CONTENTS

UPFRONT - Content Access for Everyone
FOCUS - Electronic Content Accessible for Distance Learners with Disabilities by
Carolyn Kotlas
UW - GWETC 2002, Internet2 and Wisconsin, Effective Practices Publication/Web site

LINES - August News Highlights
ED - Higher Education and Online Learning, Distance Ed Group Now Open to Public,
Internet2 Releases OpenSAML
BIZ/GOV/ED - Report Says Employees Lack Technology Skills, State Department Starts
Online IT Training
COPYRIGHT - TEACH Act Will Go to House
ACCESSIBILITY - A Model for e-Accessibility
TECH/TOOLS - LECs May Provide Low-cost Flat-Panel Monitors, DePaul Develops
Sign Language Translator, e-Books Have Mixed Success
READS/RESOURCES - Byte Wars, The Illusion of e-Learning, ASTD Releases 2002
Learning Outcomes Report

NEW ON THE LIST - Welcome to New Subscribers
FYI - News, Events, Conferences
ENDNOTE - "If I Were Able to See on the Screen..."
__________________________________________________________________________

SEPTEMBER DESIEN FOCUS ARTICLE - Developing, Archiving, and Disseminating
Learning Objects: the Process by Rosemary Lehman and Simone Conceição
__________________________________________________________________________

UPFRONT - "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of
disability is an essential aspect." Tim Berners-Lee, Director of W3C, the World Wide Web
Consortium: http://www.w3.org/WAI/

To design for accessibility is a complex process and we are learning as we move forward.
Educational organizations, government agencies, non-profits, and businesses around the
world are taking accessibility guidelines into consideration as they revise their Web sites and
create new ones that will allow everyone to access their content. In this month's FOCUS
article, Carolyn Kotlas, Information Resources Consultant, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill discusses the process that their Center for Instructional Technology is working
through to assure accessibility. In the ACCESSIBILITY section of DESIEN, GWSolutions
describes its model for e-accessibility and in TECH/TOOLs DePaul University announces its
new computer-generated synthetic American Sign Language interpreter. These are only a few
examples of what is happening globally in the area of accessibility. It is difficult to express the
value that is emerging from this movement, but I think it is well-expressed in ENDNOTE.
(Rosemary Lehman)
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FOCUS
Electronic Content Accessible for Distance Learners with Disabilities
by

Carolyn Kotlas, Information Resources Consultant
Center for Instructional Technology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Introduction
One of the goals of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is to assure that all
programs and facilities are accessible to all members of the university community. In the
past, our student body has primarily been physically on the campus, either residing in dorms
or commuting to the campus. Students who identified themselves as having a disability could
contact our Department of Disability Services (DDS) for various types of accommodations
and assistance. DDS might, for example, provide a note taker for a deaf student or create
tactile maps for a student with a visual impairment.

Our university's expanding online courses and distance education programs enable students
with disabilities to take classes without the hurdle of getting to our campus, thus opening our
campus to a much wider audience. However, these programs also change how we help these
students successfully navigate through their classes. When a student is miles away from
campus, traditional accommodations such as note takers and readers are not viable options.
When all or most of a course's materials are available only in electronic forms on the World
Wide Web, faculty need to be aware of how this may limit access for some students. Last
year staff from several of our university offices began to address the problem of how distance
education students with disabilities can access online course materials. The two main areas
we addressed were establishing guidelines for creating accessible electronic content and
creating a policy and procedures for implementing these guidelines.

Guidelines
The two widely-accepted sources of standards or guidelines for creating accessible
electronic materials are those in Section 508 of the U.S. Workforce Investment Act of
1998: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/508law.html and the checkpoints of the World
Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0:
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/ Unfortunately,
wording in these resources is very technical and can be confusing to Web developers
and Web content creators. While basing our guidelines on these resources, we rewrote
them so our faculty and support staff could understand and apply them to our specific
campus Web environment.

