I really hope this book has been useful. I have covered how to use both parts of the Graphic Design Checklist to create accessible, well-designed e-learning in ways that reduce cognitive load and improve learning. Applying the concepts in the Graphic Design Checklist has been handy in my career, and I hope that you enjoyed my story in how it came to be. I have been a fan of these principles forever and I see how applying them can create access, limit barriers, and make for more inclusive classrooms. We have more ways to support you. If after reading this book you feel you would like some more support in using the checklist to design your courses.
Please email me at dawn.diperi@eastendadvertising.com if you have any questions or concerns regarding the information in this book, taking a course, or if you would like to book a free, 15-minute discovery call to discuss your professional needs. I am happy to discuss how we can fulfill your faculty development or corporate training needs. Additionally, you can choose to work one-on-one to support your visual design goals, personal portfolios, or professional practice. We also are working on a flagship course called Graphic Design for Course Designers, which you can take as a way to supplement this book.
I am happy to provide more tools, technologies, techniques, and theories surrounding digital accessibility and graphic design at a workshop as well. At the time of publication, all the links provided in the book were active and live. In the future, we may plan to do additional editions. Please note that at that time, we will evaluate any tools, technologies, or links that need updating. Thank you for reading Graphic Design for Course Designers. I hope that it helps you to design transformational learning experiences in an emotionally, technically, and functionally accessible way.
Suggested guided questions/projects to assess your understanding of the topics in the book:
- Scenario 1: A Subject Matter Expert gives you 50 PowerPoint slides and tells you to “make it pretty.” What do you say and do to clarify what that means? How will you approach accessibility before you begin?
- Scenario 2: Your manager/department head wants you to develop a new course but use the company-branded colors only. What will you say to them to ensure that visually impaired learners can still access the course? What can you do to the colors to make them more accessible if you have no choice but to include them? In what ways can you design the course while still using these organizational colors?
- Scenario 3: You are getting some pushback when you express concern about the accessibility of courses. You try to convince your coworkers to be on board with redesigning/evaluating current courses to improve them in terms of both visual design and accessible design. What can you say to help convince the team? What organizational procedures can you put in place if you are in a position to do so? How can you use the advocates in your organization to help the cause?
- Scenario 4: You are tasked with embedding some video materials online. You notice there are either no captions or inaccurate captions. What can you do to change this? What are the best practices in caption creation and how can you advocate for improvement?
- Scenario 5: You are about to teach a class and you have a roster of 10 people, 5 of which have some form of disability. You are teaching a course that has been taught before and you have little to no control in changing the lessons, assessments, and material. What can you do to accommodate learners and how can you give choices and options to students in this scenario? What kinds of discussions can you have with the university to improve the course and how will you evaluate it to know if it is sufficiently meeting the needs of various types of students?
- Scenario 6: You are responsible for coming up with the fonts and colors in a compliance-based e-learning course series on fire safety. What fonts will you use? What colors? How will you use the principles of graphic design as you create a template for other designers and how will you defend your choices if asked?
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