The Disability Office of the Spanish National University for Distance Learning (UNED) manages an online community for students with disabilities. The purpose is to offer an interactive student community where information on projects, approaches, methods, accomplishments, and proposals can be exchanged...
The empowerment of minorities and migrants as media agents is a key issue since these groups have been rarely actively involved in the process of representation in the mainstream media...
Ticet 2012 conference: elearning Virtual Centres Miguel Gea
The role of an e-leaning Centre in Higher Education Institutions
1st International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Education & Training, Hammamet (Tunis) 2012
http://www.ticet.org/
Future Learning LandscapesTowards the Convergence of Pervasive and Contextual Computing, Global Social Media and Semantic Web in Technology Enhanced Learning
Microblogging architecture and scenarios for learning in mobile groupsCarmen Holotescu
Microblogging architecture and scenarios for learning
in mobile groups
Carmen Holotescu, Vladimir Cretu, Gabriela Grosseck
Paper at WCES 2013, Rome, 6-8 February 2013
The empowerment of minorities and migrants as media agents is a key issue since these groups have been rarely actively involved in the process of representation in the mainstream media...
Ticet 2012 conference: elearning Virtual Centres Miguel Gea
The role of an e-leaning Centre in Higher Education Institutions
1st International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Education & Training, Hammamet (Tunis) 2012
http://www.ticet.org/
Future Learning LandscapesTowards the Convergence of Pervasive and Contextual Computing, Global Social Media and Semantic Web in Technology Enhanced Learning
Microblogging architecture and scenarios for learning in mobile groupsCarmen Holotescu
Microblogging architecture and scenarios for learning
in mobile groups
Carmen Holotescu, Vladimir Cretu, Gabriela Grosseck
Paper at WCES 2013, Rome, 6-8 February 2013
Interactive BYOD Sessions with Moodle during Lectures at Paris Descartes Univ...Thierry Koscielniak
A Paris Descartes University initiative to integrate a BYOD program into the teaching and learning process. The idea behind this BYOD strategy is that students use their Wi-Fi-connected personal devices to answer Moodle quizzes during lectures, allowing teachers to collect and display active feedback within minutes.
Since 2006, Paris Descartes University has been using Elgg, an open source social networking platform, as a tool for all faculty members and students called Carnets2 Descartes. Carnets2 is used for any activity: from teaching and research to non-academic activities. Students learn how to manage their digital identity and to advertise their skills at the university level and also openly. Student articles and documents can be browsed and reviewed by any faculty members as a first move to social learning. An Elgg module has also been developed for mentoring student training. Carnets2 will soon be open to alumni. Carnets2 has been defined by the University President as a strategic tool for building a strong academic membership and strengthening the bonds between faculty, students and alumni. The next steps will be to develop better interaction / integration between Carnets2 and uPortal / Moodle.
Present generation of learners, growing up in a digital age, expect a fully IT-infused curriculum as a minimum. So, the majority of non-digital-age maritime instructors have to strive hard to keep pace with these new-age students’ expectations. In this paper, we will share our experience at the Wavelink Maritime Institute (WMI), where we are busy in developing and delivering a 3-year pre-sea training programme for marine engineers. Integrating technology in curriculum led to seamless accessibility, reduction of drudgery of calculations in engineering problems, increase in conceptual understandings. This also enables trials of various what-if scenarios and simulations of more authentic engineering cases, which were sometimes arranged as team assignments to add teamwork and cooperation in learning. Starting with the description of the steps taken to develop a knowledge-based infrastructure for learning, the paper will share some specific applications of technology usage in many of the course subjects and also include our student feed back, which reflects some degree of success of our efforts.
Vidyo Case Study on Arizona State University – Smithsonian InstituteVidyo, Inc.
Arizona State University was looking for high quality, multipoint video conferencing solutions to connect ASU students and faculty in Arizona with Smithsonian staff scientists in other area. The main issues were high cost, problems with interoperability and limited quality audio and video.
Vidyo video conferencing platforms such as VidyoOne, VidyoLines, VidyoGateway and VidyoReplay were deployed in the ASU video communication system. Vidyo platform was the only one solution that enabled students, teachers and scientists to engage in high-quality face-to-face exchanges from remote jungle locations.