Most Web content can be made accessible with minimal effort; however, multimedia
content presents special challenges. For example, audio content requires a text
transcript for hearing- impaired users; video content may require captioning for both
hearing-impaired and visually-impaired users. So for multimedia guidelines, we wanted
to do more than merely tell our faculty and staff what accessibility accommodations are
required. We also needed to explain the amount of time, effort, technical skills, and costs
that these accommodations involve. With the aid of distance education grant funds from
our Office of the Provost, we used student labor to perform some of the tasks (for
example, captioning an audio file) and to record the time it took to make these
accommodations on sample content. From these tests we are able to give faculty and
staff realistic estimates of how long it might take them to fix their content themselves.
Our findings also include recommendations for alternate solutions for handling complex
content, including a list of outsourcing services and software tools.

Policy and Procedures
Our university has a policy (and procedures for implementing the policy) for
accommodating students with disabilities on campus. Students with disabilities who
enroll in residential programs usually inform DDS when they register to take that class;
DDS then arranges for reasonable accommodations. While this "just-in-time" model has
worked well for residential students, we are concerned that many distance education
courses will require more lead time to make accommodations. For example, making an
established online course with large amounts of material in video format accessible will
probably involve several weeks of labor to add captioning. For these courses, the policy
will require more advance notice from nonresidential students.

Currently, our policy and implementation plan for distance education courses is under
development. Parties involved in establishing the policy include staff from the Office of
the Provost, University Counsel, Department of Disability Services, Learning Disabilities
Services, campus computing services, and representatives from all affected schools. We
expect to have the policy in place later this Fall.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Accessible Electronic Content website is
at: http://www.unc.edu/webaccess/
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UW

GWETC 2002 - Register now for the Tenth Annual Governor's Wisconsin Educational
Technology Conference (GWETC 2002) to be held October 8-10 in Madison, WI at
the Alliant Energy Center. The conference includes more than 150 workshops, and concurrent
and spotlight sessions, along with over 110 vendor booths. Two outstanding keynote speakers
have been selected for this year's conference: David Warlick, principal consultant of The
Landmark Project, a professional development and Web design firm in Raleigh North Carolina
and Bernjean Porter, author of Grappling with Accountability: Resource Tools for Organizing
and Assessing Technology for Student Results and Evaluating Student Computer-based
Products. GWETC is designed for K-higher education, government agencies, non-profits, and
business. For complete information and registration go to: http://www.gwetc.org

INTERNET2 AND WISCONSIN - Internet2 is a collaborative effort among the nation's
leading research universities, teamed with government and industry partners. This high-
speed network focuses on education and research. Until recently only a few select
universities that were willing to pay substantial membership fees could participate. UW-
Madison and UW-Milwaukee were the only members of Internet2 in Wisconsin. However,
a new category of participation, "sponsored education groups" opens Internet2 use to more
organizations. UW-Extension, other UW System campuses, K-12 schools, museums,
libraries, and other organizations that are WiscNet members will now be able to participate.
Internet2 is an asset to educational organizations because it provides an "express lane that
bypasses the (Internet) congestion." Its advantages include access to programs and
applications developed at major research universities, the support of combinations of real-
time audio and video, and quick delivery of large databases or multimedia presentations.
For more information see: http://www.internet2.olrg and http://www.wiscnet.net
(Extension News and Ideas, Sept 02)

EFFECTIVE PRACTICES PUBLICATION/WEB SITE - Instructional Communications
Systems, University of Wisconsin-Extension will publish Using Distance Education
Technology: Effective Practices in October of 2002. The book includes contributions from
UW faculty, K-12 teachers, and staff from government and non-profit agencies who have
used a variety of technologies to teach, train, collaborate, disseminate information, and share
resources at a distance. A companion Web site, is a component part of the book and will
contain summaries of the practices included in the publication. Additional and complete
effective practices will be added to the Web site after the book publication. For more
information contact: lehman@ics.uwex.edu
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LINES

