regentrude Posted August 16, 2017 Share Posted August 16, 2017 I know that one of you (Scoutermom?) has posted before about switching to open courseware for her classes, and remember that there were issues with ensuring complicance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Can you give me some details? Pm or repond in thread. I am seriously thinking of adopting OpenStax and want to know what to watch out for. thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Yes, it was me. I used Openstax Statistics for a basic Intro to Stats course. The course was for non-math majors and fulfilled the basic math component for for graduation. The students hated the Openstax books. I had 30 students and only 1 gave the book a passing grade. The text was more cumbersome and complicated than it needed to be for the level of statistics I was teaching. I got lucky and did not have any students who needed a reader to help with the textbook. It wouldn't have passed muster with ADA compliance. At that particular CC, the instructor is responsible for contacting the publisher to ensure compliance. I made a feeble attempt but didn't follow through once I quit relying on the textbook. It just wasn't worth it for me. I ended up piecemealing info from older stats books, youtube, and the internet. My goodness, it was a lot of work and I am thrilled to not have to go through that again this school year. I have heard, though, that Openstax has some fairly good textbook available. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 I got lucky and did not have any students who needed a reader to help with the textbook. It wouldn't have passed muster with ADA compliance. Could you explain this a bit more? I don't understand why the OpenStax book cannot be handled by a reader just the same as any other text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 I'm not sure about the mechanics of it but it has to do with font, spacing, color, whitespace, etc. Every single document we created for students, whether it was online or in print, had to be compliant and the rejections could be for minor things like the shade of blue that was used. It was a pain when converting the Openstax text into powerpoint slides. I couldn't simply cut and paste. I had to adjust the font, change the spacing, etc. That's how I knew that the text wouldn't pass ADA compliance - selections from the text needed too much tweaking to pass the compliance tests. Had I continued to teach, I would have selected a different textbook. The time I spent trying to make the Openstax textbook work for my class was beyond sensible. I just checked out this site and it shows that the book I used is not available in Web Reader. Most of the other books are. Maybe that is part of the issue I had. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 This site looks like it provides accessibility information for certain textbooks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 Thanks, that is helpful. I am making my own Powerpoints and never use what the book provides since they are mostly horrible, even for the standard textbooks. I've contacted our disability office because I remembered your stories. Will see what they say about requirements. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 The community college I work for is pushing towards open source texts, and there's an approval process to use one. ADA compliance is just one of the concerns. You probably know that most paper texts are not completely ADA compliant, so it is something to definitely look into. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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