More about education video conferencing: http://www.vidyo.com/solutions/education/
Thanks to Steve Wheeler and Terry Anderson for some of the slides used in this short presentation. Originally this was put together to seed discussion amongst Education Studies students about the future of e-learning.
Interactive BYOD Sessions with Moodle during Lectures at Paris Descartes Univ...Thierry Koscielniak
A Paris Descartes University initiative to integrate a BYOD program into the teaching and learning process. The idea behind this BYOD strategy is that students use their Wi-Fi-connected personal devices to answer Moodle quizzes during lectures, allowing teachers to collect and display active feedback within minutes.
Since 2006, Paris Descartes University has been using Elgg, an open source social networking platform, as a tool for all faculty members and students called Carnets2 Descartes. Carnets2 is used for any activity: from teaching and research to non-academic activities. Students learn how to manage their digital identity and to advertise their skills at the university level and also openly. Student articles and documents can be browsed and reviewed by any faculty members as a first move to social learning. An Elgg module has also been developed for mentoring student training. Carnets2 will soon be open to alumni. Carnets2 has been defined by the University President as a strategic tool for building a strong academic membership and strengthening the bonds between faculty, students and alumni. The next steps will be to develop better interaction / integration between Carnets2 and uPortal / Moodle.
Present generation of learners, growing up in a digital age, expect a fully IT-infused curriculum as a minimum. So, the majority of non-digital-age maritime instructors have to strive hard to keep pace with these new-age students’ expectations. In this paper, we will share our experience at the Wavelink Maritime Institute (WMI), where we are busy in developing and delivering a 3-year pre-sea training programme for marine engineers. Integrating technology in curriculum led to seamless accessibility, reduction of drudgery of calculations in engineering problems, increase in conceptual understandings. This also enables trials of various what-if scenarios and simulations of more authentic engineering cases, which were sometimes arranged as team assignments to add teamwork and cooperation in learning. Starting with the description of the steps taken to develop a knowledge-based infrastructure for learning, the paper will share some specific applications of technology usage in many of the course subjects and also include our student feed back, which reflects some degree of success of our efforts.
Vidyo Case Study on Arizona State University – Smithsonian InstituteVidyo, Inc.
Arizona State University was looking for high quality, multipoint video conferencing solutions to connect ASU students and faculty in Arizona with Smithsonian staff scientists in other area. The main issues were high cost, problems with interoperability and limited quality audio and video.
Vidyo video conferencing platforms such as VidyoOne, VidyoLines, VidyoGateway and VidyoReplay were deployed in the ASU video communication system. Vidyo platform was the only one solution that enabled students, teachers and scientists to engage in high-quality face-to-face exchanges from remote jungle locations.
More about education video conferencing: http://www.vidyo.com/solutions/education/
Thanks to Steve Wheeler and Terry Anderson for some of the slides used in this short presentation. Originally this was put together to seed discussion amongst Education Studies students about the future of e-learning.
The results of this study are compared to last year’s Burson-Marsteller “Global Social Media Check-up 2010,” which analyzed the social media presence of companies on the 2009 Fortune Global 100 list. While there was a slight shift from last year in the companies on the Fortune Global 100 list, this did not have a significant impact on results.
According to the GRTHM, there are approximately 300,000 Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in the UK and the population has been established for over 500 years. The Children’s Society reports that nearly 90% of children and young people from a Gypsy background have suffered racial abuse at some point, and nearly 70% have suffered from bullying or have been physically attacked because of their background...
A lot of projects in the field of promoting migrants deal with the deficit oriented approach e.g. in which field are the weaknesses located or in which area do we have to train and promote pupils. This kind of approach very often leads to frustration and demotivation of adolescents with a migration background...
Nettilukio offers a comprehensive Finnish upper secondary school study programme online, using a learning platform, virtual classroom technology, wikis and blogs, which is aimed at adults aged 17-75...
Interactive gaming technology is hugely popular amongst young people today: The vision of rePlay is to use this technology as a mean of motivating young people into a better awareness of how and why they behave the way they do and encourage them to...
The main problem with data collection in this case was lack of co-operation from key project stakeholders. The user SAQ was translated from English to Spanish and placed online via a link with the project website. However, the project...
