When we talk about accessibility, the goal is simple: make sure all students can access and engage with your course materials. Some students rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, speech-to-text software, or screen magnifiers to interact with digital content. If a digital file isn’t structured in a way that those tools can interpret, the information may be difficult or impossible for those students to use effectively.

Accessibility is also increasingly important from a compliance perspective. Updated ADA Title II regulations require digital content at public institutions to be accessible, including materials shared through learning management systems like Moodle. This includes the files many instructors use every day, such as Word documents, PowerPoint slides, and PDFs.

The good news is that improving accessibility usually doesn’t require rebuilding your materials from scratch. In most cases, it just means making a few small adjustments when creating or editing your files. Even better, many of the tools you're already using include built-in accessibility checkers that help identify potential issues and guide you through fixes. For example:

• Microsoft Word and PowerPoint include an Accessibility Checker that flags things like missing alt text, unclear headings, or table structure problems.
• Adobe Acrobat provides tools to check and improve the accessibility of PDFs.
• Google Docs and Slides support accessibility through add-ons like Grackle.
• Panorama allows you to remediate text content and files on Moodle and eSpace.

Often, accessible files come down to a few simple best practices, like organizing content with headings, adding alternative text to images, and structuring tables properly. Below is a simple workflow you can use when creating and remediating course files.

A Simple Workflow for Remediating Files

Start with the Accessibility Checker

Open your file in its original program and run the built-in accessibility checker (for example, in Microsoft Word / PowerPoint, select “Review,” then “Check Accessibility”).

The checker will generate a list of potential issues, such as:

• Missing alt text for images
• Missing document headings
• Tables without headers
• Low color contrast

These tools walk you through issues one at a time, making the process much more manageable.

Use Headings to Structure Content

Headings help all readers, including screen reader users, navigate a document. Instead of manually bolding or enlarging text, apply built-in heading styles:

• Heading 1 → Major sections
• Heading 2 → Subsections
• Heading 3 → Subtopics

Add Alternative Text to Images

If your document includes images, charts, or diagrams, add alt text that describes the purpose of the image. Examples:

• Image: Graph showing enrollment growth
• Alt text: Line chart showing enrollment increasing from 10,000 students in 2015 to 14,000 students in 2024.

Without alt text, screen readers simply announce “image,” leaving students without access to the information the image conveys.

Ensure Tables Are Structured Properly

Tables should include a header row, clear column labels, and a simple structure. Screen readers rely on table headers to interpret relationships between rows and columns. View this webpage for more information about table headings.

Use Meaningful Links

• Insert a link instead of writing “click here.”
• Use descriptive links such as “download the APA formatting guide.”

Screen readers often generate lists of links. Descriptive text helps users understand where each link goes and improves overall readability and information scanning for sighted readers.

Export PDFs Carefully

If you convert files to PDFs, accessibility should begin with the original document. A good workflow is:

1. Make the Word or PowerPoint file accessible first.
2. Export the file to PDF.
3. Upload your PDF to Moodle, eSpace or Panorama DocHub and have Panorama scan the file. For full-time faculty, you can run the Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Checker if additional fixes are needed.

Whenever possible, avoid scanned PDFs, which are often unreadable by screen readers. If you have a scanned PDF in your course, you can use Panorama to create an OCR-overlaid PDF, which is more accessible for students. To do so, go to the Moodle course or eSpace where your scanned PDF is stored, click on the Panorama smiley face icon, click on OCR and then select OCR overlaid PDF. After you click OCR overlaid PDF, it will take 5-10 minutes to generate this PDF and then you will be able to download the PDF and upload it to replace the scanned PDF.

When in Doubt, Panorama It Out

In addition to fixing files directly, instructors also have access to an accessibility tool inside Moodle. YuJa Panorama automatically scans course materials for accessibility issues. If you are new to Panorama, please reference the Panorama User Guide. Panorama can analyze:

• Uploaded files (Word, PowerPoint, PDFs)
• Moodle pages and course content
• Common accessibility barriers within course materials

After scanning your course, Panorama generates a Course Accessibility Report showing an overall accessibility score, files and content with accessibility issues, and suggested improvements. In some cases, Panorama can fix issues automatically or generate alternative formats for students. For issues that require manual corrections, Panorama identifies the problem so you can revise the original file and make the necessary changes.

