July 22, 2010 Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities in
the Online Classroom Students with learning disabilities tend to
learn better in the online environment, but institutions are not
doing enough to prepare instructors to meet their needs, says
Mary Beth Crum, an online instructor at the University of
Wisconsin—Stout. Some of the more common learning disabilities
include dyslexia, expressive language disorder, reading
processing disability, and attention deficit disorder. Ideally,
the students will self-identify and contact the institution’s
disability services office so the instructor will know what
accommodations are required, but not all students are
forthcoming about letting others know about their learning
disabilities, Crum says. For some, online learning provides the
opportunity to hide their learning disabilities from classmates,
which can be a welcome relief from the unwanted attention their
learning disabilities received in their face-to-face courses.
This lack of disclosure makes supportin