Young people tend to acquire a range and variety of skills and competences through processes of non-formal and informal learning. These skills may be developed when they take on certain responsibilities within their own family, when they meet up with friends, or when they get involved in sport, music-making, through involvement in employment or indeed as a result of voluntary or community work...
A lot of patients with physical deficiencies after an accident or illness suffer after this traumatically experience from isolation and exclusion from a normal life as well as access to learning during their long stay at medical rehabilitation centres. The aim of rehabilitation is to improve and recover...
Core Curriculum: Training curriculum for trainers of e-facilitatorsTELECENTRE EUROPE
Eleven modules specialised in topics that
concern the daily work of promoters of
digital competences (e-facilitators). Ten
modules are based on the modules from
VET4e-I + 11th module on e-security and
e-safety
Building up a Digital Education Eco-systemDiana Andone
Building up a Digital Education Eco-system teh Politehnica University Experience
by Dr. Andrei Ternauciuc, Dr. Diana Andone
Distance education and online learning history at the Politehnica University of Timisoara was initiated more than two decades ago, with a vision on opening up traditional Romanian higher education. And more than half of this time was invested in Moodle's challenging orbit and its development. Launching the Virtual Campus for Digital Students - ViCaDiS platform in 2007, as a result of our research, continuing with the highly successful Virtual Campus of the Politehnica University of Timisoara (CVUPT) platform, and getting to our latest Moodle-based endeavour - the Open Virtual Mobility Learning Hub, we grew alongside Moodle's ever-helpful community. Thanks to its open status, we were able to mould the world's leading learning environment into the tool most of our students know and (mostly) love. The road has not always been easy, but thanks to the well-meaning people behind the plugins and the forum posts, we were able to accomplish our learning process goals of honing a complex and complete instrument for online learning. We also learned to fend for ourselves by adapting or even designing from the ground up the functionalities we greatly required, always for the benefit of our students. Our actions have always been towards introducing, supporting and advocating the open education principles in our work, research and development. In the last months, due to the pandemic time and the complete move to online education, we performed a major scalability of our learning environments into what it is now the Politehnica University of Timisoara Digital Eco-system. This scalability and increase will be presented at the Global MoodleMoot 2020. https://moodle.com/events/global-online/
The presentation will be structured as follow. The talk will first provide an introduction to the theory behind the Socio-Cultural Ecology (Pachler, Bachmair and Cook, 2010) and the notion of User-generated contexts (Cook, Pachler and Bachmair, accepted), which Cook (2009) has refined into an analytical tool called a ‘typology-grid’ (see below). The talk will then demonstrate how the typology-grid has been successfully been used to analyse and learn from the ALPS and conclude by inviting a critique of the typology-grid.
A lot of projects in the field organize social activities to display the skills of social, economical and cultural disadvantage people. The projects organize an activity where young and talented people can perform and show their talent to the public...
Schome Park was an element of the Open University’s Schome research initiative, and was active from 2006-2008. It was established as a means of putting into practice some of the new learning theories and pedagogies proposed by Schome research staff at the Open University...
This small publication on Virtual Mobility summarizes the main conclusions and outcomes of the VMCOLAB project. The booklet starts with defining the concept of Virtual Mobility and presenting the different types that can be distinguished. This is followed by an introduction of the VMCOLAB project and a presentation of the main support materials and services this project has developed for higher education institutions, teachers and students that want to engage in Virtual Mobility experiences. The three VMCOLAB pilot courses demonstrate the potential of Virtual Mobility for different target groups. Finally, some recommendations propose how to better integrate Virtual Mobility into educational experiences across Europe.
The publication is available in all the project languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Dutch, Romanian and Lithuanian.
Trust between inhabitants in a neighbourhood is not something that is naturally anymore.
People in the neighbourhood know each other less, move more often, have different
backgrounds and spend more time in places other then the neighbourhood...