Keep Moving Toward More Accessible Content

Accessibility can feel overwhelming at first, especially if you’re thinking about years of course materials at once. The key thing to remember is that accessibility is a process, not a one-time task. You don’t need to fix everything overnight.

Instead, make improvements as you update your course materials. When you revise a lecture, update slides, or upload a new document, take a moment to run the accessibility checker and address any issues it flags. Small improvements over time can make a big difference.

Tools like the accessibility checkers built into Word, PowerPoint, and Acrobat, along with YuJa Panorama in Moodle, are designed to make this process faster and easier.

Overall, accessibility helps ensure every student can engage with your course materials. The goal isn’t perfection, it’s progress.

References and Resources

• Oakland University Digital Accessibility Webpage
• ADA Title II Compliance QuickStart eSpace

About the Author

Chad Bousley is a Senior Instructional Designer at e-LIS, who helps faculty with online course design, creating interactive activities, and implementing online teaching best practices. Outside of the classroom, Chad enjoys learning foreign languages and playing guitar.

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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There is no doubt that attendance is important. While we as students try to trust the professor’s policies to encourage accountability and transparency, they often leave little room for the professor to trust us when we are dealing with situations that are out of our control, such as sickness, mental health, family obligations, or transportation issues. 

Strict policies can make us feel assessed for only meeting attendance requirements rather than real comprehension of the material, which strips our autonomy and morale while adding unnecessary stress that discourages us and directly contributes to worse performance. Framing attendance as encouragement that allows flexibility rather than punishment can create engaging classes and increase student respect, while fostering accountability and responsibility. Above all, it increases our motivation to attend on our own terms and therefore succeed. 

Attendance vs. Autonomy

We students are expected to take responsibility for our learning, but attendance policies don’t always reflect that. Strict policies reduce our autonomy with little room for us to take accountability for our own attendance. Some studies have found that optional attendance policies resulted in greater attendance than classes that had a mandatory policy (Kish 2024), in one case finding students would attend more than 80% of their classes without an attendance policy (NLM, 2025). Going further, top-performing students with harder classes needed more autonomy to thrive, and therefore will be harmed by stricter attendance policies (Goulas et al., 2023). Compounding this, taking points away from students’ grades based on their attendance demotivates the student, negatively affecting their engagement and making it harder for them to succeed in the course (Bergin et. al. 2019). Forcing a rigid attendance policy in a class like this becomes a “showing up to not get penalized” situation, versus students attending a class because they want to learn. To put it simply: students need a reason to come to class that isn’t a threat to their grade if they skip.

There’s no doubt that there is evidence that attendance is directly linked to higher grades. We know that our professors want us to attend class because it is harder to facilitate discussions when there are fewer people. We also know that it is more work for professors to catch up students who have missed, and attending is the best way to gain that deeper understanding of the material. But it goes both ways: we need to be proven that we can get the most out of the class as possible, and static classes with unwavering professors can make it feel like the opposite. 

Start with Engagement

Engaging with the class can make all the difference when it comes to the reasons why students show up or skip. Simple things like encouraging open communication, establishing trust, and building teacher-student relationships can be very beneficial to both students and the professor. 

Build teacher-student relationships

Building relationships with your students can help. Engage with them as someone who wants to help them learn, rather than punishing them if something is holding them back from learning effectively. Here's how:

• Put aside a small amount of time to talk about non-class topics with students and get to know them as people, not just objects you must teach. 
• Communicate the values about why attendance in your class, specifically, is important. This might encourage students to attend more if they understand why it’s so vital. 
• Be a source of support for your students when they struggle to make class, not fear: Communicate support for mental health, recognize signs of mental health concerns, and acknowledge their emotions. Especially in today’s world, it’s important for us students that we feel seen and understood. 
• Encourage group activities. Students are more likely to show up for their peers in class. You can do this by incorporating games, utilizing peer-paired activities and creativity, collaborating directly with your students, and promoting belonging in your classroom.

Alternative Attendance Policies

There are other ways to enforce attendance than threatening students with their grades. Try these out:

• Self-managed attendance record: Have students record their own attendance. At the middle and end of the semester, have them do a write-up on how their attendance/absences affected their learning. 
• For each absence, students must complete an “absent assignment,” which is a small assignment that they must do outside of class to prove that they are still on track with what the class is learning. 
• These can be predetermined in the syllabus. They can be overarching mini-essay questions that apply to any point in the semester or formulated according to the class layout. 
• Offer students bonus points or extra credit for attendance. 
• Use a token or a ticket system that can be used for absences, a late assignment, or to drop a quiz grade. 
• Universal Design for Learning proactively designs policies for diverse learners, including multiple ways to engage in and demonstrate learning.
• Build class engagement into attendance-taking activities, such as Daily In-class Sheets.

