Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Habibah Khan

Date

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Instruction & Curriculum Leadership

Committee Chair

Andrew Tawfik

Committee Member

Yvonne Earnshaw

Committee Member

Clif Mims

Committee Member

Craig Shepherd

Abstract

Due to an increasing number of students gaining access to online courses, online education is quickly becoming more prevalent within the learning paradigm. In order to accommodate students with disabilities (SWD), a need arised to create an inclusive learningenvironment which allows all learners to feel comfortable in their learning without feeling any prejudice. Federal laws were passed to protect SWD and thus, educational models were developed to create an inclusive learning environment especially SWD. Amongst one of the models developed to create an inclusive learning environment is the universal design for learning (UDL). However, despite the existence of UDL research for SWD, there is still an empirical gap that investigates the discrepancy between UDL attitudes and actions of faculty to create an inclusive learning environment especially for SWD. To address this gap, quantitative data were collected from 32 faculty members who taught at least one online course at a public university in the southern region of the United States using the Inclusive Teaching Strategies Inventory (ITSI; Lombardi et al., 2015) to examine faculty members attitudes and self-reported actions toward accessibility in online higher education courses. Specifically, the constructs measured included: accommodations, accessiblecourse materials, course modifications, inclusive classroom, and inclusive assessment. In this study, the researcher identified statistically significant differences between the attitudes and actions among faculty members in their support of SWDs in online education for each of the five constructs. By identifying differences between attitudes and practices among faculty members,this study identifies gaps that could be used to improve online learning, IDT courses, professional development in higher education contexts, and also professional organizations, such as special education organizations and instructional technology organizations. This research could further be used to address the identified gaps and improve academic outcomes for SWD.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest

Notes

Open Access

Download

Share

COinS