OER-based Learning and People with Disabilities
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
2015 International Conference on Interactive Collaborative and Blended Learning (ICBL 2015), p. 25-34, México City (México), December 9-11 2015. ISBN: 978-1-5090-0239-9.
Abstract
The Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative is being promoted by governments and organizations related to education around the world in order to improve and equalize access to quality educational content to all people. OER are digital contents for teaching-learning purpose available through websites, released under an open intellectual property license to allow their free use for self-learners and educators. The OER-based learning is involved in formal and non-formal education and can be included in different educational environments, including Elearning. However, despite the growing availability of OER, most of these resources are not accessible to people with disabilities. Hence, the accessibility issues need to be addressed in order to include this vulnerable group of population in OER-based learning opportunities. An accessible environment should be twofold: accessibility of resources and accessibility of OER website that offers the resources. In this paper, we propose a process to guide the creation and release of accessible educational resources and their application to a case study. This case refers the creation of an educational resource accessible for people with severe visual impairments and its release through important OER websites. This accessible resource is a full online course that includes downloadable PDF documents. Moreover, OER websites, where this resource is released, are accessible for people with disabilities. Furthermore, this paper highlights the specific considerations for visual impairments in the design of this resource, and accessibility validation tests conducted with automated tools, simulation software, and user testing. The results of this experience allow recognizing certain problems in the creation of accessible resources as well as the limitations of OER websites to serve people with disabilities. In addition, this work contributes to the awareness about the inclusive vision of OER-based learning.
View paper online: OER-based Learning and People with Disabilities
Tuesday 15 December 2015
Wednesday 2 December 2015
User Experience for Disabled Users in Open Educational Resources Websites
User Experience for Disabled Users in Open Educational Resources Websites
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Latin American Journal of Computing, 2(3), p. 21-32. ISSN: 1390-9134.
Abstract
Open Educational Resources (OER) are digital materials for teaching-learning purpose released under an open license that are available through websites. In the last decade, some governments have encouraged the development and using of OER in order to contribute to the achievement of the right to education for everyone. Besides, inclusion of people with disabilities is a global concern that need to be addressed in all living aspects including education as one of the fundamental right for human development. In this research we address the user experience in OER websites —considering the perspective of users with disabilities— in order to recognize possible barriers in web design. The conformance criteria considered for this reviewing are mandatory aspects of user experience in relation to Web accessibility and Web usability.
View paper online: User Experience for Disabled Users in Open Educational Resources Websites
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Latin American Journal of Computing, 2(3), p. 21-32. ISSN: 1390-9134.
Abstract
Open Educational Resources (OER) are digital materials for teaching-learning purpose released under an open license that are available through websites. In the last decade, some governments have encouraged the development and using of OER in order to contribute to the achievement of the right to education for everyone. Besides, inclusion of people with disabilities is a global concern that need to be addressed in all living aspects including education as one of the fundamental right for human development. In this research we address the user experience in OER websites —considering the perspective of users with disabilities— in order to recognize possible barriers in web design. The conformance criteria considered for this reviewing are mandatory aspects of user experience in relation to Web accessibility and Web usability.
View paper online: User Experience for Disabled Users in Open Educational Resources Websites
Monday 30 November 2015
User Experience for Disabled Users in Open Educational Resources Websites
User Experience for Disabled Users in Open Educational Resources Websites
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
VI Jornadas de Ingeniería de Sistemas Informáticos y de Computación (JISIC 2015), p. 52-55, Quito (Ecuador), November 16-19 2015. ISBN: 978-9978-383-34-6.
Abstract
Open Educational Resources (OER) are digital materials for teaching-learning purpose released under an open license that are available through websites. In the last decade, some governments have encouraged the development and using of OER in order to contribute to the achievement of the right to education for everyone. Besides, inclusion of people with disabilities is a global concern that need to be addressed in all living aspects including education as one of the fundamental right for human development. In this research we address the user experience in OER websites —considering the perspective of users with disabilities— in order to recognize possible barriers in web design. The conformance criteria considered for this reviewing are mandatory aspects of user experience in relation to Web accessibility and Web usability.
View paper online: User Experience for Disabled Users in Open Educational Resources Websites
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
VI Jornadas de Ingeniería de Sistemas Informáticos y de Computación (JISIC 2015), p. 52-55, Quito (Ecuador), November 16-19 2015. ISBN: 978-9978-383-34-6.
Abstract
Open Educational Resources (OER) are digital materials for teaching-learning purpose released under an open license that are available through websites. In the last decade, some governments have encouraged the development and using of OER in order to contribute to the achievement of the right to education for everyone. Besides, inclusion of people with disabilities is a global concern that need to be addressed in all living aspects including education as one of the fundamental right for human development. In this research we address the user experience in OER websites —considering the perspective of users with disabilities— in order to recognize possible barriers in web design. The conformance criteria considered for this reviewing are mandatory aspects of user experience in relation to Web accessibility and Web usability.
View paper online: User Experience for Disabled Users in Open Educational Resources Websites
Tuesday 30 June 2015
Use of Linked Data to Enhance Open Educational Resources
Use of Linked Data to Enhance Open Educational Resources
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
14th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (ITHET 2015), p. 1-6, Caparica (Portugal), June 11-13 2015. ISBN: 978-1-4799-1756-3.
