Personal Narratives
In addition to looking at the data, it is important to know how students feel about accessibility at Tech, especially during this unprecedented time. Budget numbers can't capture the individual experiences of each student, so we collected personal narratives from many students at Tech to see how they felt about our new online classes and how easy or difficult it was to get used to this new form of learning. Because there are very few examples of how to deal with learning in a crisis of this magnitude, it is expected that these forms of classes are not perfect, but it is important for Georgia Tech to take in feedback. Specifically, we asked students about universal design, or design that is accessible to everyone, in their online classes this semester. The list of personal narratives we collected on this topic is below.
"All my classes this semester have taken the online form. Despite being listed as “hybrid” in the beginning of the semester, most of my classes became more flexible due to the rise in COVID19 cases. My synchronous and asynchronous classes strongly follow the universal design. They’re adaptable to the ongoing circumstances by providing pre-recorded lectures. This allows for students to attend the synchronous lectures or watch them later on their own time. It doesn’t take too much effort to attend the lectures because they can be done at any location. Professors have made them simple to access and an appropriate size. Depending on the class, it is hard to communicate between professor and students. Based off personal experience, it can be hard to reach out to professors. Students can feel hesitant to ask questions in the class chat. I personally work better in an in–person class setting, so I can ask questions if need be. Being in an in-person class also limits distractions. Overall, Georgia Tech has done a favorable job following the universal design, but they should consider offering more in person classes."
-Anna Neal, first year student
"Georgia Tech is doing a reasonable job following the universal learning design, but there is still room for improvement."
"As a first-year student, I do not have any in-person classes. Despite them being all online, each class took a different approach. I found that some were more interactive than others. My chemistry class and math studio use polls and other forms of participation. This helps with engaging students. However, some of my lecture classes lack this interactive portion and information is not delivered well. Although I like having a few asynchronous classes, I tend to miss class. This is not a problem now because of it pre-recorded lectures, but it could become one in the future. With classes being completely online, it makes it harder to ask questions for clarification. In an in-person class, it is easy to raise my hand whereas now it seems like more of a burden to email my professors consistently. Overall, given the circumstances, Georgia Tech is doing a reasonable job following the universal learning design, but there is still room for improvement."
-Regina Cuellar, first year student
"My classes are completely online and mostly asynchronous. My professors grade participation by pre- and post-lecture quizzes. The classes that I do have synchronous are all recorded and easy to access. I probably spend around 6 hours a day on my computer doing homework and watching lectures. The lectures that I watch live do not have any captions available, and the recorded lectures I watch have highly inaccurate captions. Most of the classes I have are highly flexible except for my government class. My government class is the only one that expects people to participate, and we are put in small breakout groups. Also, the only live quizzes and tests I take are for my math class; the rest are given in a 24-hour window. I have not noticed any major ways that my professors have conducted an inaccessible class."
- Tatum Connor, first year student
"Overall, my teachers are doing a good job of giving students at Tech and abroad ample time to do the school work."
The classes I am taking this semester are online, except for my chemistry lab that meets once every other week. The online classes are all synchronous except for my history class, but all of the lectures are recorded for people to watch if they are unable to attend the class because of time zone differences. The way my teachers count participation are by requiring daily quizzes, which allows time for those in different time zones to do the work at a reasonable hour. One challenge is that with my chemistry tests, I am required to take test at a certain time, which does not affect me but could others. For the rest of my classes, the quizzes and tests are given in a 24-hour period. With my current class load, I am only on my computer doing school work about 5.5 hours a day, which is quite low compared to my peers. The information is mostly delivered via lecture or through PowerPoints (allowing for screen readers to be accurate). Overall, my teachers are doing a good job of giving students at Tech and abroad ample time to do the school work."
- Jonathan Rentfro, first year student
"All of my classes are virtual except for my architecture studio which meets in person once a week and virtually once a week. My online classes are synchronous except for history and english. History is much more asynchronous than english because the only requirements are to watch the prerecorded lectures at some point before each of their respective exams. The exam window is also very flexible because we have a week to take it, but once started the test is timed. English is also asynchronous, but the assignments are due in a more synchronous and scheduled way. Math is synchronous with two lectures and a recitation each week. The weekly homework is due every Thursday with a quiz or midterm every Friday. This is nice because it is a consistent schedule and I always know exactly what is expected of me and when. The into to design course is synchronous three times a week. We have had two in-person sessions where our projects are critiqued as we present instead of the critique just being reflected in the grade. Each professor uses different online platforms which was confusing at first, but after getting used to it, it is fairly manageable. The class that consumes the majority of my time is the architecture studio because I am very meticulous with my projects."
