Artifact 6 - Designing and Accessible Instructional Resources
AECT Standard 3: Learning Environments
Context & Conditions
This artifact is a Designing and Accessible Instructional Resource for EDET 735. In this artifact, we were asked to create a website on a topic with the intent of focusing on accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). For this artifact, I created a website about the importance of time management for college students. On the website, we had to focus on incorporating accessibility and UDL by adding descriptive alt text for images and links, using appropriate headings, ensuring color contrast, font, and font size are multimodal and accessibility-friendly, and ensuring the website is accessible.
This artifact had several layers of design incorporated into the final product. For this specific artifact, the website was developed and published on Google Sites. Furthermore, the artifact incorporated a Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow that focuses on how UDL and accessibility are supported, eliminating barriers for all students to access the best educational experience. When creating the website, I mainly focused on using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as the framework for the presentation of my final product. Additionally, for the visuals, such as the images and videos, I focused on integrating Mayer’s Multimedia Learning Model (2009) into the artifact to provide visuals to help strengthen the understanding of the learners of the topic being taught.
Scope
The purpose of the artifact was to create a accessible website and PowerPoint that aligns with the UDL principles on the topic choice that we decided at the beginning of the course. I chose to focus on effective time management skills that college students can use. This artifact was designed and developed in EDET 735 with Dr. Smith and this artifact was not made with a larger curriculum. However, this artifact could potentially be placed as a resource for college students as a toolkit or like an introductory course to college life such as Uni 101 as a unit that the students will learn about. Many collegiate students do not know how to manage their time effectively, so it would be a great resource for students to use in their college experience.
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When creating this artifact, I had an abundance of skills going into this creation. One skill that I focused on was using Mayer's Multimedia Learning Model (2009) to provide a balance between images, videos, and text of information for the learners. Moreover, I applied the skills from the Universal Design of Learning framework and guidelines from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.1 AA to help configure a back end support that created my website to be accessible to diversified group of learners.
Role
My role in the creation of this artifact was solely designed and developed by me. There were no subject matter experts (SMEs) a part of this creation; however, I did use resources such as Unlocking Academic Success: The Impact of Time Management on College Students’ Study Engagement, written by Yangyan Fu, et al., April 2025, in the National Library of Medicine and Relation between Stress, Time Management, and Academic Achievement in Preclinical Education written by Ahmady Soleiman, et al., 2021 in the Journal of Education and Health Promotion to help learn about the impacts of time management on college students. There were a few more peer review resources that provided great information to help gather a good understanding of the importance of time management for college students. Due to the requirements of the assignment, this artifact was designed and developed by me.
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Instructional Design
​The instructional design phase during this artifact aligns with the ADDIE model by designing and designing a website. By creating a lesson plan, I was able to create learning targets to support the learners, with the focus on creating a final product that was accessible to all learners. As part of the analysis phase, the designer must identify learners’ characteristics, which include any barriers that might impact the learner’s experience when learning (Branch, 2009). By analyzing the learners, I was able to design this artifact with the purpose of including inclusive practices such as alt text, color contrast, heuristics, closed captioning enabled for videos, and multimodal learning to support all learning needs. By doing the analysis phase in the ADDIE model, I was able to implement inclusive practices to support all learners and lower the learning barriers for the user.
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This artifact aligns with the Morrison, Ross, and Kemp (MRK) instructional design model by focusing on the learners’ characteristics, learning objectives, and the instructional delivery. By conducting a needs assessment, the designer was able to identify that the learner characteristic, it can help design learning objectives that support the learner and ultimately develop an instruction delivery that supports the learner while learning about time management. By understanding your learners, the process of designing and developing instructions that would support a diverse group of learners improves the effectiveness of instructions is key to the success of your learners (Morrison et al., 2013).
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Related Performance Indicator
​Diversity of learners – Candidates foster a learning community that empowers learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities. (p.10)
Reflection
​When looking back at this project, I demonstrated a lot of growth in the design and development of this project. Coming into this project, I had an in-depth understanding of Mayer’s Multimedia of Learning (2009) principles, Universal Design of Learning (UDL), alignment to meet the WCAG 2.1 AA requirements, and the cognitive load theory. Furthermore, I had a good understanding of the ADDIE model and ARCs model to help continue the motivation for the learners to continue their learning throughout the learning experience.
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This artifact aligns with the AECT 2012 standard three, with the focus on the diversity of learners. The primary focus of this artifact was to teach college students how to effectively manage time while implementing the UDL principles into the project. By implementing color contrast, descriptive alt text for images and links, clear structure, visual indicators, and meaningful headings to help guide all learners to use my website without creating potential barriers. Additionally, standard four states, “Candidates foster a learning community that empowers learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities. (AECT, 2012). By implementing elements into PowerPoint, Word Documents, and the website, diverse students can navigate, interact, and comprehend the information without causing learners to increase cognitive overload and create barriers for learners’ experiences.