Accessibility in Teaching and GuidanceLaajuus (5 cr)

Objective

The purpose of the course

Digital accessibility is one of the factors affecting the quality of online teaching. It is also a legal obligation and every learner’s right. In this course, you will learn what accessibility in teaching means, what the act on digital accessibility requires from teachers, and how you can take accessibility into account in the planning of the learning process, teaching situations and learning materials.

Course competences

In this course, you will promote and develop your interpersonal competence, facilitating learning and developmental skills.

Interpersonal competence refers to teacher’s ability to strengthen learners’ competence. You will be able to support learners’ competence for continuous learning, such as self-regulation and reflection skills, and the ownership of their own learning process. As a teacher, you will also have the ability to take into account learner diversity and learners’ personal starting points and goals when planning and carrying out learning sessions and guiding learning. Your approach is dialogical and ethical in a way that supports the well-being of learners.

Facilitating learning skills refer to a teacher's collaborative approach and ability to planning, implementing, assessing, and developing learning and guidance processes taking into consideration the diversity of learners. It also refers to understanding of group processes and group phenomena in learning, employment of versatile and working life-oriented learning resources and ability to design, implement and facilitate learning processes in digital environments in a pedagogically meaningful way.

Development skills refer to a teacher's ability to further develop their own and their organisation’s practices and operational culture in collaboration with others. It refers to willingness and ability to develop vocational learning, work, and entrepreneurship at regional, national and international level. I t also refers to teacher’s ability to acquire and justify information on the development needs of vocational learning and the world of work, in order to use it to promote learning, and forming of relevant partnerships networks in an innovative and solution-oriented manner.

Learning objectives

The objective is that after the course, you will know what accessibility means and understand why it is important from the learner’s perspective. You can take accessibility perspectives into account in the planning of the learning process and in different teaching situations. You can produce accessible teaching material.

Content

The concept of accessibility, Universal Design for Learning -framework, accessible learning process, accessibility in teaching situations, accessible learning material

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

The criteria for assessing the approved level are as follows:

Interpersonal competence
You recognise the diversity of learners and have ways to encounter different learners.

Facilitating learning skills
You can take accessibility perspectives and the needs of different learners into consideration in the planning of the learning process, different teaching situations and digital learning materials.

Developmental skills
You can develop the accessibility of digital content you produce yourself.

Further information

The target group consists of people engaged in teaching and guidance tasks and interested in accessibility, those studying in or intending to engage in teacher education, and the administrative and support service staff of educational institutions. The course is also suitable for those who want to develop their competence in producing accessible digital materials and taking into account the diversity of people in remote and contact situations.