·         Set timer for productivity (Pomodoro technique) ·         Distraction free word processor
Attention/ procrastination	Forest App	If most of your distraction comes from your phone- open Forest app and select a time frame for concentration & a tree will grow
	Leech Block	Block particular sites that you use when procrastinating. –          Block between certain times of day –          Block after a certain amount of use  (e.g. 5 minutes per hour) –          Set a timer to view how long spending on procrastinating websites. Redirect to productive site
Relaxation	Headspace	Mindfulness exercises for different aspects of daily life (cooking, breathing exercises etc) Free exercises available but premium services available for students at a discounted rate.
Wellbeing	Sleepio	Online programme of cognitive behavioural therapy which aims to help people address cognitive factors that can affect insomnia
	Exampanic	Counselling service pilot website. Explains the physiological and emotional effects of exam stress

 

 

 

 

 

 

By William Marsburg,

This blog post is intended for external speakers giving guest lecturers as part of the UCL MSc DDI course. It will attempt to guide presenters in both their production of lecturers for online delivery, and provide guidance on the adaption of previously given lecturers that this change of platform may necessitate, to ensure that their lecturers remain accessible for all students.

 Along with the accessibility of the tools/programmes required to access the full range of content delivered by an online lecture, it is also important to consider the method and style of delivery when designing accessible content. 

 A guest lecture typically involves a talk and presentation, often aided by physical handouts, followed by questions from the audience. The talk and accompanying presentation (the actual “lecture”) can be handled neatly by many different pieces of software, with live screen sharing allowing for an experience very similar to an in-person lecture. Delivering content this way will be familiar to most people by now, and as such only minor things need to be taken into account to ensure complete accessibility. On the other hand, although it is possible to use the built in “chat” feature present in most of the software used for online delivery to receive questions about the content of the lecture, doing so is not ideal from an accessibility point of view. Likewise, the obvious replacement for physical handouts – a document that students can have open in another window (to “flick to” during the lecture), has accessibility drawbacks which must be considered when designing/adapting lectures to be given online.

 The accessibility of the tools most often used for online lecture delivery at UCL: Blackboard Collaborate and Microsoft Teams, are well documented. Both tools have live closed captioning (in English) capabilities, something essential for students with disabilities – particularly those with auditory impairments or processing difficulties (to act as a method of reinforcing the delivered content). In conjunction to this, both can be fully operated solely by keyboard input, should the use of a mouse be problematic for some students. Strictly speaking, both are also fully screen reader compatible, although it has been reported by numerous sources that the inconsistent and illogical layout of Microsoft Teams limits its usability when assistive technology, such as a screen reader, is required. There are no such reports of similar issues with Blackboard Collaborate, although this may be down to the fact that it is used far less in academic circles. 

 More information on the accessibility of Microsoft Teams and Blackboard Collaborate can be found at:

https://help.blackboard.com/Collaborate/Ultra/Administrator/Accessibility#caption 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/accessibility-overview-of-microsoft-teams-2d4009e7-1300-4766-87e8-7a217496c3d5

 With regard to the delivery/content of the lecture, there are a number of things that should be considered to ensure accessibility. Firstly, the layout/style of the presentation should be made to be as readable and logical-to-follow as possible. UCL has already produced some guidelines on producing accessible presentations/documents, so it is really worth taking a look at these when designing slides/presentations to accompany lecturers.

https://wiki.ucl.ac.uk/display/UCLELearning/Accessibility#Accessibility-Rule9.Checkyourfilesforaccessibility.

Following these guidelines will help to ensure that any files displayed in a lecture are accessible to all. 

 Along with making accessible documents, it is also necessary to deliver the content in an accessible way, and running sessions with a few simple “rules” really helps to do this. Things such as requesting that all participants turn off their video unless they are speaking, speaking clearly and slowly (to allow for bad internet connections) and verbalising when you have finished speaking help to make online lecturers much easier for people with certain disabilities to follow. It is also recommended that the use of “chat” during a lecture is limited as much as possible, such that it is only used for instructions or sharing links/documents. Again, UCL have already produced a set of guidelines for running online meetings with neurodivergent participants, which are very useful to read when planning an online lecture. 

