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For education leaders: What teaching strategy can have the greatest impact, for the lowest cost, with the least risk, delivered in the shortest time and is most commonly missed?
This concept is not an afterthought for me—it has been my life. If you are like me, when someone rattles off their CV, it quickly turns me off - but stick with me! While a bit cliché, I want you to know where I’m coming from so you can have confidence that I can add a valuable perspective.
I have spent decades in education strategy and in each role this issue has been left unresolved:
So what is the most commonly missed strategic educational opportunity I have seen through all of these? The introduction of simple improvements in accessibility.
Today, this opportunity is greater than ever and the cost and complexity of seizing it has dropped significantly.
The case for change is in some ways misleadingly clear - if a school or university leader could implement a new strategy that is low-cost, that materially improves the outcomes of more than half of their students, and could be implemented in days and working in weeks, with little to no risk, it would be hard to ignore, right? But then why is this case not compelling enough to result in change?
Hardly anyone will admit it, but for the most part, accessibility is treated as a compliance or PR issue with the “least investment required to meet minimum standards” approach. It’s not that education providers don’t care about accessibility. Most providers wish they could do more but they feel the lack of resources prevents them.
But why? Misinformation and a lack of practical advice from practitioners have led teachers to believe it is too hard or expensive. I will discuss this more below.
I want to start a conversation. I want to provide information that can help school leaders understand what’s possible. I’m passionate about accessibility and am enthusiastic about having further discussions publicly and privately, involving Edrolo or not.
So let's set the scene: for most school leaders, accessibility is an issue they know exists and work on constantly, but may not realise just how big an opportunity it is nor how easy it is to solve a significant part of the problem.
Education today is not only about teaching facts but also about helping students make sense of the information available, developing skills to learn how to learn and making that knowledge stick. And most importantly (and the point of this article), identifying and filling gaps in each student’s understanding.
Arguably the largest gap we often miss is the learning retention rate. Between 25-50% of teaching is either not received at all or not absorbed by students, and I dissect this below. This might sound excessive, but the truth is that many students face barriers in the classroom every day, which limits their ability to grasp concepts fully. The result? Missed opportunities to learn. And worse, these gaps widen over time.
Let’s break this down: between 15-25% of students have sensory, mental or emotional disabilities[1], and of those, only about 25% seek or receive help[2]. Meanwhile, 20-30% struggle with language barriers[3]. Add in the growing inefficiencies of classroom environments, where noise levels and distractions make it easy to miss what the teacher is saying[4], and you’re looking at a huge portion of students who aren’t getting the full learning experience. These issues can’t be written off as students lacking motivation, focus or general ability to perform; they stem from a lack of accessible teaching methods.
As a leader of a universal design firm focused on higher education accessibility, I’ve seen firsthand how education often falls short. When accessibility is pushed entirely onto the teacher or to the student, the system breaks down. Solving all accessibility problems seems impossible, and striving for perfection has often done more harm than good by delaying or complicating necessary improvements.
The most significant and simplest solution I’ve seen is making the majority of teaching available in digital form. From my experience, this one thing—digitalisation of teaching—solves most accessibility challenges.
Digital teaching can include videos, lessons, and other materials but must be more than just a transcript or revision aid. So often, a concessional solution is provided to students that is capped at rote learning rather than having the advantages of building conceptual understanding that comes from great teaching. And so, accessible digital teaching must closely replicate the full learning experience, complete with teacher passion, expression, and context - elements that help make learning stick.
Research on brain activity has shown that when a student is both looking at an image and listening to someone speak, different parts of the brain are engaged simultaneously[5]. This means that these two areas work independently without interfering with each other. In fact, studies have found that activating these distinct neural regions at the same time helps the brain process, understand, and retain information more effectively[6]. This highlights the benefits of digital learning, where combining visual and auditory content can lead to better comprehension and memory retention.
When students can access high-quality digital content on their own terms (pause, rewind, replay, modify speed) it opens up new opportunities for them to fill in the gaps they’ve missed. Digital availability can offer the same non-verbal cues that make in-person teaching so effective, ensuring that no crucial element of learning is lost.
Think about it: what if all students, especially those with disabilities or language challenges, could pause and rewatch lessons on their own devices, and have access to key questions or prompts that can scaffold learning and check understanding? What if gaps could be addressed early—before they grow into larger issues?
Solving the accessibility issue doesn’t require a complete overhaul of the system. In fact, there are many small steps that can have an enormous impact. One major step is providing digital content to students that is available 24/7, not just for revision but for initial learning too. This isn’t just for students with disabilities—these resources benefit everyone, allowing all students to take control of their learning.
Digital content can also help students when they’re stuck on difficult concepts. At Edrolo, we’ve seen students pause and rewind lessons over and over to grasp a concept fully. In a physical classroom, they don’t have that option. When teachers move on to the next topic, students may still be struggling with the last one, and this is how gaps build over time.
The good news is that the technology to make this happen is already available. It's not some distant dream, schools can start implementing it today. By providing students with the tools they need to control their learning and fill in gaps before they snowball, we can significantly improve learning outcomes for a large portion of students.
Improving accessibility isn’t just a matter of ticking a compliance box. It’s about giving every student a fair shot at success, levelling the playing field, and ensuring that no one falls behind due to preventable barriers. Making content available in digital form is one of the most effective, actionable steps that schools can take, especially content that is comprehensive, curriculum-aligned, and curated and presented by expert teachers.
At Edrolo, we collect an enormous amount of data on whether students are succeeding in their learning. Our recent research looking at over 20,000 students provides clear evidence that students using Edrolo achieved a 14% higher success rate, and many of our schools have completed research on their data to show the same outcomes including shifts upward in academic results across the whole cohort of a subject.
As strategy leaders, imagine the impact of efficiently improving the success rate of half your students while also making life easier for teachers. It’s a game-changer. This is a problem that can be solved, and the solution is within reach.
I’m passionate about improving accessibility in education, and at Edrolo, we’re working hard to address these issues with practical solutions. It’s time we stopped letting gaps widen and started taking meaningful steps toward a more accessible, inclusive future for education.
If you share my passion for accessibility, let’s talk. The change starts now.
1 – Australian Institute f Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2023). Health of people with disability. Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/health-of-people-with-disability (Accessed: 15 October 2024)
2 – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2023). People with disability in Australia: Education participation needs and challenges. Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/disability/people-with-disability-in-australia/contents/education-and-skills/education-participation-needs-and-challenges (Accessed: 15 October 2024
3 – Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (n.d.). Meeting the needs of students for whom English is an additional language or dialect. Available at: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity/meeting-the-needs-of-students-for-whom-english-is-an-additional-language-or-dialect (Accessed: 15 October 2024).
4 – Thompson, G. (2024). Australian teenagers are curious but have some of the most disruptive maths classes in the OECD. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/australian-teenagers-are-curious-but-have-some-of-the-most-disruptive-maths-classes-in-the-oecd-230411 (Accessed: 15 October 2024)
5 - Caltech, 2020. Watch and Learn: Study Shows How Brain Gains Knowledge Through Observation. [online] Available at: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/watch-and-learn-study-shows-how-brain-gains-knowledge-through-observation [Accessed 15 October 2024]
6 - My Brain Rewired (n.d.). The Brain and the Learning Process. Available at: https://mybrainrewired.com/the-brain/the-brain-and-the-learning-process/ (Accessed: 17 October 2024).
