CourseAvenue (external link) has worked with the USDA to integrate USDA standards, including Section 508 compliance, into its eLearning technology. As a result, when using CourseAvenue Studio to build self-paced eLearning modules, users automatically inherit all of the fundamental Section 508 compliance features needed to quickly turn “information” into “education”.
For the USDA, a CourseAvenue module appears as a “SCORM Activity.”
What types of things can you put in a CourseAvenue course and still have it be Section 508 compliant?
- Text, graphics, and hyperlinks
- Audio, video (standalone videos or YouTube videos, recorded Teams sessions)
- Learner-driven “branching”
- Un-scored knowledge checks, “pre-assessments”, scored “final exams” and/or learner surveys. Questions can be from a variety of question types including: Multiple choice, Fill-in the blank, Matching, True/false, Ordered Lists, Satisfaction surveys, custom survey questions, open-ended survey questions
How is Section 508 Compliance built-in?
CourseAvenue worked with the accessibility community to first map all of the essential eLearning elements (e.g. overall learner navigation, assessment question interactions, keyboarding, use of video, etc.) to their Section 508/WCAG 2.x AA counterparts. This “mapping exercise” was then validated as Section 508/WCAG 2.x compliant first by an independent third party then again by team AgLearn.
As a user of CourseAvenue Studio, you simply provide your content (e.g. your videos, your text, graphics, assessment questions, etc.) using the “eAuth integrated” Studio Editor “Aurora”.
Built-in Accessibility Analysis
Beyond all of the built-in Section 508 compliance features, CourseAvenue Studio includes an “accessibility analysis tool” that will review each and every aspect of your course and generate a report showing what was analyzed along with any errors or warnings. Here is a link to a sample analysis (external link) done on the federal “What is a Record” course.
3rd Party/Contractor use
Contractors working on behalf of USDA personnel are welcome to leverage the USDA – CourseAvenue platform. In this model, a contractor can obtain a USDA “Affiliate license” and work directly with the USDA team in the shared workspace. The USDA team can literally “watch” (and leave comments) as the course is being built – all in “real-time”.
Importantly, when the course is published, the USDA (and not the contractor) retains ownership of all assets that make up the course. If or when updates are needed to the course, the updates can be made by anyone with a license – not requiring one to re-engage with the original contractor.
Learning Analytics & Surveys
- How many learners missed question 5?
- What was the most selected wrong answer?
- How did the learners like the course?
- What did they have to say about it?
Questions like this can all be answered using CourseAvenue’s Track and Analytics features. For a demo, please contact us.
Beyond “authoring”
Learning CourseAvenue’s Content Management System (“LCMS”) features
The foundation of CourseAvenue Studio is a “learning content management system” (“LCMS”). The LCMS features enable users to store, track and report on all media (e.g. pdf’s, .docx, .pptx, hyperlinks, etc.) used in any course.
For example, are you ever curious to know how many times a given hyperlink is used across all of your eLearning courses? Simply click on the “where used” button to see wherever the link is used. Update the link in one place and the updated link is automatically reflected – everywhere, in every course the link is used.