E-LEARNING FOR ALL WITH INTERFACE INCORPORATING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT USERacijjournal
The rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is an asset for e-learning. This is a new form of distance education that relies on the Internet and the Web. This new pedagogical approach promote that the learner is the protagonist of his/her own training and thereby put in range that
he/she needs to complete his/her apprenticeship. These resources are made available on the platform by the trainers. Unfortunately, in the majority of e-learning platforms, the course is offered, regardless of the state of the learner (disability, level of education, age, etc ...). Many people thus excluded from e-learning. This somewhat mitigates e-learning possibilities. According to world statistics, 10% of the world population, about 650 million people, lives with disability [1]. The promotion of employment for all, advocated by human rights, will dwell on this mode of learning to train all young people who for many
reasons do not always have the opportunity to attend a campus training center. E-learning should also be available to disable persons such as blinds, deafs, mutes,… This work develops new interfaces that adapt according to knowledges of the learner to facilitate e-learning. The illiteracy rate is therefore reduce in its simplest form.
E-LEARNING FOR ALL WITH INTERFACE INCORPORATING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT USER acijjournal
The rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is an asset for e-learning.This is a new form of distance education that relies on the Internet and the Web. This new pedagogical approach promote that the learner is the protagonist of his/her own training and thereby put in range that he/she needs to complete his/her apprenticeship. These resources are made available on the platform by
the trainers. Unfortunately, in the majority of e-learning platforms, the course is offered, regardless of the
state of the learner (disability, level of education, age, etc ...). Many people thus excluded from e-learning. This somewhat mitigates e-learning possibilities. According to world statistics, 10% of the world population, about 650 million people, lives with disability [1]. The promotion of employment for all,
advocated by human rights, will dwell on this mode of learning to train all young people who for many reasons do not always have the opportunity to attend a campus training center. E-learning should also be available to disable persons such as blinds, deafs, mutes,… This work develops new interfaces that adapt according to knowledges of the learner to facilitate e-learning. The illiteracy rate is therefore reduce in its
simplest form.
Presentation of W@ve 2.0 – Meeting the Social Needs of Senior Citizens through Web 2.0 Technologies (www.wave2project.eu) given by Peter Bartal from MFKK Invention and Research Center Services, Hungary during the Links-up Final Conference in Budapest in September 2011.
Learning 2.0 for an Inclusive Knowledge SocietyLinks-up
Links-up is a two-year research project that is co-financed by the Lifelong Learning programme
of the European Commission. The project started in November 2009 and is carried out by an international project team. The overall aim of Links-up is to combine and enhance the know-how of existing projects in the field of inclusion with learning 2.0 in order to promote better future e-inclusion projects and policies...
The Assistive Technology Wiki is an initiative developed and implemented by AbilityNet. AbilityNet is a national UK charity that has been running for over 20 years. Their main mission and objective is to promote better design and diffusion of ICT for people with disabilities, and to support disabled adults and children in using them...
School bullying and violence is an issue of serious and increasing concern all over Europe. Many empirical research works have shown that the pupils’ aggressiveness often influences the learning environment in a negative way, affecting productivity and success at school. In recent years, a...
BREAKOUT is an innovative learning initiative aimed at addressing problems in offending and drug-related offending. It helps ‘at risk’ groups and offenders, particularly young offenders and offending drug users, to ‘break out’ of a vicious circle of bad experiences and low expectations of education, and...
Cyberhus is a Danish 100% non-profit organization located in Aarhus. Cyberhus was founded in 2004 as a partner charity under the youth charity, Ungdommens Vel ('Youth Welfare') and is today staffed by more than 70 people - mainly volunteers. Cyberhus is a virtual house or club that offers online counselling for vulnerable children and teens...
For marginalised young people living in some of London’s most deprived communities, access to technology, education, skills development and employment can be hindered by barriers to learning, which may include low literacy levels; low numeracy skills; short attention spans;...
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
We all have good and bad thoughts from time to time and situation to situation. We are bombarded daily with spiraling thoughts(both negative and positive) creating all-consuming feel , making us difficult to manage with associated suffering. Good thoughts are like our Mob Signal (Positive thought) amidst noise(negative thought) in the atmosphere. Negative thoughts like noise outweigh positive thoughts. These thoughts often create unwanted confusion, trouble, stress and frustration in our mind as well as chaos in our physical world. Negative thoughts are also known as “distorted thinking”.
This is a presentation by Dada Robert in a Your Skill Boost masterclass organised by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan (EFSS) on Saturday, the 25th and Sunday, the 26th of May 2024.