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/committees-and-social-networks/neurodivergent-staff-network/accessible-remote-meeting-guidelines

Replacing physical handouts:

 As mentioned above, simply replacing a physical handout with a document to be opened and viewed during the lecture is problematic. Not only can relying on this result in students missing vital information while they search through the document, but it can also lead to certain neurodivergent individuals becoming distracted or loosing focus. It is far better to adapt presentations to include information/figures that were previously in handouts, so they form part of the main presentation itself. If doing this is impractical then the presenter can always switch the window being transmitted to students from the presentation, to the handout, and then highlight any relevant information. Should this approach be taken, and if handout is sent to the students prior to the lecture, then it should also be made clear (at the start of the lecture) that any relevant information on the document will be highlighted to the audience, and that there is no need to have the document open in another window (while the lecture is running). 

 Receiving questions during a lecture: 

 Questioning often forms an integral part of a lecture. As mentioned above, using a “chat” box as a way of receiving questions is not ideal from an accessibility point of view. It is therefore necessary to use different approach to receive questions in real time. Mentimeter, a service UCL subscribes to, allows for students to ask questions in real time via a web interface. An account is not needed to ask questions, as students can log-in with a session code. Questions are anonymous, and the service appears to be accessible for most. Another option for receiving questions is via twitter #hashtags. Twitter itself does a very good job at accessibly, although, the fact an account is required to post a #hashtag, and because accounts are not necessarily anonymous, means this may not be the best option for all scenarios.

By Gabriella Ezeani

It’s term time. You have an important project to complete and, as a connected learner, parts of your project need to be completed virtually. You have an idea of the online tools you want to use or the types of fonts you want to use throughout the project. Minor but important considerations about how you communicate your research results effectively. Before you begin the project, one of your project team members informs you that he/she/they has a learning disability. You have never thought about how to consider the accessibility of all your big ideas. Yes, they’re cool and extremely functional, but are they accessible to everyone?

Sometimes they are, sometimes they are not

And the question of accessibility as a retrospective reflection can be explained by the “social model of disability”. The social model of disability argues that disability is caused by the way society is organized, rather than by a person’s impairment or difference. The model therefore looks at ways to remove barriers that limit the life choices of persons with disabilities. When these barriers are removed, persons with disabilities can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives.

As humans, we all have a role to play to ensure inclusive learning and a responsibility to always be considerate of others in every situation. So, here are  five guiding considerations from a student with a disability to other students.

Guiding Considerations

1. Try and anticipate the needs of others
2. Always check a product’s accessibility guide
3. Be proactive and engage with learning resources on varied impairments
4. Remember, your reaction to their declaration of their impairment says a lot. Be empathetic.
5. If you are not certain, feel free to ask your departmental staff

To help you further, feel free to check out other blogs written by connected learning interns

By Gabriella Ezeani

As a graduate student in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) at UCL, team projects are the norm. Group meetings are planned, collective writing happens at the student centre, and organising fun get-togethers to socialize is essential.

In these unprecedented times, team projects have taken a new direction. Most of them are virtual, remote and connected. While the virtual and remote nature of these team projects is encoded in the design of “connected” learning,  the ‘connected’ can often be overlooked by students.

This post is intended to help students hit the ground running with team-based projects. Below are tips and tricks for navigating connected team projects. Using a storyboarding technique, it looks at how students can stay connected to their fellow students and provides useful ways for student-led teams to take into account the accessibility needs of other connected learners. Useful resources are linked.

Before we dive into these tips and tricks, you are probably wondering:

What is Connected Learning ?

UCL views connected learning as an education that makes the student a committed participant in his or her own learning and in student life in general. Connected learning ensures that students take a holistic approach to virtual learning. Although the intention is not to replace face-to-face learning, it can be seen as a complementary form of learning in these unprecedented times.

Meet the Connected Learners !

Now that we have described what connected learning is, I would like readers to meet Jan, Abi and Ben.