Reflection

These are questions you can consider when formulating the attendance policy for your class.

• Does my policy measure learning or compliance?
• Do my policies support students while still allowing independence?
• Am I limiting student potential by enforcing rigid policies?
• Am I preparing students to manage responsibilities and make decisions, or simply to follow rigid rules? How so?
• Does my policy allow room for potential attendance barriers?
• When a student is frequently missing and is academically struggling, do I assume a lack of effort or underlying causes?
• Does my classroom offer a welcoming environment in which students feel validated, seen, and heard?
• How easy is it for a student to communicate their struggles with me?
• Does my class create opportunities for all students to engage in different ways?
• Do I assume students will skip my class without strict rules, and is that assumption supported by evidence?
• Do I uphold myself to the same standards I expect my students to follow? 
• Am I open to the possibility that some of my practices may need to change?

Concluding thoughts

There are so many factors that play into our attendance, and professors should be a support system for us, not something that we feel threatened by. The policies put in place do not have to be strict and inflexible, as utilizing more creative and meaningful ways of enforcing attendance can positively impact our learning experience. Forcing us to attend class does not guarantee we will learn more effectively, as many policies only measure compliance over engagement with the material. Without the motivation, support, and consideration of personal situations we cannot control (sickness, family responsibilities, transportation, etc.), meaningful learning will not take place. 

References and Resources

• Policy and preference: the intersection of attendance hurdles and student perceptions of practical classes
• Autonomy Boosts College Student Attendance and Performance
• Compulsory class attendance versus autonomy
• The effects of class attendance on academic performance: Evidence from synchronous courses during Covid-19 at a Chinese research university
• How Student Attendance Can Improve Institutional Outcomes
• Embracing Inclusive Approaches to Attendance Policies
• How Do I Provide Flexibility and Ensure Attendance?
• Universal Design for Learning

About the Author

Reilly Bisoski is a Writing Intern at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. She is a senior with a major in creative writing and a minor in English. When she’s not writing, she can be found at a local rock show or reading a good book.

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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“There’s a broad and increasing sense from students that something is being stolen from them,” observed Elmira College English professor Matt Seybold, in a recent article in The Guardian on AI’s impact on student learning. That article showcases an emerging consensus in many humanities fields that a host of negative consequences follow from the uncritical embrace on college campuses of AI (which for our purposes here means Large Language Models). Such a critical perspective on AI is sorely needed at OU, where AI’s adoption is often taken to be both inevitable and beneficial. We reject both assumptions. In what follows, we briefly review the body of AI-skeptical research and writing and then share how we’ve created AI-free spaces for our students.

The Limits of AI

Too often, discussions of AI within higher education set aside, or ignore, the broader planetary and social harms of this new technology. Yet those harms are well-documented. Widespread AI adoption is a disaster for the environment, driving new investment in fossil fuel extraction. AI data centers consume massive amounts of water and gobble up enormous swaths of earth. AI models are built on stolen data and stolen labor, perpetuating “AI colonialism.” AI deepens systemic racism and threatens to destroy democratic civic institutions. AI intensifies income inequality, enriching a handful of (often far-right-wing) tech oligarchs, who profit from the extraction of a generation of young people’s personal information and attention. AI places students on college campuses under nearly constant surveillance. 

AI, moreover, brings a particular set of problems into the college classroom. Recent studies have shown that AI use has detrimental effects on human cognition and erodes brain function. On college campuses, students are using AI to avoid the cognitive strain and hard thought associated with reading and writing. This avoidance stifles the development of students’ linguistic capacities–their abilities to read and to write, to process and manipulate language, and thus to think independently and creatively. Many students already understand this. Such concern with preserving students’ rights to intellectual growth is what has led us to develop classroom practices to help them learn to think without AI.