He discussed the concept of quality improvement, emphasizing its applicability to various aspects of life, including personal, project, and program improvements. He defined quality as doing the right thing at the right time in the right way to achieve the best possible results and discussed the concept of the "gap" between what we know and what we do, and how this gap represents the areas we need to improve. He explained the scientific approach to quality improvement, which involves systematic performance analysis, testing and learning, and implementing change ideas. He also highlighted the importance of client focus and a team approach to quality improvement.
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS ModuleCeline George
Bills have a main role in point of sale procedure. It will help to track sales, handling payments and giving receipts to customers. Bill splitting also has an important role in POS. For example, If some friends come together for dinner and if they want to divide the bill then it is possible by POS bill splitting. This slide will show how to split bills in odoo 17 POS.
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptxEduSkills OECD
Andreas Schleicher presents at the OECD webinar ‘Digital devices in schools: detrimental distraction or secret to success?’ on 27 May 2024. The presentation was based on findings from PISA 2022 results and the webinar helped launch the PISA in Focus ‘Managing screen time: How to protect and equip students against distraction’ https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/managing-screen-time_7c225af4-en and the OECD Education Policy Perspective ‘Students, digital devices and success’ can be found here - https://oe.cd/il/5yV
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
1. CASE STUDY
ALPEUNED
by
Clare Cullen
This document is part of the overall European project LINKS-UP - Learning 2.0 for an Inclusive
Knowledge Society – Understanding the Picture. Further case studies and project results can be
downloaded from the project website http://www.linksup.eu.
Copyright
This work has been licensed under a Creative Commons License:
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This
publication reflects the views only of the author(s), and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained
therein.
2. The Disability Office of the Spanish National University for Distance Learning (UNED)
manages an online community for students with disabilities. The purpose is to offer an
interactive student community where information on projects, approaches, methods,
accomplishments, and proposals can be exchanged. This includes encouraging students
to interact through a virtual forum, collaborating with research projects, and increasing
awareness of the range of resources available to support disabled university students.
This community runs on dotLRN open source platform for which the aDeNu research
group at UNED is providing technical support, including quality control of the user ex-
perience. The communication between the user and the collaborative platform has dir-
ect influence on the user experience with the online community. Interfaces and interac-
tion procedures should be designed with the needs of all end users in mind, requiring
high degrees of flexibility and a sound knowledge of the end users abilities and prefer-
ences. Usability and accessibility are addressed, as real accessibility demands appropri-
ate levels of efficiency and satisfaction in user-system communication.
Case profile – ALPEUNED in a nutshell
ALPEUNED
Website http://adenu.ia.uned.es/alpe/
Status 01/2007 – 06/2009 (18 months)
Interviewed person Coordinator
No specific funding was needed to set up the online community.
Funded and promoted by… This is an internal initiative of UNED technically supported by the
research team of UNED,
People with disabilities – who face challenges in fully making the
Target group(s)
most of University life.
Number of users 482 students
Educational Sector(s) Higher education
Category of the Learning Activities No classic learning content, learning is informal
Applies low level Web 2.0 via interactive forum; Personal Learning
Web 2.0 technologies used...
Environment
Supports peer counselling, provides a news service, and coordin-
Methods to support inclusion
ates user involvement in related research projects.
Short description and key characteristics
The community for attention to disability was set up to take account of the require-
ments of students with disability at UNED. UNIDIS (the disability office) wanted to build
this online community and its related services to students with disabilities to provide
2
3. peer support and shared problem solving, to provide news services, coordinate the in-
volvement of users and their feedback, to make learning accessible, improve academic
performance and avoid drop outs. Disabled students should be enabled to share their
experiences and make their views heard, to help understand the perception and needs
of students with disability, as well as to support the involvement of end users in re-
search projects.
All students with disability at UNED are registered at the disability office. The Deputy
Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs, who is responsible for the disability office, ad-
dressed a letter to each of the 4026 students with disability asking them if they would
like to join the community and take part in aDeNu’s projects. They were given the choice
to reply either by post or by sending an email to the community administrator. Two re-
search projects about accessible, technology mediated learning: EU4ALL (IST- 2006-
034778) and ALPE (eTen-2005-029328) have been supporting the development of the
online community.
No specific funding was needed to set up the online community. This is an internal initi-
ative of UNED technically supported by the research team of UNED, aDeNu
(http://adenu.ia.uned.es). The UNED team consisted of 4 administrators from the UNED
Disability Unit who coordinated the initiative and the aDeNu team providing the tech-
nical support. 482 students with disabilities were active online this year. Lecturers and
teachers were also involved.
