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Re: Accessible SCORM Compliant E-Learning Software

for

From: Hoffman, Allen
Date: Dec 15, 2010 10:30AM


I'd be interested to hear comments regarding Course Avenue products.


-----Original Message-----
From: Cramer, Brian [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 2:53 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessible SCORM Compliant E-Learning Software

I have yet to find a course development tool which produces good
accessible output. Captivate seems to take it pretty seriously and comes
pretty close. It offers captioning, alternative text, etc. but there are
several issues ("button button", navigation pains) and you are fairly
limited to the WYSIWYG capabilities unless you jump into flash and then
some of the accessibility features become disabled. The bandwidth needs
for the all-flash output become a dissuading factor as well.

We have ended up using a modified HTML/JS based framework called
LibSCORM which is pretty easy to configure and loads content files (HTML
or SWF) via XHR requests and handles all the API communication. I'd
highly recommend it as it leaves much of the output under the control of
the developers.

The eLML markup language and corresponding tools look promising as well.
We have not explored using these as part of the production/delivery but
will probably do so in our next course development.

+1 on the recommendation of Moodle or Sakai as well for an LMS solution.

LibSCORM: http://code.google.com/p/libscorm/
eLML: http://www.elml.ch/website/en/html/index.php

Brian Cramer

-----Original Message-----
From: Rangin, Hadi Bargi [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 11:58 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessible SCORM Compliant E-Learning Software

Hi Deborah,

To be fair to Blackboard, I need to mention that they have been trying
hard to become more accessible in the past 2-3 years. It is more
accessible than you probably have seen it last time especially in the
9.1 version. They have realized the fact that the best time to address
accessibility is at the design stage and they continue to collaborate
with blackboard accessibility group for selected new modules or modules
to be redesigned. I wished that they could do it for all modules but our
resources are limited.

I would like to use this opportunity to invite anyone who is interested
in improving the accessibility of Blackboard to join the blackboard
Accessibility Collaboration Group and help us in this effort. Please
visit http://collaborate.athenpro.org/group/bb or drop an e-mail to me
if you are interested to join the group.

At the upcoming CSUN conference one of my colleague at Indiana
University and I will be comparing 4 LMS including Moodle, Sakai,
Desire2Learn, and Blackboard. It is very difficult to simply say which
one is accessible because some of them are significantly more complex
than others and clearly a more complex system can be exposed to more
accessibility issues.
There are definitely accessibility issues that need to be addressed with
Blackboard LMS but again, it is getting better after each release.

Thanks,
Hadi



-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of
<EMAIL REMOVED>
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 10:47 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessible SCORM Compliant E-Learning Software

Sam asked:

"I am looking for a SCORM compliant e-learning software and authoring
tool that is accessible. Ideally, both the authoring tools and the
courses they produce should be accessible. "

And Michael Langum responded:

"Don't forget that an accessible course is only half the issue.
You (or you client) will also need to ensure that your Learning
Management System (LMS) is also accessible."

I will also add, the classes are only accessible as the course designers
make them. No matter how much accessibility is built into the learning
management system, if the professor/course designer puts up videos
without captions, flash without accessibility, and images without
alternative text. Training your faculty/course designers is a huge part
of making sure your classes are accessible.

(Also, kudos for making sure that both the authoring tools and the
courses be accessible -- many course designers have accessibility needs
as well! As do the LMS administrators, so make sure that the
administration tools are also accessible.)

In any case, I've been very impressed with both Moodle and Sakai, fairly
unimpressed with Blackboard, and exceedingly unimpressed with Angel. The
latter two obfuscate what they mean by accessibility and what their
accessibility efforts are. Moodle and Sakai, on the other hand, both
take accessibility very seriously and are very open about what they mean
by accessibility and what their efforts are:

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_Accessibility_Specification
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/2ACC/Sakai's+Current+Accessib
ility

My favorite part of the Moodle accessibility specification is at
<http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_Accessibility_Specification#Rationale_
for_Moodle_accessibility>:
the legal, moral, and market argument for taking accessibility
seriously.

-Deborah