- What assets did you find in common across the exceptionalities. What have you learned from this exploration of assets in students who are often examined from a deficits perspective? I found that most, if not all, of the assets can be related or often use the same exceptionalities. I mostly saw that speech/communication often used the same assistive technologies for organizations, games and enrichment accommodations. Often these exceptionalities cause a person/student to problem solve by using creativity to develop a system to learn. I have learned a great deal about “assets” but I feel as if it only scratched the surface on what to learn and explore. For me, I struggled with the relating to student assets because I often have little or no contact with students individually to determine deficits perspective.
- What strategies did you find in common across the exceptionalities? In the case of online delivery there are few strategies that can be built into an online course for a broad audience. Many of the strategies will have to come from each instructor to each student individually, however, online courses can be built to accommodate students for reading and hearing difficulties by finding alternative materials; reading accommodations including a video/audio option, color or dyslexia accommodations, and videos with closed captioning for hearing accommodations. Also, some student need extra time for exams or assignments, which is very possible in an online course.
- How will you incorporate each of these strategies into your instruction on a regular basis? These strategies can be implemented into an online course during development based on the course content provided by the instructor or Subject Matter Expert (SME). As a course designer we need to remind the instructor or SME who the audience is and what the standards are at the university for accommodations. Many accommodations can be easily implemented into an online course for individual students who need alternative materials, extra time for scheduling, and extra directions for assignments. Although, many online teachers should already be doing this for students. - How will you address learners' needs that fall outside of these commonalities? Identify a few unique needs and the exceptionalities from which they originate, and offer suggestions about how you will meet those needs. Students in this category will be addressed by the online course instructor on an individual basis, however some points can be put into place during course development such as reading options for those with hearing, reading, or language barriers, assignment and exam options for letting gifted students to choose guide themselves as they see best fit for their needs and exceptionalities. I am a firm believer that will would provide an individual learning experience for each student.