Dimension of learning and inclusion
The web 2.0 tools used for this initiative from the wide range of web 2.0 tools available
could be perceived as very low. The main tool is the online community and its learning
platform (AA compliance with WAI WCAG 1.0). Several technologies are nevertheless
available (SCORM, IMS-QTI,IMS-LD). The community is using the latest dotLRN version.
So predominantly, ALPEUNED uses social networking and online fora for peer coun-
selling purposes.
Figure 1: ALPE (http://adenu.ia.uned.es/alpe/)
The online community created a personal learning environment for the 482 disabled
students (out of 4026 in total enrolled at UNED) fed by the peer counselling, debates in
3
4. forums and participation in research projects on accessibility so that disabled students
could share their experiences and make their views heard. This informal learning did not
happened through specific learning activities. The peer counselling was the basic core
service of the platform empowering the students to learn independently. The assump-
tion behind this is that disabled persons can better support other disabled students, be-
cause of the first person knowledge of the obstacles encountered by disabled students
in studying at a distance university.
The students learned about available support services at the University and also that
they can be supported by their peers or support the others in return to solve a different
problem. ICT based support services offered them advice on assistive technologies and
gave them a voice that was heard at the University. The service making use of an access-
ible platform (AA compliance with WAI WCAG 1.0) was not previously provided by UNED
or any other Spanish University. Although no specific learning activities have been car-
ried out so far, students created heir informal personal learning environment. Addition-
ally, due to the participation in the European research projects, EU4ALL and ALPE, stu-
dents had access to relevant documents via the file management area of the platform,
which increased awareness on the projects’ activities among the community members.
The main asset of the community proved to be peer support: Students tended to search
for other members studying the same courses, make new connections, share materials
and update information concerning events, funding opportunities etc. The community
provided a source of practical support at short notice, and as needed. This is particularly
beneficial for those students who experience feelings of isolation because of their disab-
ility. The online community provides them with a flexible way to benefit from peer coun-
selling.
This support has helped students at different moments since the community was star-
ted. Up to now the most relevant areas of interest include:
| Administration: A third of the communication - 33.3% - within the community deal
with issues concerning the university administration. For instance, there have been
many protests concerning a new regulation that will be applied to 2nd session regis-
trations fees (as these will stop being free for students with disability in 2008). This
activism is an example of the influence the community might have as a lobby repres-
enting the interests of students with disability.
| Accessibility and usability: About 10% of the messages are concerned with these is-
sues. Users report having had accessibility problems or difficulties in using the plat-
form. For example, some found problems when they needed to use a technical aid
such as JAWS, or some inquired about using different platform functions. It is other
community members who reply to their queries providing advice. These reports are
useful so that the community of UNED and dotLRN developers can solve the prob-
lems that arise.
| Academic and library: 3.7% of the users’ postings asked for course notes, inquired
about dealing with subjects, accessible materials (books, notes) available and library
loan procedures. Questions concerned deadlines and being able to send someone
else to the library in order to collect the books.
| Assessments: 3.6% of the messages deal with special exam adaptations for students
with disability such as different formats, extra time etc.
4
5. | Employment: Another 3.3% of the reports deal with employment opportunities for
people with disability. They observe the difficulties they can find when trying to get a
job and criticise the current situation of the labour market.
| Physical Access: 2% of the mails posted denounce the lack of accessibility to certain
university premises.
| Communication: There is a 0.8% of the messages that report having had communica-
tion problems with staff working at UNED or with other students (deaf students who
are used to lip reading)
| Miscellaneous: 43.3% of the community communication would be included here.
Messages sharing and discussing more personal matters such as new member intro-
ductions, describing their disabilities and the problems these entail, poetry exchange
etc. Also announcements concerning car tax reductions for people with disability, or
problems when using the university web site appear here.
