Core Area 3: The Wider Context
Understanding and Engaging with Legislation, Policies, and Standards
Currently, the most important legislation affecting my work is the Hong Kong government's Copyright Ordinance (1997). Rarely am I equipped to use entirely original content in my courses. Theories, charts, videos, and portions of texts sometimes are irreplaceable, though cannot be freely distributed under local law. Unfortunately, legislation is very complex with the Copyright Ordinance's full text spanning 434 pages. Education has a lot of grey area under copyright laws, so I have to be careful to meet the criteria outlined in the legislation. The PolyU Library has comprehensive documentation and experts to help assure intellectual property is properly implemented.
I primarily work with Blackboard and EdX courses, so the information is sometimes on local servers and other times remote servers and the courses can sometimes be seen publicly and others are private courses. As I've learned from workshops and research, all of these factors are treated differently in copyright law. One of the copyright guidelines says copyrighted materials cannot be kept on local servers for a period of more than 12 months. To combat this, PolyU implemented a recent policy change to purge Blackboard courses which are over 12 months old. This means that I had to develop new processes to be used twice a year to archive grade books and other important details from courses before the semester purge.
EdX can be more problematic because it is a remote server which can often be accessed by the public. The library has presented at our monthly workshops, addressing the issue of copyright materials in these courses. There is certainly less tolerance, so it is very beneficial to have this kind of training, since many instructors have primarily worked with the Blackboard system in the past. This also shows inconsistencies in the way the law is interpreted and enforced, so I am more aware to research possible discrepancies when working on a new project or with new technologies.
As evidence, I've included a copy of my EDC attendance to two workshops on copyright issues in Hong Kong and the 22/09/16 MOOCs + SPOCs: Copyright presentation facilitated by staff from the PolyU library. I often reference the PolyU Library's Guideline for Using Copyright Materials in Learning and Teaching when I'm in a position where the copyrighted materials are imperative to the learning: https://www.lib.polyu.edu.hk/copyright/
A challenge I have consistently faced is working with limited resources. This sometimes requires creative solutions since I don't usually have graphic designers, videographers, and programming specialists on hand. I have learned to be a jack of all trades and acquire skills in many different areas to keep development streamlined and cost effective. While I consult documentation and specialists about questionable copyright issues, I have collected a variety of resources which offer CC0 public domain images, copyright-free music, and free programming code to further enrich my courses in a legal and ethical way.
I have mostly learned to access copyright-free resources, so an area I could improve upon is becoming more knowledgeable with the process to request permission to use copyrighted materials and gain a more in-depth understanding of the particulars of educational purposes in copyright law. The issue certainly isn't black and white as one person you ask might say that materials used educationally circumvent typical laws, whereas another might interpret laws more strictly. I think that never using copyrighted materials can be detrimental to learning sometimes because some theories or data is irreplaceable in a sense, so my knowledge and application of copyright laws can directly affect the quality of courses I develop.
Policy/Legislation
Probably the most eye-opening experience at Lansing Community College came after the hiring of a legally blind department director. I had spent months in my role revising and creating new training modules on the LMS. My department had never considered making materials available to people with disabilities since we had never encountered this type of situation before. I had to learn as much as I could about Section 508 Compliance in regards to accessibility. All clickable elements had to be labeled with metadata for audio navigation, images were tagged with text descriptions which could be processed by screen reader tools, and tests had to be created in 508 compliant software to include all correct markers. It was a good experience to learn about creating compliant e-learning courses.
Section 508 is only one piece under the Unites States' Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The key point I had to consider was that our technologies must be "operated in a variety of ways and does not rely on a single sense or ability of the user." The training modules were almost entirely text and image-based, so overwhelmingly visual. By making sure text was readable and not embedded into images, along with providing image descriptions; modules became compliant for the blind. Alternately, if I used videos or other audio, I now had to be sure to include full transcripts to accommodate hearing-impaired users.
For evidence, I've included a 508 and WCAG 2.0 compliance check on one of my Lectora Inspire modules. Red text indicates problems which should be addressed whereas blue indicates possible problems which should be verified before publishing the project. Also, an HTML web compliance checklist from the US Department of Health and Human Services was consulted frequently and still is when I am trying to make sure documents, websites, and training are accessible. This and many other helpful resources can be found here: https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/index.html
In my example, it was terribly embarrassing and shameful that we were not prepared for people with disabilities. I have used this opportunity to consciously adapt accessibility standards into the training programs I have worked on since that situation. I have become more aware of the usability weaknesses in my courses and I now proactively address these issues before going live with the course. In turn, I have learned about the features to implement and check for Section 508 compliance in the software I regularly use like Adobe Captivate and Techsmith Camtasia.
Aside from being lawfully compliant, a major benefit to my users was that they would not be excluded or singled-out in any way. The blind user who brought the lack of compliance to my attention required me to read and describe each page of each required training module to him. I think this scenario could be demeaning to some people, but luckily this particular user was hired to manage accessibility aspects within the college library, so he was quite understanding about the whole situation. It is certainly an issue I need to be aware of when working in different countries also since localities can have varying laws regarding accessibility for disabled persons. Many techniques can be carried over for multilingual support also like providing both Chinese and English subtitles to videos here in Hong Kong.