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A European Unified Approach for Accessible Life-long learning
Spanish track at EC-TEL 2010
Alicia Fernández del VisoECTEL 2010 – Barcelona
2
AGENDA
01 What is EU4ALL?
02 Goals and objectives
03 The EU4ALL architecture
04 Adaptive components: device model, content personalisation
05 Architecture instantiation
06 Advantages of EU4ALL
06 User Requirements
06 Consortium & references
What is EU4ALL?
4
European Unified Approach for Accessible Life-long learning
“EU4ALL aims to be the reference in Technology enhancing Accessible Lifelong
Learning”
WHY EU4ALL?
What is EU4ALL doing?
Support the Life Long Learning paradigm in Higher Education Institutions for people with special needs
Open, standard-based, reusable and extensible architecture of services for ALL which supports learners and service providers
User-centred services that consider individual user’s needs and preferences, pedagogical guidelines and adaptive behaviour based on users’ interactions
EU4ALL GOALSEUROPEAN APPROACH TO ACCESSIBLE LIFE-LONG LEARNING
eInclusion: ensuring equal access for all to Information Society and developing assisted systems to facilitate the participation of people with disabilities and ageing citizens in society
Technology Enhanced Learning and e-Learning: contributing to new understandings of the learning processes by exploring link between human learning, cognition and technologies
Software and Services: creating and extending open and interoperable platforms, methodologies, middleware, standards and tools
EU4ALL CONSTRIBUTION TO IST PRIORITIESA EUROPEAN APPROACH TO ACCESSIBLE LIFE-LONG LEARNING
What is the EU4ALL
Architecture?
Service architecture based on standardsEU4ALL FRAMEWORK
Adaptive components?
….show me some examples
Interface Adaptation via Device modelling (CC/PP)
Device ModellingEU4ALL SERVICE ARCHITECTURE – CORE COMPONENTS
Content PersonalisationEU4ALL SERVICE ARCHITECTURE – CORE COMPONENTS
How do I instantiate EU4ALLin my institution?
25-Apr-07
Real Context (institutions) EU4ALL innovation
Institutions’ implementation
end-user services
eServices
Un
ive
rsit
y A
Un
ive
rsit
y B
Needs (A)
Needs (B)
Sa
Sc
Sb
SeSd
Un
ive
rsit
y A
Un
ive
rsit
y B
General Framework
existing + new servicesEU4ALL compliant
s/w (B)
s/w (A)
Tech. services components
+
S7
S5
S8
S6
S9
S4
S2S1 S3
O-ASA
G4AllUM
DM
RS
CP
ePMS
LOMR
Tr
AM
S7
S5
S8
S6
S9
S4
S2 S3
S7
S5
S8 S9
S4
S1Third-party components
C1
C3 C4
C2
Institutions solved their needs and their users’ after applying EU4ALL framework on their existing software and integrating new components
EU4ALL is not a single corporate isolated solution
... it is an open framework: standardized, flexible, open source
An Open FrameworkEU4ALL OPEN STANDARD ARCHITECTURE
Is EU4ALLbeneficial regardless
the maturity levelof my institution?
•Intervention
•Informal networks
•No political programmes
•Provision of resources unclear
•Pilot projects
•Ambivalence
•Insiders' knowledge
•Benefit unclear
•Cooperation
•Defined roles, formal networks
•Political programmes, changes of legal frameworks
•Resources provided for limited time
•Communities
•Acceptance
•Experts knowledge
•Benefit through experience
•Routine
•Professional roles, clear responsibilities
•Political tasks and legal structures
•Regular resources
•Established networks, organisations
•Experts and practitioners
•Consensus and publicity
•Body of knowledge
•Evaluation of benefits
Low level of accessibility practice (T1)•Responsibility and roles unclear, ambivalent
•Low awareness of senior management
•Low level of accessibility practice
•Weak legal frameworks
Medium level of accessibility practice (T2)•Low awareness and responsibility of management, accessibility no priority
•Considerable activity for SWD by single persons
•Existing practice not institutionalised
•Ad hoc solutions to ad hoc problems
•Weak legal frameworks
Substantial level of accessibility practice (T3)•Responsibility of senior management clear, accessibility priority
•CoP existing with high level of institutionalised processes
•Strong legal requirements
Outstanding level of accessibility practice (T4)•Responsibility clear
•High priority of accessibility
•Institutional processes (CoP) and stakeholder involvement
•Development of policies
•Evaluation of implementation
•Legal framework strong driver
Intervention Institutionalisation Professionalisation
INSTIUTIONALISATION OF SOCIAL INNOVATION
Intervention Institutionalisation Professionalisation
Low Medium Substantial Outstanding
Awareness raising and basic trainingInitiation of systemic change process
Awareness raising and basic trainingSupport of basic change process
Conditions for the implementation of EU4ALL to a large extent fulfilled
Conditions for the implementation of EU4ALL fulfilled
Institutional benefits of implementation of EU4ALL
BENEFITS OF EU4ALL
How did you findout what HE
institutions needto support disabled
students?