- In spite of the fact that there has been an increase (from 12 to 30) in the number of
institutions that offer degrees entirely online, there is still the perception that these degrees are
really second- rate. One reason is that people hiring for positions usually come from a
traditional background and are skeptical of online education. Online supporters say that the
medium of instruction is inconsequential to the quality of education. See:
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,54734,00.html (Wired News, 28 Aug 02)

- An EDUCAUSE survey conducted earlier this year showed that portals rank fourth among
the top 10 information-technology-related issues that college technology administrators expect to
become much more significant in the coming year. Some institutions credited their portal with
student retention, in part because the system automatically notifies students about tuition and
other bills, avoiding problems later. Other institutions reported that their portal projects exposed
inaccuracies and other problems with online information that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.
See: http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i48/48a03201.htm (Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 Aug 02)

- A new area of interest to higher education students is Practice Tests Online Students who
would like to take the Medical Boards, MCAT, which are required for admission to medical
school can now simulate the test experience. To see what a test-prep site looks like, spend
some time at: http://www.e-mcat.com It would be interesting to think about using this model for
key competencies in educational/organizational learning efforts. Go to:
http://www.masie.com/masie/default.cfm?page=trendsarchive (The Masie Center)

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ED

HIGHER EDUCATION AND ONLINE LEARNING - Setbacks and difficulties have kept
online higher education for-profit spin-offs from realizing success. Ventures at a number of
schools, including Columbia University and New York University, have been scaled back or,
in some cases, dropped. For example, the University of Maryland University College project,
was scrapped last fall. Many, however, believe that online learning can actually be better than
traditional education. According to Matthew Pittinsky, chairman of Blackboard, for every
failed venture there are five that succeed. Adam Newman of Eduventures believes that the
industry is seeing a refocusing of online initiatives so that they will succeed. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1393-2002Aug27.html (Washington
Post, 27 Aug 02).

DISTANCE ED GROUP NOW OPEN TO PUBLIC - The Alliance for Lifelong Learning,
a non-profit distance education company run by Stanford University, the University of
Oxford, and Yale University, has a new name and is open to the public. Now called
AllLearn, the company's courses were formerly only open to alumni of the three supporting
universities. The venture, similar to Columbia University's Fathom project, will make about
50 distance courses available. Tuition for each course is $250, and each course will last
between five and ten weeks. A spokeswoman from AllLearn said the group always intended
to make the programs available to the public. Others question whether the decision was made
because the venture was not as successful as its founders had hoped. For the complete article
see: http://chronicle.com/free/2002/08/2002082201t.htm (Chronicle of Higher Education,
22 Aug 02 - Edupage 23 Aug 02)

INTERNET2, RELEASES OpenSAML - Internet2, the consortium of universities building
advanced networking systems for research, released OpenSAML, a building block for
standards-based network identity solutions, such as single Internet sign-on and secure Web
service transactions. OpenSAML is a free, open source reference implementation of the
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), developed by the global non-profit
consortium OASIS to allow authentication information to be exchanged among different
Web access management and security products. "Open-source implementations of key
protocols and technologies have been essential to making the Internet what it is today," said
Bob Morgan, senior technology architect at the University of Washington. "We think SAML
is an important technology and are promoting its adoption and evolution, in both open-source
and proprietary contexts ..." For more information, visit: http://www.opensaml.org
(Syllabus News, Resources, Trends, 6 Aug, 02)
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BIZ/ED/GOV

