Staff Spotlight: Alexia Walleser
This month, we’re spotlighting our Inclusive Course Design intern, Alexia Walleser! Learn more about Alexia’s exciting work supporting neurodiverse learners below.
What brought you to Distance Learning and to Northwestern SPS?
I started my journey with Northwestern SPS as a graduate student in the M.S. Information Design and Strategy program. I’ve always enjoyed organizing and presenting information, so this program felt like the right fit for me to continue expanding those skills. Throughout the program, I became fascinated by the intersection of learning design and user experience design in online spaces.
As a passionate advocate for inclusive and accessible design, I combined these areas of interest into my final Capstone project, “Improving the online learning experience for adults with ADHD.” Through this project, I got a chance to work with several people on the Distance Learning team — a special shoutout to Heather Brown for her instrumental support as my project mentor. After graduating from the IDS program, I was looking for ways to continue the work I had started in my Capstone project, which ultimately brought me to this internship. Thank you to David Noffs for advocating for me to join the team!
If you’re interested in learning more about my Capstone project, check out my final presentation video recapping the project: Improving the Online Learning Experience for Adults with ADHD (18 mins).
What does your work as an Inclusive Course Design intern look like?
I think there are two critical elements to my work as an Inclusive Course Design Intern. The first is understanding what the Distance Learning team does to identify potential gaps for neuroinclusive design. In my first few weeks in this position, I have shadowed various course developments, begun collaborating on an OER, and conducted interviews with several members of the Distance Learning team to understand what they do and how they think about neurodiversity in their work.
Secondly, my role as an intern includes conducting additional research into neurodiversity and learning design. My goal for this internship is to compile my research and develop a “Guide to Neuroinclusive Learning Design” for the department. Through the creation of this guide, I am hoping to:
- Provide learning designers with a baseline understanding of what neurodiversity is and how it can impact a student’s learning experience
- Outline tools and techniques for addressing the needs of neurodiverse students
- Present some thought starters to encourage a broader view of what inclusivity looks like in online learning environments
Do you have a favorite tool or resource for supporting neurodiverse learners?
One of my favorite resources I’ve come across in my research is The Neurodiversity Design System. This is a set of guidelines for neuroinclusive visual design created by Will Soward, a learning designer from New Zealand. There are many ways to support neurodiverse learners that go well beyond the confines of visual design. But, I believe that when we engage with students primarily through digital interfaces, as we do in Distance Learning, these design principles are paramount to accessibility.
Categories of design principles and suggestions from the Neurodiversity Design System.
The Inclusive Design Guide from the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University is another excellent resource for understanding inclusive design in a broader context.
What is one project (recent or upcoming) that you are most excited about?
Outside of my work in this internship, I am also completing my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training. After so much time working and learning in purely digital spaces, I’m really enjoying this embodied learning experience. This training has really challenged me to explore what accessibility and inclusivity look like in physical wellness and mindfulness spaces.
One of Alexia’s favorite photographs of Chicago: the view of the city skyline from Belmont Harbor in Lakeview.
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