ALPEUNED was a project were only low level/conventional ICT skills were required since
the accent was put on accessibility first. In the next months, UNED is planning to use the
platform for training purposes, among others the subject “ICT skills” will be offered. Fur-
thermore citizenship is a soft skill induced by the online community. The peer coun-
selling and shared solving problem method where the disabled student were receiving
information but also engaging in guiding the other students boosted self-esteem and re-
sponsible and active engagement in the learning society. The creation of their personal
informal learning environment and access to learning undoubtedly enhances their self-
management capacity. Personal soft skills such as being responsible, possessing sociabil-
ity, integrity and honesty, interpersonal communication and active listening skills were
developed. Interpersonal soft skills such as participate as a member of the Team, teach-
ing others, work with cultural diversity, motivates others are inherent to peer coun-
selling.
Innovative elements and key success factors
The main factor of success of this initiative was of course the technical accessibility of
the platform (AA compliance with WAI WCAG 1.0. Thanks to the user’s feedback, the
platform was constantly updated and e-accessibility was a big effort maintained by the
Technical Team throughout the project. The real success factor has been the decision
about the pedagogical model to follow: Online community supporting peer counselling
and shared problem solving which empowered the disabled students and enhanced
their feeling to being part of a wider community. The involvement in European Research
projects does not have to be neglected giving students and UNED staff access to existing
literature about e-accessibility.
The community enabled UNED students with disabilities to:
| Have at their disposal a peer counselling service about learning and assessment
strategies, assistive technologies, accessible learning materials;
| Be able to report accessibility problems at the university and in the e-learning plat-
form;
| Access a news service;
| Support the management of research projects related with e-Inclusion as end users;
5
6. | Share their experiences and make their views heard, to help understand the percep-
tion and needs of students with disability,
| Support the involvement of end users in research projects;
| Organise themselves to lobby against university rules directly affecting them.
Apart from feeling part of the UNED community and even a Europe wide community,
disabled students were given the opportunity to access learning by peer counselling and
shared problem solving, but more importantly the platform gave them the perfect op-
portunity to engage themselves in the role of guidance and advising as any citizen en-
gaged in a learning community.
Problems encountered and lessons learned
The main problems and obstacles experienced in ALPE can be summarised as follows:
| Motivational and user engagement problems: As pointed out only 482 disabled stu-
dents out of 4026 in total enrolled at UNED joined the online community. In the field
of support to students with disabilities, there are many things to improve at UNED,
as in most of the Spanish Universities (White Book on Spanish University and Access-
ibility, 2007). This may cause negative attitudes in students who are not willing to
collaborate through the community. The issue has, of course, been addressed and
the Managing Board is awaiting for the results of the evaluation of the two research
projects and the results of the evaluation of the online community to draw conclu-
sions, map problems and plan how to overcome them. The decision to add more ser-
vices such as career guidance or training through instructional design has already
been taken, broadening the scope and services of such a platform can only attract
more people to join especially if training programmes are added to it.
| The main interaction flow – 43.3% of all communications – covered personal matters,
and not issues directly linked to accessibility. When it comes to analyse the content,
it reveals an interesting fact, that only a bit more than 25% of the communication are
related to course content itself. In detail the usage pattern is as follows: University 85
Administration: 33.3%; Accessibility and usability: 10%; Academic and library: 3.7%;
Assessments: 3.6%; Employment: 3.3%; Communication problems with UNED staff or
students: 0.8%; Physical Access to premises: 2%; Miscellaneous: 43.3%. The new en-
visaged services intend to reduce the personal and “chat”-like communications.
As an interesting second side effect, the online community started to intensively discuss
issues concerning the university administration (33.3% of communication flow) and es-
pecially the new regulation that was be applied to second session registration fees for
disabled students. Before, disabled students had been exempted from paying this fee.
This activism is an example of the influence the community might have as a lobby rep-
resenting the interests of students with disability. Furthermore the community is plan-
ning during this new academic year additional services such as career guidance and IT
training.
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7. Collaborating institutions in LINKS-UP
Institute for Innovation in Learning, Friedrich-Alex-
ander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen,
Germany
www.fim.uni-erlangen.de
Arcola Research LLP, London, United Kingdom
www.arcola-research.co.uk
eSociety Institute, The Hague University of Applied
Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands
www.esocietyinstituut.nl
Servizi Didattici e Scientifici per l’Università di Firen-
ze, Prato, Italy
www.pin.unifi.it
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft, Salzburg,
Austria
www.salzburgresearch.at
European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN),
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
www.eden-online.org
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