Jan: Jan is a tech wizard. If you tell him about a tech problem, he becomes your personal tech support guy. He enjoys a nice cup of tea to start his day and is very proactive. Jan gets things done very quickly and often gets annoyed waiting for others to catch up, even when the deadline is two weeks away.

Abi: Abi loves puzzles. Starting a project feels like a puzzle yet to be completed. Abi has dyslexia and being able to understand how things interact with each other is crucial to her connected learning experience. But she is worried about telling the team about her learning impairment because she does not want to feel misunderstood.

Ben: Ben is an easy-going guy. He was the life of the party pre-pandemic and is always looking for a good time. He sees deadlines as a social construct, so he never aims to meet them. However, when he is focused, he produces some of the best work ever. Ben is fun and intelligent but used to lone work and his perception of deadline might become a problem. Hmmmm

Our trio are about to embark on a connected team project, and are unsure about where to start, and how to get to the finish line. Its unlike anything they have ever done before and they have not had the opportunity to properly get to know each other. You, as the reader, knows more about our trio than they do about each other. So, lets fix that and help them navigate connected team projects !

Getting Started

The starting point of any project can often feel daunting. Visualising what the end of a project is supposed to feel like can seem near-possible. Yet, all is not lost and the best way to get to the finish line is to join the race.

To help Jan, Abi and Ben kick-off the project, they could collectively agree on a virtual meeting via Microsoft teams. Microsoft teams is the recommended communication platform for UCL, and it is embedded into your outlook !  It is functional and will probably be familiar to Ben, Abi and Jan but if they are not, they could check out this cool video explaining how to get started with Microsoft Teams

To set up a meeting, a useful starting point is to send across a calendar invite through their outlook account. Jan volunteers to do this (yayyy Jan!), and all that is left is for Ben and Abi to accept the invite. Once that is done, they express their excitement via email to finally ‘e-meet’ each other.

It’s the day of the meeting. They join the teams meeting that was automatically generated for Jan when he used Microsoft Calendar.

To kick off the meeting, Abi suggests an ice breaker. She came ready for this and had google searched ice-breakers and came across the cleverism blog with suggested ice-breakers for teams.

The ice breaker is a success and at the end of it, they are all very excited to work with each other and can’t believe how lucky they are to have hit a jackpot with their designated team.

After the successful icebreaker, Abi feels comfortable and wants to inform her team of her learning impairment before they dive into planning the project. She confides in her team and provides brief overview of her world as a dyslexic individual. Ben and Jan, while having no understanding of it, are fully understanding ! They ask Abi what they need to do to support her during the project. Abi is pleased with their immediate and unquestioning support and explains how her dyslexia – that being-  a neurological difference that can have an impact on an individual during education, in the workplace and everyday life. Around 10% of the British population have dyslexia, Abi says. She tells them that some things to consider is the type of font, how information is visually displayed and how it impacts her ability to process information. For her, Abi sees her dyslexia as a gift that enables her to see the world differently and she hopes to utilise during the project to their advantage. Jan and Ben express their continued support and excitement with their project on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare.

To start preparation for the project, our trio consider how their project can operate virtually. Here are a few things they considered:

• Their Roles and Responsibilities :
• Jan offers to be the ‘operations lead.’ This involves working on the technical and technological aspect of the project. This includes setting up a shared OneDrive account for the team, ensuring that they have cool tech tools to ensure efficiency, and helping the team to submit their ethics application.
• Abi offers to be the ‘project manager.’ She likes structure and being organised. As project manager, Abi has to think about how the project will be from start to finish. She has to consider project timelines, meetings, workstreams and how they will interact throughout the entire project.
• Ben offers to the ‘communications lead.’ He wants to make sure that the team communicate effectively but also considers how the team communicate with the external world. The communication frequency, mode of communication, and sending the right emails to the right people. He also understands the need for effective and accessible research communication, so he offers to oversee how the research is communicated to the wider public !