Analog Classrooms

A starting point for us has been to cultivate analog classroom communities. Our classes have no screens: no phones, tablets, or laptops (notwithstanding, of course, appropriate accommodations for students who need them). Students read printed books and take notes by hand. We share with them our reasons for this choice, and the research supporting it (on the advantages of print over digital reading, and on the learning benefits of taking notes by hand). Our students have responded enthusiastically, feeling unburdened by their devices, and we’ve been excited to see how they talk more freely and happily with each other before, during, and after class. Such an analog classroom, moreover, makes it easier for students to learn to think without AI.

Reclaiming Attention

Thinking requires focus and attention, but AI threatens to further deplete our attentional capacities. One step towards creating AI-free classrooms, then, is helping students reclaim their attention—refusing to let technology have (and monetize) it. Sustained attention is necessary for a functioning democracy, of course, as well as for thoughtful deliberation, problem-solving, listening, understanding, cultivating social relations and friendships, and simply for reading well. In class, we make attention an explicit topic of discussion (sometimes by assigning portions of Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus).

Just as importantly, we devote class time to exercises that cultivate habits of paying attention; we practice sustained focus. We might begin class by reading silently for 5 minutes—then 7, then 10 as the semester proceeds. At other times, students might pair with a classmate and engage in casual conversation for a designated period of time. Weather permitting, we might ask students to take a walk on campus, phone-free, and notice specific features of the built environment, or observe a particular tree or plant, then reflect upon these experiences. 

To let students grapple with their ideas and prepare for class discussions, free from the temptations of AI-generated summaries, our students do ungraded in-class writing. These exercises encourage students to reconnect with texts, the world, and one another without distraction. They also equip students to engage in the work of the class, whether that means watching a 30-minute documentary film without interruption, lingering over a line of poetry, or exploring the richness of a metaphor. Rather than hurrying towards “answers,” students learn the pleasures of discovery, the rewards of working through their own perplexity, and the power of trusting their own minds.

Seeing Literacy as Power

When we help students reclaim their attention, they’re well-positioned to think directly and critically about AI. We’re particularly concerned with helping students understand the links between AI usage and literacy, and between literacy and power. As professors of American literature, we find African-American abolitionist writing to offer an especially powerful archive of reflections on literacy and power. Writers like Frederick Douglass and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper spotlight how slavery and racial inequality could only be sustained by circumscribing the literacy rights of enslaved and formerly enslaved people, and how acts of reading and writing allowed Black Americans to reclaim their agency. Douglass, for instance, cast literacy as the “pathway from slavery to freedom,” and Harper recounted how learning to read led a once-enslaved woman to feel “as independent / As a queen upon her throne.” Such work brings into focus just how intimately related linguistic facility and worldly power are.

While taking care to avoid collapsing the distinctions between the situations of these writers and our students, we ask our classes what this literature helps us notice about the world we live in. What pathways to freedom get foreclosed via the linguistic and cognitive atrophies that attend generative AI use? Can a regular user of, say, ChatGPT feel the independence of a queen? To be sure, U.S. abolitionist literature need not be a singular reference point for thinking about AI, language, and power; other bodies of writing could occasion no less meaningful questions. What we’re suggesting here is not that students must read one particular text or another to think about AI’s liabilities but rather that writing about literacy and power from the past like Douglass’ and Harper’s can defamiliarize the present and aid our students in thinking critically about it.

You Can Say No

The examples of Douglass and Harper also remind us of what is at stake in offloading cognition: freedom. The integration of AI across digital platforms and devices has largely taken place without users’ consent. Universities have participated in this coercive project, whether by contracting with tech companies to embed AI into learning management systems, or by encouraging its use in the name of “AI literacy,” or simply by capitulating to the claims of inevitability advanced by those who stand to profit from AI’s integration into every sphere of life.

But for us it’s important to remember that students and faculty alike are still free to say no. Rather than acquiescing to technofeudalism, universities can (and should) be the places where students learn how not to use AI–-where they learn, rather, how to exercise agency by insisting upon their own humanity. Like so many faculty, we remain dedicated to this ideal of college, in which education is not just preparation for the many careers our students will hold but also, even more fundamentally, preparation to lead the rich and flourishing lives they deserve.

About the Authors

Timothy Donahue is an Associate Professor of English at OU. Jeffrey Insko is a Professor of English at OU. 

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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Reading may mean different things to students, and it is often assumed that every student knows how to read effectively. Some may not read a chapter if you do not assign anything to go along with it, or simply lack the motivation or attention span to read it without clear relevance. Others might need some guidance on why exactly they are reading something, and what it is they’re reading. Of course, there are students who can gauge what the professor is looking for, but it cannot always be assumed that the students know exactly what to do when assigned a reading, which can result in missed learning opportunities.

