Case Study: Inclusive Higher Education Certificate Program achieves increased access, engagement, and mastery for students with developmental disabilities with NEO

Providing access to educational content for students with developmental disabilities

The Inclusive Higher Education Certificate Program (IHECP), a non-profit at Metropolitan State University of Denver that prepares students with intellectual and developmental disabilities for meaningful employment, needed a learning platform that went beyond text-heavy college systems. To meet this need, IHECP adopted NEO (NEO LMS by CYPHER LEARNING) to provide a graphic, scaffolded interface and to integrate accessibility tools like Read&Write and text-to-speech.

Using NEO, instructors create drag-and-drop structured lessons with images, videos, progress bars and integrated quizzes; students get immediate feedback, can retake assessments to achieve mastery, self-monitor progress, and join classes remotely (students participate from as far as 400 miles away via Zoom). NEO’s interface and integrations improved accessibility, engagement and deeper learning for IHECP students, helping the program extend post-secondary learning and employment pathways.

Inclusive Higher Education Certificate Program

Cathi Allen

Executive Director