- Kathryn Kammerer, first year student
"Communication is a very important part of [universal design], and one that was changed a lot due to classes being held remotely."
"This semester, all my classes have been completely online. When comparing these classes to the Universal Design for Learning, the classes do well for many of the categories. Communication is a very important part of UDL, and one that was changed a lot due to classes being held remotely. My classes have utilized multiple online resources such as Canvas, GroupMe, Piazza, and Discord for communication outside of lectures, which has allowed me to ask questions and find answers easily. Perception is a section of UDL that focuses on making information easily accessible to everyone. Online classes can make this difficult. Captions can’t be put on live lectures and many people’s eyes can’t handle looking at a computer screen for hours every day. It’s important that classes provide multiple ways to obtain information by using videos, text, and images to explain topics and make learning adjustable. Most of my classes have done a great job of this by having many different ways of presenting information. One of my classes has a mix of written information and pre-recorded lectures that include subtitles. Other classes include online textbooks and websites that help students learn alongside lectures. Variety in homework and projects is also important. This has been demonstrated in two of my classes, which have given me a variety of projects and work that require me to record videos, make posters, and work on paper instead of only online."
--William Greene, first year student
"In two of my classes the videos are very poorly captioned and that does not accommodate for people with trouble hearing."
"All of my classes have been completely online this semester apart from a few in-person meetings in my English class. I spend around 5 hours a day working on homework or watching lectures. One of my classes, CS 1331, was already designed to be online, so the class has pre-recorded lectures which can be watched at any time during the week with accurate captions. My other lecture-based classes have live lectures that are recorded and can be watched at any time but don’t include captions. Being able to watch lectures whenever I want is much easier than watching them live and allows me to schedule my days a lot easier. However, while online classes allow for more flexibility, I find it easier to learn in an in-person environment. I haven’t had any issues with communicating with my professors or TA’s during this semester."
-Brett Pietruzka, first year student
"All of my classes this semester have been online. In some of my classes there have been optional in person meetups. Three out of my four classes have the lectures recorded and at my access whenever I want. The other class requires me to attend the online live lectures. Online classes here at Georgia Tech have not followed Universal Design Learning. I believe the “Means of Representation” aspect is not being followed very well. In two of my classes the videos are very poorly captioned and that does not accommodate for people with trouble hearing. Also, in my class that does not record the lectures that students who could have had internet problems for a day may fall behind because they will never be able to see that lecture. I believe Georgia Tech could improve accessibility and accommodate for their students more by requiring professors to carefully caption videos. Georgia Tech has been doing a fairly good job considering the times that we live in now. Most classes are offered online and this helps students who may be at risk of contracting the Coronavirus. These times have been difficult and I believe Georgia Tech has been doing pretty good in accommodating for the most part. I believe with improvements in the previous things then it will become even better for students' accessibility to learning."
--Brandon Boyett, first year student
"All of my classes are online and asynchronous. Half of my classes heavily involve group work which is completed using various platforms. Using all of these different platforms make it difficult to communicate with the people I am working with. Spending several hours, a day doing all of my work online is very straining and not ideal. Not having the structure of a real classroom setting has kept me from being accountable with my work. I believe something that Georgia Tech could improve on with their virtual learning would be making the assessments more lenient with the submission process. Many of my classes have their quizzes/tests timed and are only open for a very limited window. If I were to have any technical issues and I run out of time then I am penalized for that technical mistake. I believe things would be much better if the process was less time crunched. This is mainly the only accessibility issue I have with online learning."
-Jake Michiels, first year student
"Using all of these different platforms make it difficult to communicate with the people I am working with."
"All but two of my classes this semester have been completely online. One of my classes that does meet in person only meets two times in person the entire semester. The other class with in-person components has half the class meet in-person one day a week and online one day a week. I find it very difficult to stay motivated during online classes. Psychologically, there is no difference between staring at lectures all day and watching YouTube all day. This makes the perceptible information section of Universal Design Learning very difficult to fulfil since all the information is auditory and visual."
-Eli Nunez, first year student