 

• Meetings and schedules :
• Meetings: They all collectively agree on the importance of meetings and decide on a weekly meeting to touch base with each other. Abi sends the calendar invite and uses the Microsoft calendar’s repeat function to ensure that the meeting reoccurs at their arranged date and time.
• Schedules: They are conscious that they still have other modules to attend too and the need to know each other’s availabilities. So, they agree to update their calendar with their availabilities to enable Microsoft’s scheduling assistant to factor this in when suggesting dates and times.

 

• Communication:
• Internal Communication: The trio think of ways to communicate with each other. They decide on Microsoft Teams chat function and for a more informal way of communication, they choose Slack. They like the endless possibilities and the channels ! So, they can communicate about different things without feeling overwhelmed.
• External Communication: They agree to provide bi-weekly updates to their project lead, and to provide update to the module co-ordinator who has requested monthly reflections.
• To social media or not to social media: I mean, they are writing about a pretty cool area. They decide to set up a Twitter and LinkedIn account for their project. This would allow them to engage with leading experts but also gain insights into emerging trends in their area of research.
• Daily Stand-Up: Abi is excited and remembers how her former part-time work had daily stand-ups, where each member of the team communicates what they had planned for the project every day. Ben and Jan like the sound of that and agree to doing this every day.

 

• Team Contract
• Yes, they all enjoy with each other already ! But they are aware that they need to have some set rules before the project. Abi proposes a ‘no weekend policy’ because she uses her weekend for self-care and to have balance. Jan proposes that internal deadlines must be complied with at all times, and if they cannot be met, the team needs to be informed. Ben proposes some welfare checks, he is conscious of how isolating remote working can feel. So, he thinks encoding some social activities that serve as welfare check-ins could be useful to ensure that everyone feels heard and understood.

The trio are pleased. They just had a great meeting and are feeling extremely motivated to commence. Oh wait ! Ben notes that they don’t have a name for their team and thinks it would be great to have one. They all brainstorm some names and decide on Team Intelligence ! They are no longer three individuals working together, they are a connected team. The project begins….

Addressing Hiccups

Team intelligence face their first project hiccup. Ben is always missing the internal deadlines, and this is affecting the team’s ability to re-check their work before their course deadlines. Jan and Abi are very worried and don’t know how to address this. They decide to express their concern to Ben during their next meeting. At the meeting, they tell Ben about this and checks if he is in need of any assistance with his work streams. Ben feels guilty about this and promises to be better next time. Through their effective communication with Ben, Abi and Jan were able to navigate one of the challenges of connected team learning.

Abi is having a problem with the ‘font’ being used by the team. The font is inaccessible for her and she is worried about complaining. It has been a while since she discussed her dyslexia, but she knows the continued use of the font affects her ability to process super technical AI information. Abi changes the font to Arial, which she considers to be accessible, but Jan keeps reverting it back to the original font. He is unaware of the inaccessible nature of the font. Abi decides to message the group and inform them of this. Acknowledging her statement, Jan changes all the document font to Arial and provides Abi with much needed support.

The project continues…

Team intelligence have met up every other week and they are close to the finish line. They cannot believe it. They created some beautiful presentations using UCL templates, communicated effectively on Slack, had bi-weekly social gatherings and only worked one weekend to meet a Monday course deadline!

Finish Line

Team Intelligence have done it. They have met their deadline and they organise a social gathering to celebrate. They met their deadline and are holding a social gathering to celebrate. They are thinking about what they could have done better and how they could have improved their project management.

By Gabriella Ezeani (UCL Connected Learning Intern)

For UCL academics, getting ready for connected learning is no easy task. So much to think about and to account for. How do I ensure class attendance ? How can students participate in breakout sessions? But if anyone is capable of pulling off the impossible, it’s the academics !

This post is intended to provide UCL staff and honestly, anyone who is looking for interactive online tools to help meet their course goals and objectives some support. It looks at varied tools that could be used for team projects, ideations, presentations,  taking notes, clippings and more. The blog also provides an overview of the accessibility profile of these tools and whether these tools take into account the accessibility needs of individuals with impairments.

