January and February were highly productive months for my sabbatical work, resulting in adjustments to my sabbatical plan. After researching the capabilities and learning how to use LibreText and H5P to build a textbook, I determined that H5P allows me to design better materials for my courses by creating interactive content that blends textbook-like information with images, videos, and interactive concept check questions to create lessons that will seamlessly interface with Brightspace in a way that LibreText can’t provide. I am also able to chunk content together by topic, allowing students to access 1 or 2 pieces of material for a subject rather than 4 to 6. I can also link this content directly to the grade book in Brightspace, allowing me to create low-stakes assignments for the Goal 10: People and the Environment topics we discuss in the course. H5P also satisfies the updates to Title II accessibility guidance and is provided by the MinnState system. This change to my sabbatical plan was granted by the college president on February 12.

H5P

Since I am no longer working on creating a textbook using LibreTexts, the majority of my work going forward will revolve around creating accessible course content in H5P. I discovered a process that allows me to more easily and efficiently create content using H5P. I draft everything first (text, images, videos, concept check questions, etc) and then format the information in the H5P platform. Using this method, I’ve been able to create more content for my classes and revise old content into more accessible and student-friendly formats. The more I work in the H5P platform, the more easily I can build content and the more familiar I become with its capabilities. I finally feel like the work I have done to learn this platform and how to design quality course content using it is finally paying off.

I attended the Teaching with H5P monthly webinar in January and presented my work at the February webinar. I shared my process with faculty from across the Minnesota State System and demonstrated some course content I’ve constructed in H5P.

NOTE: You may not be able to view the recording I provide here if you don’t have login credentials.

Accessibility Work

A significant portion of the rest of my sabbatical will involve meeting the accessibility requirements that will take effect in April 2026. Thankfully, my work in H5P supports this goal. I spent a significant amount of January and February learning these new requirements and updating course content. I will need to recreate, redesign, or update every single piece of content in all of my classes as a result of these new guidelines. This will involve a full review of all of the courses I teach and a significant rebuild of these classes in Brightspace, a substantial amount of work. Below are the steps I took to ensure I can meet these standards.

• I completed the Accessible Digital Media short course through the Network for Educational Development (NED). This class teaches how to create accessible video and audio course content. My final project involved creating an accessible video and audio file and producing a transcript to accompany the audio file.
• I attended the following webinars through the NED to learn more about the accessibility updates:
  • Accessibility Remediation Sprints: Getting Started With the 3Rs (January 26) – This webinar outlined how to approach the accessibility updates following the 3Rs:
    1. Remove – reduce outdated or duplicate materials.
    2. Remediate – fix accessibility issues
    3. Refresh – update with accessible patterns/templates/design.
  • Accessibility Remediation Sprints: Creating Accessible Presentation Files (February 18) – This webinar demonstrated how to create accessible presentations in PowerPoint for people who use screen readers.
  • Orientation to Accessibility+ (February 24) – Accessibility+ is software integrated into Brightspace that will help faculty check their course content for accessibility.
• I applied what I learned to make the following updates to course content
  • Safety laboratory materials for face-to-face and online courses.
  • Updates laboratory expectations documents for all courses.
  • Scientific method activity materials for face-to-face and online courses.
  • I created an accessible list of laboratory supplies that students need to purchase for online Introduction to Chemistry.
  • I created an accessible document on the identity and use of online lab materials.

Books Read

Creating Wicked Students by Paul Hanstedt

Creating Wicked Students by Paul Hanstedt encouraged me to rethink the content and assessment in my courses. Hanstedt argues that higher education needs to shift from traditional content-focused instruction towards helping students approach complex, evolving challenges without clear solutions, which more closely mimics how they will approach real-world problems. He advocates for immediately presenting students with tasks that require inquiry, creativity, and research rather than focusing on regurgitating facts. He presents this idea one piece at a time, guiding educators through the process of rethinking their courses to make this shift.

This is the most valuable book I have read so far on sabbatical. I have pages of notes and ideas from reading this book that I can implement in my courses. I recommend this book to every educator to read, and then re-read.

Never Split the Difference Leadership Read by Chris Voss

Never Split the Difference, by former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss, outlines the use of emotional intelligence, empathy, and a knowledge of basic human behavior in negotiations. This book provides some ideas and tools for mentoring students. While a lot of the book isn’t applicable to my work, I found the stories and insights interesting. This was the January Leadership Read.

Other Items

• I submitted an abstract to the upcoming American Chemical Society (ACS) 2-year conference titled The Chemistry of Clean Water: Researching Water Quality in General Chemistry 1. The focus of this presentation is on how to incorporate water quality as a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) in a general chemistry course. I have used this project in my general chemistry project for more than 5 years with great results.
• I attended a Conversations with Copilot webinar offered at Riverland Community College on February 25. This webinar included a historical overview of the development of AI and some basic demonstrations on how to use AI as an educator.
• I attended the Authentic Assessment in the GenAI Age through OneHE on February 25. This webinar focused on how to adjust assignments to focus on authentic learning and incorporate assignments that ask students to reflect on their learning or create assignments that document their learning process. For instance, instead of asking a student to find the correct answer to a problem, have the student demonstrate how they solve the problem and explain their process.

References

Garrett, K. (2025, September 25). New federal digital accessibility requirements: What higher ed needs to know and do now. Online Learning Consortium. https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/olc-insights/2025/09/federal-digital-a11y-requirements/

Hanstedt, P. (2018). Creating wicked students: Designing courses for a complex world. Stylus Publishing. [journals.sagepub.com]

Voss, C., & Raz, T. (2016). Never split the difference: Negotiating as if your life depended on it. HarperBusiness.