Choose your Format: Usage of Alternative Formats of Course Content

“Alternative formats” of learning content have historically been reserved for people with disabilities, however, emerging learning theories emphasize providing all students with content in multiple formats that meet their unique learning needs, preferences, and devices. Despite the promising benefits to student learning, there has been little empirical research that examines student adoption and decision-making when presented multiple options of their learning materials. In this paper, we analyze data gathered over two years from over 7 million alternative format downloads across 300 US colleges and universities using Blackboard Ally. The Ally software automatically generates eight different alternative formats of digital content uploaded by instructors into their Learning Management System (LMS) courses and makes these available to all students on demand.