As academics, you are probably wondering how the connected learning researchers went about this ! Well, the answer is very simple. We conducted an online review of every single one, experimented with each online tool, asked other learners with impairments to try it out, looked at what the company had to say about their product’s accessibility and also sent out emails to ask them. On the basis of this intelligence, we decided to set up a rating system ( 1 to 5 stars)  to shed light on the accessibility needs they have taken into account.

Miro

Miro is essentially an online whiteboard. It is an infinite canvas tool  that enables users to take ideas and display them visually. It comes with a lot of pretty cool templates and external resources through Miroverse. While Miro is commendable for its functionality, beautiful aesthetics and being a generally great collaborative tool for projects, it has an accessibility problem.

On Miro’s Accessibility

As noted above, Miro has an accessibility problem. Here, we spoke to the user support team asking about what accessibility considerations were taken into account at the design stage. The response indicated that they did not account for accessibility needs explicitly but their overall design was aimed at simplifying the user-interface to enable varied users to use Miro to its full potential.  Additionally, Miro is free for educators and students !

Positives

+  Varied fonts available for users and some are accessible  fonts

+ Colours can be changed, and they do provide the option to specify  colour schemes

+ Miro provides varied templates with detailed descriptions of how to make use of them.

Negatives

–  Miro does not have a publicly available accessibility guide

–  Accessibility was not a key consideration in the design

–  Modals are not focused on the content

–  Difficult to access the visual information within the board

– Might be difficult for users who utilise screen readers

 Resources

• Miro
• Miroverse
• Miro for education
• Miro Resources
• Getting Started with Miro

Padlet

Padlet is a free online tool where members can display notes and links and organize them like a normal bulletin board. Entries can include formatted notes and hyperlinks. Padlet is useful for showing a visual representation of varied information to enable users to scan posts and interact with them. Padlet is considered easy to use and provides  useful resources to get started (see below). Students can make use of Padlet created by a member of staff without needing to register as long as they have a link to it. Padlet can be embedded into Moodle or any web applications.

On Padlet’s Accessibility

Padlet has a dedicated page for accessibility, which is good. However, it does have some general accessibility issues that you should account for if students are encouraged to use this tool.

Positives

+  Default font is sans serif which can be beneficial for individuals with dyslexia

+ Background colours can be changes and texts can be highlighted

+ Padlet works well with screen reader software as navigation is possible, and its content   can be read out

Negatives

–  Users cannot change their own contrast setting on the site

–  Users cannot add alt text to images, and there are no prompts to consider this

–  Keyboard navigation must be used in conjunction with a screen reader, but not when used without.

Resources

• Padlet
• Padlet Support
• Padlet terms of service
• Accessibility and Padlet
• Padlet’s Privacy Policy
• Padlet tutorial for students

 Hypothesi.is

 Hypothesi.is is a browser plugin that extends the ability of your Web browser to annotate web pages in any way that is useful for professional or scholarly work. Hypothesi.is can be used to highlight areas of a web page and ask questions as part of a strategy, create a bibliography and link additional media.

On Hypothesi.is’s Accessibility

A useful blog post highlight how Hypothesi.is has worked towards ensuring that their app is fully accessible. Their accessibility is aligned with W3C’s  WCAG 2.0 AA standard. They have also been working very closely with the Inclusive Design Research Centre to map and improve the accessibility of their product.

Resources

Hypothesi.is blog

Inclusivity for everyone

10 ways to annotate with students

Examples of class projects

 Mentimeter

 Mentimeter is an interactive presentation software for use in lectures, seminars, and more.  It allows for real-time feedback and is a super engaging way to interact with your class. Mentimeter can also be used to create extra-curricular activities that can be integrated into Moodle. There are advanced features available, such as PowerPoint-upload, remote clicker and data export.

Mentimeter and Accessibility

Mentimeter is quite explicit about its accessibility practices. They have proactively followed the voluntary product accessibility template and emphasise their goal to make it easy to listen and be heard. With that in mind, their design and build have incorporated accessibility best practices and accessible to all.

Resources

Mentimeter Accessibility Statement

Stay Current with Mentimeter

Mentimeter Features

Back to school in the new normal