An Open Letter to MOOC Educators

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