E-learning course: ‘How to Succeed at Work and Home as a Dyslexic Adult’

1. What the course does;
2. How the course is dyslexia-friendly; and
3. Further information.

1. What the course does

• Determination
• Self-esteem
• Passion
• Finding the right niche for you
• Problem solving
• Creativity
• Sociable with good verbal skills
• Empathy
• Effective, fluent use of coping strategies
• Help from family and mentors
• It explains these traits, and tells you how you can gain or develop them.

• Interactive, concrete and multi-sensory
• The course mainly comprises written material but it features some visual content, case studies of real people, and activities such as questionnaires.
• It signposts to resources e.g. videos, websites.
• There is a course discussion forum (which you can opt out of if you wish). When I did the course there were 3 other participants doing it at the same time.

•  Accessible
• The course is in electronic print so you can use a text reader to listen to the text.
• The background is pastel yellow. The titles are in navy font and the rest of the text is in grey font. The font is non-serif (i.e. without tails on the letters). The only way you can change the design is to copy and paste the text into a Word document.

•  Clearly structured
• The course is structured into 10 chapters, one on each trait. Each chapter is broken up into a series of pages. The pages vary in length from one short screen to several screens long. When you open each chapter there is a list of the pages on the right hand side, so you can see at a glance what the chapter contains.
• On the home page of the course, there is a list of all the chapters with a box next to each. You can tick the boxes as you complete the chapters to keep track of what you’ve done.

•  Flexible
• You can do the chapters in any order. You can choose which chapters you do. You can redo chapters.
• You have access to the course for 6 months. There is no restriction on how often or when you access it during that 6-month period.

• Companion book
• If you wish to consolidate or overlearn any of the course content, there is a companion book which has very similar content. The book is ‘Self Fulfilment with Dyslexia – a blueprint for Success’ by Margaret Malpas, who also wrote the course.

1. Is it assessed? No.
2. Does it lead to a certificate or qualification? No.
3. Does it cost? Not if you are retired or unemployed. For everyone else, it costs £12.99.
4. How long will it take to do? I don’t know how long it will take you. It took me around 50 hours. This was partly because I copied and pasted the text into a Word document so I could mark it up with my responses. That involved a lot of reformatting.
5. Where can I find out more? https://www.bdaelearning.org.uk/course/info.php?id=86