“Education over the Internet will be the next big killer application,” says John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems. He also states that online learning will be much bigger than the last killer application of the Internet — e-mail (Friedman, 1999). The recent surge in online learning has opened up the eyes of many educators to the growing possibilities of online learning and teaching. As these online offerings continue to grow, the educational impact will have far reaching implications for schools, teachers and students. In order to better understand the effectiveness of the online environment as an instructional delivery medium, research needs to be conducted focusing on factors that contribute to the effectiveness of the learning environment. In particular, individual learner differences are an important variable when evaluating online learning success. This chapter will discuss various individual learner differences and how they relate to student success in the online learning environment.

According to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, federal agencies must provide access to electronic and information technology to individuals with disabilities who are federal employees or members of the public. As institutions of higher education (IHE) put more services and resources online, formatting pages so they are accessible to users with disabilities is essential. Although IHEs are attempting to comply with Web Accessibility Standards with their public Web pages, full compliance has been difficult. In addition, the growth of online courses has only complicated the issue. Although learning management systems (LMS) may claim to be Web accessible, accessibility of individual content items at the course level, is set by the coursedeveloper. This chapter will discuss essential information necessary for online course developers to develop Webaccessible content.

According to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, federal agencies must provide access to electronic and information technology to individuals with disabilities who are federal employees or members of the public. As institutions of higher education (IHE) put more services and resources online, formatting pages so they are accessible to users with disabilities is essential. Although IHEs are attempting to comply with Web Accessibility Standards with their public Web pages, full compliance has been difficult. In addition, the growth of online courses has only complicated the issue. Although learning management systems (LMS) may claim to be Web accessible, accessibility of individual content items at the course level, is set by the course developer. This chapter will discuss essential information necessary for online course developers to develop Web accessible content.

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