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About the Online Course

Digital Badge stating Museum + Heritage Awards, Shortlisted 2025The W-⁠ICAD model provides museums and the heritage sector with a usable tool to support the production of inclusive, co-created audio description. ​ Our free online training course will explain why and how W-⁠ICAD can help you to created inclusive audio interpretation that can enhance the experience of all museum visitors. It will also give you the understanding and resources to implement it within your own organisations. There are 7 core modules, each of which should take approximately 45 minutes. Each module contains a mixture of presentations, activities, and filmed material from co-creation groups at work in the W-⁠ICAD sessions. It also includes the perspectives of blind, partially blind and sighted co-creators, and of museum professionals who have been trained on the W-⁠ICAD model. Finally, it includes discussion boards to enable you to share your experiences and thinking with each other.

Accessing the W-⁠ICAD course

Sign up

This section will help you create a Blackboard account.

  1. Make sure you are usinga supported browser (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Opera, etc)
  2. Follow this link to open the Blackboard web page
  3. Select 'Sign up' if you do not already have an account and 'Sign in' if you do. These options are present in the navigation panel, which may be hidden out of view if you are accessing the page on a mobile, tablet or you have zoomed your dektop or laptop display, in which case they are accessible through the 'Open sidebar' button, visually represented by three vertical lines.Screenshot of the navigation pane taken from the Blackboard page. The Sign up and Sign in links are highlighted for visual identification
  4. Complete the Create Account form. Fields related to your name, title, email and password are required, as is the Terms and Conditions checkbox. Fields related to your location, phone number and Interests are not required. The password has the following rules:
    1. Must be between 10 and 22 characters in length
    2. Must contain at least one number
    3. Must contain at least one uppercase letter
  5. Click the 'Save' button, which will in turn send a one-time code to the email address you provided, in the form
  6. Retrieve the validation code from your email and enter it into the Confirmation Code field on the Create Account page
  7. Select 'Validate'Screenshot of the Create Account page, showing the input field for the One-time Confirmation code and the Validate button, which only becomes active after the code has been entered
  8. Select 'Sign In' in the dialog window that appears to sign in to Blackboard. Your username will be the email address you entered in the form
  9. When prompted, select 'Short Courses and External Users Blackboard Login'Screenshot of the blackboard login page. there are a series of buttons within the login dialog, the 'Short Courses and External Users Blackboard Login' is the last and currently focused item, as this is the button you need to activate to proceed

Enrol in the course

If you are already logged in, skip step 1 and follow from step 2

  1. Sign in to Blackboard
    1. Follow this link to the Blackboard page
    2. Select 'Sign in' from the navigation menuScreenshot of the navigation pane taken from the Blackboard page. The Sign up and Sign in links are highlighted for visual identification
    3. When prompted, select 'Short Courses and External Users BlackboardScreenshot of the blackboard login page. there are a series of buttons within the login dialog, the 'Short Courses and External Users Blackboard Login' is the last and currently focused item, as this is the button you need to activate to proceed
  2. Select Catalogue from the navigation menuScreenshot of the navigation menu. The Catalogue option is is the second and currently focused item.
  3. Locate the W-⁠ICAD Workshop for Inclusive Co-Created Audio Description OFV633 to enrol. You can use the Search Bar and Filters to find it, if you wish.
  4. Select 'Enrol Now' from the course tileScreenshot of the course tile with the W-ICAD logo and course summary. Overlaid upon the tile is the Enrol Now button.

  5. You are now enrolled in the course. You can select Open Course to enter your course. You can also visit the Dashboard to access your course

    Screenshot of the navigation pane for a logged in user, the Dashboard option is the currently focused

  6. Within the Dashboard you will find all of your courses. If you have only just joined and enroled on the W-⁠ICAD course, this will be the only available option. There are 2 sets of tabs, ensure 'Courses' is the active tab on the first set and 'Active Courses' is the active tab on the second set. the W-⁠ICAD course will appear in the tab panel.

    Click on the course and you will be taken to the course page, which has a 'Start Course' button, you should click this button to start the course. The course display the modules and any progress you have made. You can expand the modules and then click the module, which will open a panel. This will have some details on your progress (if any) and a button to 'Start attempt'.

    Screenshot of the course page, showing the expandable modules that are part of the course