REPORT SAYS EMPLOYEES LACK TECHNOLOGY SKILLS - A report issued by
the National Policy Association says that despite the current slump in technology jobs, the
real problem is a shortage of skills. According to James Auerbach of the association, when
the economy picks up, "we will have the same shortage we did two to three years ago." The
report notes that although employers can be more selective in the current market, there
remains a greater demand for applicants with certain skills than are available. Jack Scott, a
technical adviser on curriculum for the School of Technology at Claremont Graduate
University and vice president and CIO at The viaLink Company, said the skills gap is in part
a result of declining numbers of computer science graduates from US higher education. Scott
said that unlike the '80s and '90s, when computer science was a "sexy" field to enter, many
US students today are opting instead for business career paths. Technology skills, he said,
have shifted to countries such as China and India, which have invested in developing home-
grown technical expertise. The complete article can be found at:
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19062.html (NewsFactor Network, 19 Aug 02 -
Edupage 19 Aug 02)

STATE DEPARTMENT STARTS ONLINE IT TRAINING - The Foreign Service Institute,
the training division of the US Department of State, will launch an e-learning program on
information technology to prepare its personnel for increasingly technical systems used in the
field of diplomacy. The program will be put together by SmartForce Inc., an online learning
firm. State has made it a priority to upgrade its IT infrastructure and to deploy a system
worldwide for Internet and email access for all its employees. The SmartForce program
will include courses on email, Internet, and IT competency. "Providing easily accessible
training, anytime and anywhere, increases the effectiveness of our entire organization," said
Janette Corsbie, program director for the School of Applied Information Technology's
Distance Learning Program, U.S. Department of State. " Given the current state of US
foreign affairs, it is essential to our national security that all personnel are competent in
advanced technologies." (Syllabus News, Resources, Trends, 6 Aug 6, 02)
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COPYRIGHT

TEACH ACT WILL GO TO HOUSE - The Technology, Education and Copyright
Harmonization (TEACH) Act, which passed the Senate more than a year ago is expected to
be presented before the House in early October. If passed, the bill will be brought to the
President for signature. The TEACH Act expands the exceptions under the 1976 Copyright
Act that allow educational institutions to use copyrighted material for instruction without
securing the copyright holders' permission. It will allow accredited, non-profit distance
education providers to digitally transmit nondramatic literary and musical works. For more
information on TEACH go to: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200106/010608.html
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ACCESSIBILITY

A MODEL FOR e-ACCESSIBILITY - GWSolutions, a George Washington University
enterprise, is working with a developer of accessible e-business applications to integrate
accessibility courses into GW's Center for Profession Development curriculum beginning
this summer. A 1998 law requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information
technology accessible to people with disabilities. GW has added eight courses developed
by Crunchy Technologies Inc., designed to help IT managers create accessible information
in compliance with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. A spokesman for the National
Organization on Disabilities, called the partnership "a model for others to follow through
comprehensive and integrated technology education." See: http://www.gwu.edu/cpd/crunchy
(infocus, a Newsletter of UCEA, vol. 7 no 6, Aug 02)
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TECH/TOOLS

LECs MAY PROVIDE LOW-COST FLAT-PANEL MONITORS - A group of researchers
at Penn State University said that light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) might prove to
be an alternative to using LEDs (light-emitting diodes) in color flat-panel monitors. LEDs
weaknesses in such monitors include speed, stability, and longevity. The researchers said the
LECs they have created, by placing luminescent polymers between two electrodes, address
these problems, while using less power to function. Not all of the necessary colors have been
developed, but the Penn State researchers said they are in process. The result of this work with
LECs could be simple, low-cost flat-panel monitors. The full article is at:
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19189.html (NewsFactor Network, 27 Aug 02)

