Dear MOOC Educator,
For the most part, you guys
rock. It’s truly amazing the wealth of
knowledge that is available on the internet, from experts in their fields, and
often available for free. The model of
education is changing rapidly due to digitization, and it’s becoming
increasingly possible for individuals to decide what they want to learn, how
they want to learn it, and when they want to learn it.
My formal education was in
Communication with an emphasis in Film studies and later Performance
studies.
In the mid-eighties, I don’t
think anyone could have anticipated the explosion of information and the value
that would be placed on those who could extract meaning from large quantities
of data.
My required college math
consisted of a college algebra class and a logic class in the philosophy
department. My “computer literacy” was earned
by taking an introduction to journalism class.
Turning on the word processor counted as “computing.”
I do remember doing some
programming in BASIC as a kid, but that was about it, despite both my
grandfather and father teaching computer programming on the college level. It just didn’t seem relevant to my young
self.
So fast forward into the second
decade of the twenty-first century, and, not only have my interests changed,
but the demands of the economy have changed, although I doubt, in hindsight,
that the ability to analyze a 1940’s film noir for its homoerotic subtext was
ever highly valued beyond academia.
“Big Data,” whatever that really
means, and analytics are huge, and who would have guessed that every interest
known to mankind would have its own TV channel and thousands of websites and
blogs. So, I still want to write and be
creative. I just want to write and be
creative about the data and analysis surrounding the things I’m interested in,
and hopefully get paid for it.
So, I’ve set out to learn the
math I didn’t take and the computer programs I didn’t learn and MOOCs are a
huge resource. Except for one thing:
I have very poor vision.
I’ve struggled through a Sabermetrics
101 class, in the SQL and R programming sections, largely because the video
quality is very poor and the effective size of the text from the video on even
my 24 inch screen is about 6 point. Essentially,
I can’t see the examples, and without examples I don’t learn very easily.
I’m now encountering the same issue
in a separate R class.
Could you show screen shots that are
zoomed in on the code, instead of the whole program screen shot?
Could you provide still screen
captures, also zoomed in on the code?
Could you supply supplementary
materials in the form of Word documents or .pdfs that show the code?
I realize that not everyone has a
problem seeing your demonstration. Trust
me. I developed very good listening
skills and inference skills as a child because I couldn’t see the
blackboard. I don’t mind doing a little
extra work. In fact, I expect to have to
do a little extra.
But, you could go a long way to
helping me and others like me out by taking into consideration accessibility
for the visually impaired, for the hearing impaired, or just those who learn a
little slower.
Thank you for your attention to
this matter.
Sincerely,
Brian D. Hight
Technology Accessibility