In this teaching tip, we cover multiple ways professors can change the way students understand and engage with assigned readings, promoting effective, efficient, and improved motivation while reading.

Be Transparent

Oftentimes, students struggle with reading because they do not truly know what they are reading, why they are reading it, what they are looking for, or what they are supposed to get out of it. Try these strategies to be more transparent on assignments.

Write a Reading Outcome or Expectation

Write a reading outcome as if you were assigning one for a project or course assignment. This gives students an idea of where to locate the information they are looking for and focus on the relevant areas for the class discussion. Doing so will help students be prepared for class or exams.

Examples of reading outcomes:

• Compare and contrast concepts
• Apply theories to studies covered in class
• Identify key scenes
• Connect to other stories read in class

Explain What, Why, and How

Take time in class to establish what you are asking them to read and why you are assigning it. Point out ways the book is designed to help them read effectively, such as headings and sections. You can also use the sections to divide classroom discussions, helping students put focus on where it’s needed. This will help students understand why you are assigning it, and the assignment won't feel so overwhelming as they can lock in on key parts.

Give Context

Helping students discover the context of a story will help them connect to what they already might know, thus helping them analyze and understand the text better. This might look like analyzing the author’s historical background, examining the language of the text, or establishing the intended audience. These contextual tips highlight why context is important in reading and understanding.

Active Reading

You won’t get anywhere by simply assigning a reading with nothing to help students interact and understand its content. Try these tips to promote active reading, which can result in deeper discussions and thorough analysis.

Practice reading skills together

Separate your students into groups and assign each one a section. Ask them to write a 25-word summary that can later be combined with others to create a full summary of a chapter. Students may see this as a challenging game, and it will provoke peer pressure on the students who haven’t done the reading. This exercise will get them to focus on the main ideas of the text and practice their reading skills together.

Use Annotations

Have students directly interact with the text by using annotations. Using online programs such as Hypothes.is or Perusall and assigning social annotation activities will help them collaborate with each other and see everyone’s ideas. This will help them visually draw connections between texts and zero in on takeaways. Afterwards, you can assign a summary or reflection, asking them to draw upon the annotations.

How to Read the Text Closely

The CCCC Position Statement lists many great ideas to help students truly learn how to read and understand its role. Instead of lecturing on the reading, promote engagement with the text by asking them to:

• Zero in on vocabulary, and how the meanings have changed throughout time
• Recognize organizational patterns and structures and how they relate to the text
• Have students read a passage multiple times to focus on the elements, sources, arguments, etc.
• Write passages analyzing elements such as the tone, voice, punctuation, and repetition
• Write reflections in reader response journals or discussion boards
• Create visual diagrams to visually make connections in the reading
• Have students list difficulties they come across (vocabulary, allusions, jargon, etc.), and have them locate one resource that would help them understand it better
• Encourage students to think about how the text and its meanings might prove useful for future jobs or courses
• Teach the SIFT method:
• Stop and see if the sources and the claims are identifiable
• Investigate the source so we know what we’re reading and if it’s worth our time
• Find other coverage about what others have said about the reading, and if their points align
• Trace ideas back to the source and add in the context that the internet strips away

Provide Resources

Direct your students to OU resources that may assist them in their writing.

• The Academic Success Center provides tutoring, coaching, and study rooms.
• Libraries can be used by staff to help identify literary concepts, and can help students develop strong reading skills and understand sources. Oakland University’s Kresge Library offers many resources to assist students’ needs, such as a microcourse on reading scholarly articles.
• Writing Centers are specifically trained to support reading and writing work. The OU Writing Center provides well-trained consultants to assist writers with drafts, ideas, and skill development.
• Our Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning hold events, provide teaching tips, and assist faculty and students with any teaching and learning needs.

Conclusion

Reading effectively doesn't just happen automatically; it needs to be taught and enforced. When students don’t know how to think critically, it can result in lost learning opportunities. If they do not know how to read for evidence, analyze passages, connect ideas, etc., they miss the ability to interpret meanings and be fully engaged with the text, resulting in missed pieces of valuable information and skills. By utilizing these strategies, students will be encouraged to interact directly with the text and think more deeply about the key concepts at hand, thus creating better readers.