DEPAUL DEVELOPS SIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR - A team of faculty and
students at DePaul University's School of Computer Science has created a computer-generated
synthetic interpreter capable of translating spoken English into American Sign Language (ASL).
The program, dubbed "Paula," uses speech recognition and sophisticated animation. Using the
system, a hearing person speaks through a headset connected to the computer. The animated
figure of Paula then translates into ASL through hand gestures and facial expressions on the
computer screen. The project required four years and more than 25,000 hours worth of work
by the project team, "Most people are not aware that ASL is not simply a signed form of
English," said Rosalee Wolfe, professor of computer science at DePaul and one of the leaders
of the research team. "It is a series of hand configurations, hand positions, body positions and
movement, and facial expressions that are used in certain specific combinations. Hence,
creating an animated translator is a very intricate and detailed process." For more
information, visit: http://asl.cs.depaul.edu

e-BOOKS HAVE MIXED SUCCESS - A study conducted at Ball State University showed
that e-books are having mixed success competing with conventional printed texts. The study
compared comments and academic performance between those using printed texts and those
using e-books. Quiz scores between the two groups were, on average, the same, suggesting
similar instructional potential from e-books. Users of e-books, however, complained about the
difficulty of navigating through e-books and of finding particular words. E-book features that
drew praise were those that were similar to what can be done with a printed book, such as
highlighting sections of text. The directors of the study said they remain optimistic about the
potential for e-books, seeing value in the ability to store several whole texts on a single device
and to have those texts updated every semester. The full article is at:
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/08/2002082601t.htm (Chronicle of Higher Education, 26 Aug
02 - Edupage 26 Aug 02)
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READS/RESOURCES

BYTE WARS - Ed Yourdan at TechLearn: Hot off the press is a new book by technology
futurist and analyst, Ed Yourdan. Byte Wars: The Impact of September 11th on
Information Technology This is a great read about risks and thinking of IT security and
capacity in a new context. Elliott Masis of The Masie Institute was so taken with the book
that he has invited Ed Yourdan to present a keynote on this topic at TechLearn 2002 in
October. See: http://www.techlearn.com - (TechLearn Trends #241, 21 Aug 02)

THE ILLUSION OF e-LEARNING: Why Are We Missing Out On the Promise of IP
Technology? - Frank L. Greenagel, Ph.D., managing director of Guided Learning Strategies,
brings into focus how the effectiveness of the course is less dependent upon the enabling
technology than on the skill with which the developer uses the available technology to
construct learning experiences appropriate to the trainee and to the topic. The complete
article is at: http://www.elearningmag.com/elearning/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=26850
(e-learning Newsline, 31 July 02)

ASTD RELEASES 2002 LEARNING OUTCOMES REPORT - The 2002 ASTD
Learning Outcomes Report combines the data collected from 1998 through 2001 on
benchmarkable measures in workplace training and provides an overview of what has been
learned when measuring and valuing these training investments. Investments in education
and training are rapidly increasing, and the returns on these investments can be linked to
overall business strategy and success. For more information see:
http://www.elearningmag.com/elearning/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=26857
__________________________________________________________________________

NEW ON THE LIST - Welcome to new subscribers: Amanda Maresch, Russell Poulin,
Kathy Marcel, Lisa jo vonAllmen, Vince Donahue Jr., Karen Sharkey, Daniel Staemmler,
Andrea Deau, Bruce Nilsson, Deepak Agrawal, Karin Troidl, Trudy Ellerson, Jonathon Major,
and Nate Tollofsen.
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FYI - News, Events, Conferences

* ASYNC ONLINE WORKSHOP - The Center for Intellectual Property at the University of
Maryland University College is hosting an asynchronous online workshop series that is of
interest to faculty, university counsel, librarians, instructional designers, and information
professionals. The first workshop offered this year is titled "The Shrinking Public Domain,"
moderated by Laura (Lolly) Gasaway, Esq., Director of the Law Library, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill. The workshop is scheduled for September 16-October 4, 2002.
Workshop space is limited. For more information and to register see:
http://www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cip/ipa2002

* GWETC 2002 - Register now for the Tenth Annual Governor's Wisconsin Educational
Technology Conference (GWETC 2002) to be held October 8-10 in Madison, WI
GWETC is Wisconsin's premier educational technology conference bringing together all areas
of educational technology and distance learning. For more information see the UW Section of
DESIEN. For full information and registration go to: http://www.gwetc.org

