Special Needs - 1 - Accommodations in an Online Environment

Students Disability: I have worked with several students with special needs during my career as an online educator and in-person educator.  One student that comes to mind was battling cancer last summer.  He was a bright young man, but could only find time to work every few days.

Three Aspects of Online Learning Beneficial to Student and Why:
1. Accessibility - this student benefitted from being able to access the instructor, help, practice, and his assignments at any time.  He did not have to worry about trying to coordinate my availability with the times that he felt he could do work.

2. Flexibility - one accommodation we made for this student was a flexible due date.  Since we knew there would be times he could not complete his work, we allowed him to turn assignments in late with no penalty.  This would be challenging to do in a traditional classroom because the student would be continually falling behind because of lack of accessibility (benefit #1!).  While this option wouldn't work for all students, knowing this students situation and internal motivation made it possible!

3. LMS Accommodations - in addition to a flexible due date, we were able to reduce the students coursework.  Many of the assignments in my course were practice assignments to prepare for the quizzes or tests, so if the student felt comfortable with the content - we allowed him to skip some of the practice work.  For a student with limited time this is really beneficial and giving students the choice and option really shows that you believe in him!

Challenges:
As discussed above, the student had to be self-motivated in order to utilize the appropriate accommodations and successfully finish the course.  A student with different challenges (like a processing disorder) may need more structure, deadlines and oversight.  However, this student had an amazing support system and was able to focus when needed.  And in addition, I was sure to check in often on his progress, use the LMS tools to analyze his navigation of the course, and offer him guidance in regards to extra help videos.