Two strands of work:
(1) Elicitation of user requirements, leading to specification of use cases and ontologies of end user services
(2) Investigation of legal, political and socio-economic contexts of accessible lifelong learning
Don’t come back to my class until you have a learner’s permit
Elicitation of User RequirementsEU4ALL APPROACH
Students say they seek alternative format materials (textbooks, journal articles, handouts) themselves (not via staff)
Students are ambivalent about LMSs (tutor involvement must be increased on the LMS, LMSs do not provide alternative format materials, more training needed in the LMS)
Most problems are not caused by the LMS, but the infrastructure surrounding it
Key results from students surveyEU4ALL APPROACH – USER REQUIREMENTS
The majority of professionals believe their online materials are accessible
The majority of professionals do not know how materials become that way, or who creates accessible materials (online or offline)
Professionals expressed a need for many kinds of information (on assistive technologies, alternative formats, characteristics of disabilities, vocabulary etc) and a desire to better support disabled students
Key results from professional surveyEU4ALL APPROACH – USER REQUIREMENTS
Despite LMSs being introduced in many institutions, various problems and incompatibilities have led to a noticeable caution in placing complete dependence upon them
Even where the platform is compliant, consistent and satisfactory to its users, often the content is not
Potential of LMSs has not been achieved due to teaching staff being unaware of what is possible, and what features can be utilised to accommodate students with disabilities
Key results from interviews and focus groupsEU4ALL APPROACH – USER REQUIREMENTS
VLE
Must take accessibility into consideration during the very early planning stages of a course, as opposed to retro-fitting an existing course
Need for greater communication between members of staff and content producers instead of viewing the latter as “factories”
Too many guidelines already exist, one interviewee argued that what is actually needed is for the existing guidelines to be applied to real people using real examples and for these to be then translated into real instructions about what should be done
Key results from interviews and focus groupsEU4ALL APPROACH – USER REQUIREMENTS
Courses
Some institutions are unable to offer assessment support due to a limited number of staff or a lack of funding
Some institutions do not feel that any specific accommodation is necessary
Some institutions even feel that allowing accommodations provides disabled students with an unfair advantage
Key results from interviews and focus groupsEU4ALL APPROACH – USER REQUIREMENTS
Assessment
How will you evaluate the
results of EU4ALL?
Expert evaluations
VLE accessibility
dotLRN, Moodle, Blackboard (for comparison)
Audits + user-based accessibility testing
All 3 VLEs *failed* WCAG1 Level A
EU4ALL accessibility
Accessibility Audit: full conformance for WCAG 2.0 AA
EU4ALL usability
Individual and Collaborative Heuristic Evaluation
General usability principles
EU4ALL EVALUATION (i)EU4ALL FRAMEWORK
User evaluations VLE accessibility : content + functionality
Task-based laboratory trials EU4ALL framework
Task-based laboratory trials
Real-life situations Are there any usability/accessibility problems? Are they severe?
EU4ALL EVALUATION (ii)EU4ALL FRAMEWORK
Results of user evaluation of VLE platforms 7 tasks in each VLE
Accessibility of content?
Accessibility of VLE functionality? - calendar, forum, submitting an assignment etc Moodle and dotLRN were substantially better than Blackboard
Moodle: 30 problem instances
dotLRN: 31 problem instances
Blackboard: 54 problem instances
EU4ALL EVALUATION (iii)EU4ALL FRAMEWORK
Programme evaluation With small scale High Education Institutions EU4ALL approach valid in existing infrastructures?
EU4ALL EVALUATION (vi)EU4ALL FRAMEWORK
LARGE SCALEevaluation (>100): Open University (UK) UNED (Spain)
small scaleAustriaItalyGreece
LARGE SCALE
small SCALE
Programme EvaluationUniversidad Politécnica Valencia (Spain) Instituto Politécnico de Leiria (Portugal)
Programme Evaluation
TECHNICAL VALIDATION + USER EVALUATION +PROGRAMME EVALUATION
EVALUATION ACTIVITIES
Who is doing all this?
UNED [Spain] Soluziona [Spain] Atos Origin [Spain]
E-Isotis [Greece]
Giunti [Italy] CIRPS [Italy] DPItalia [Italy]
EADTU [Netherlands] Centre for Social Innovation [Austria]
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information
Technology (FIT) [Germany] Tribal CTAD [UK]
Open University [UK] University of York [UK]
Consortium membersEU4ALL PROJECT
…and finally,to learn more about
EU4ALL
http://www.eu4all-project.eu
ALL ObservatoryLearning Support and GuidanceLearning Technology Systems and StandardsLegal, Political Framework and Socio-Economic ConsiderationsMarket InformationOpen and Accessible ArchitectureUniversal Access to e-LearningUser Requirements and Services
Special Interest Groups (SIG)Access to Lifelong Learning at Higher Education Institutions (HEI)
Accessible Virtual Learning Environments Legal and political frameworks Commercial opportunities in accessible lifelong learning Pedagogical approaches Standards relevant for Accessible Lifelong Learning User Modelling