* TECHLEARN 2002 - This conference is a unique opportunity to work with other senior
learning and training colleagues from organizations around the world on the "Future of
Learning!" This year some of the TechLearn 2002 issues will include: How do we make
learning really compelling? When will e-Learning and Blended Learning get to the next stage
of learning engagement? As e-Learning goes mainstream, what happens to our methodologies
and technologies? Where are the visible points of ROI from learning investments? The
conference will be October 27-30 at Disney Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL. For
complete information see: http://www.techlearn.net/2002/

* THE EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON e-LEARNING - will be held November 4-5,
2002 in Brunel University, Uxbridge in the UK For complete information and registration go
to: http://www.mcil.co.uk/2I-ecel2002-home.htm

* ALN CONFERENCE - The Eighth Sloan-C International Conference on Asynchronous
Learning Networks is scheduled for November 8-10, 2002 at the Rosen Centre Hotel in
Orlando, FL The conference will cover pedagogy, faculty roles and rewards, faculty
development and support, instructional applications, and policies and practices. For
more information see: http://www.sloan-c.org

* LIFELONG LEARNING CONVENTION - The Annual Convention on Lifelong Learning
will be held December 5-7, 2002 in Orlando, FL at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. For
updates, news, and convention registration go to: http://www.lern.org/annual_convention
__________________________________________________________________________

ENDNOTE

Many of us who strive to create accessible Web sites can't fully appreciate how helpful these
efforts can be. Often we use examples like "try navigating without your mouse" or "turn off
your images and explore a Web page without alternative text". But one of the best ways to
discover how beneficial accessible Web sites can be is to learn from someone who uses and
depends on them. At the University of Wisconsin, we have been fortunate to work with Neal
Ewers of the Trace Research Center. Neal is featured on a video that is available on the Web.
It's enjoyable, easy to understand, and is itself a demonstration of how to make multimedia
accessible. A quote of Neal's from the video:

"If I were able to see the screen, I would know that there were a couple of titles on the screen
that are in bold letters, they are centered and they are in larger text. I can't see that, so the
problem a blind user has is that one begins to read, not knowing anything about the layout of
the page. The only way you know what's on the page is when you get to it. Greg
Vanderheiden, our Director of the Trace Center, has often referred to it as the soda straw
approach. You are looking through this small hole. You're reading one word at a time, and
that's all you see, and that's all I hear, until I get to the next word. I have no clue that down
half way down the page is a bold heading." - 'Introduction to the Screen Reader' is available
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison at:http://www.doit.wisc.edu/accessibility/video/

(Michele Jacques, Instructional Communications Systems, University of Wisconsin-Extension,
Distance Education Clearinghouse Web Master.)
__________________________________________________________________________

SEPTEMBER DESIEN FOCUS ARTICLE - Developing, Archiving, and Disseminating
Learning Objects: the Process by Rosemary Lehman and Simone Conceição
__________________________________________________________________________

DESIEN ARCHIVE: An Archive has been created for past issues and interaction
comments. To access the archive go to: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/desien/

DESIEN includes subscribers from institutions and organizations around the globe.
DESIEN encourages information exchange of distance education issues concerned with:
1) distance education progress and course/program development, 2) team development
and collaboration, 3) technology, 4) policy, 5) funding and 6) research. Subscribers
outside of the UW System are encouraged to submit information and contributions.

* To submit articles or questions, email: lehman@ics.uwex.edu
* Encourage your colleagues to subscribe to DESIEN. To subscribe they
should do the following:

To: listproc@uwex.edu
Subject: (leave blank)

In the body of the message:

Subscribe DESIEN-List firstname lastname

To CHANGE your address or UNSUBSCRIBE your name from the list, send
an eMail with that information to: lehman@ics.uwex.edu
_____________________________________

Owner/Editor: Rosemary Lehman, Ph.D.
lehman@ics.uwex.edu
Copyright 2002 Board of Regents
University of Wisconsin