Untangling Literacies

Abstract

The graduate classroom combines multiple literacies. Compounded literacies in the classroom tangle meaning, forming a metaphorical staircase, disabling students. Faculty mistakenly perceive students' difficulties as the distinctiveness of graduate education: rigorousness. However, rigor only occurs after accessing content. Attempts to make courses accessible may mistranslate into a heaping up of resources or artifacts. Instead, one artifact requires multiple representations. The following demonstration explores the literacies compounded in two artifacts that recur throughout graduate classrooms: digital slides and syllabi. Transforming these artifacts signals an allegiance to the universal design for learning that students perceive at the inauguration of the course. Furthermore, translating these artifacts facilitates more effective course participation and deeper learning. However, attempts to universalize classroom access must account for student perspective. In this chapter, feedback from course evaluations leads the discussion about revisions and future development needs.