Abstract
Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning, research, and assessing. OER are usually conceptualized as Learning Objects (LO). While there is a big abundance of OER available today, finding, querying, and integrating/interlinking these resources, to say the least, is difficult. On the other hand, Linked Data is a mechanism to tackle the issues related to publishing and to exploring data on the Internet. Linked Data allows a person or machine to explore the Web of Data. In the last years, many efforts have been carried out using Linked Data in different domains. However, Linked Data has not been used extensively to publish and explore OER. In this paper, we review the current status of use of Linked Data to manage OER and we propose the use of Linked Data to enhance the use of OER. Linked Data offers a mechanism where OER can be most easily found to use, reuse, sharing and remix.
View paper online: Use of Linked Data to Enhance Open Educational Resources
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
14th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (ITHET 2015), p. 1-6, Caparica (Portugal), June 11-13 2015. ISBN: 978-1-4799-1756-3.
Abstract
Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning, research, and assessing. OER are usually conceptualized as Learning Objects (LO). While there is a big abundance of OER available today, finding, querying, and integrating/interlinking these resources, to say the least, is difficult. On the other hand, Linked Data is a mechanism to tackle the issues related to publishing and to exploring data on the Internet. Linked Data allows a person or machine to explore the Web of Data. In the last years, many efforts have been carried out using Linked Data in different domains. However, Linked Data has not been used extensively to publish and explore OER. In this paper, we review the current status of use of Linked Data to manage OER and we propose the use of Linked Data to enhance the use of OER. Linked Data offers a mechanism where OER can be most easily found to use, reuse, sharing and remix.
View paper online: Use of Linked Data to Enhance Open Educational Resources
Thursday 30 April 2015
Evaluating findability of open educational resources from the perspective of users with disabilities: a preliminary approach
Evaluating findability of open educational resources from the perspective of users with disabilities: a preliminary approach
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
2015 Second International Conference on eDemocracy & eGovernment (ICEDEG 2015), p. 112-119, Quito (Ecuador), April 8-10 2015. ISBN: 978-3-9075-8910-6.
Abstract
e-Education is an umbrella term that refers to educational collaborative environments supported by technology that related not only formal academic institutions programs but also self-learners and teachers around the world. This educational paradigm is of paramount importance for society nowadays, because expands access opportunities to education at all levels. These learning environments can take advantage of Open Educational Resources. Using OER is a growing trend and it is turning into a recommendation by some governments and international education forums. Nevertheless, in spite of the availability of OER websites, quite a few of them do not consider accessibility design principles, therefore these websites present access barriers for users with disabilities. Besides, only a reduce number of these websites offer accessible resources, i.e. digital contents suitable for users with disabilities. On the other hand, in web environment, findability is a design consideration that improves the user's searchable experience by simplifying the location and acquisition of elements in websites. In this restricted scenario, findability of educational resources is a key issue for users with disabilities. In this research, we address the issue of findability of Open Educational Resources (OER), from the perspective of inclusive participation of users with disabilities, by considering three aspects: web accessibility, some usability best practices oriented to users with disabilities and Information Architecture. The evaluation is performed in some important and well known OER websites.
View paper online: Evaluating findability of open educational resources from the perspective of users with disabilities: a preliminary approach
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
2015 Second International Conference on eDemocracy & eGovernment (ICEDEG 2015), p. 112-119, Quito (Ecuador), April 8-10 2015. ISBN: 978-3-9075-8910-6.
Abstract
e-Education is an umbrella term that refers to educational collaborative environments supported by technology that related not only formal academic institutions programs but also self-learners and teachers around the world. This educational paradigm is of paramount importance for society nowadays, because expands access opportunities to education at all levels. These learning environments can take advantage of Open Educational Resources. Using OER is a growing trend and it is turning into a recommendation by some governments and international education forums. Nevertheless, in spite of the availability of OER websites, quite a few of them do not consider accessibility design principles, therefore these websites present access barriers for users with disabilities. Besides, only a reduce number of these websites offer accessible resources, i.e. digital contents suitable for users with disabilities. On the other hand, in web environment, findability is a design consideration that improves the user's searchable experience by simplifying the location and acquisition of elements in websites. In this restricted scenario, findability of educational resources is a key issue for users with disabilities. In this research, we address the issue of findability of Open Educational Resources (OER), from the perspective of inclusive participation of users with disabilities, by considering three aspects: web accessibility, some usability best practices oriented to users with disabilities and Information Architecture. The evaluation is performed in some important and well known OER websites.
View paper online: Evaluating findability of open educational resources from the perspective of users with disabilities: a preliminary approach
Tuesday 31 March 2015
Evaluating accessibility of Open Educational Resources websites with a heuristic method
Evaluating accessibility of Open Educational Resources websites with a heuristic method
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Proceedings of the 9th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED 2015), p. 6402-6412, Madrid (Spain), March 2-4 2015. ISBN: 978-84-606-5763-7.
Abstract
Open Educational Resources (OER) are digital contents with educational purpose available through websites that can be freely reused by educators and self-learners. There is a growing trend in using OER to improve quality in teaching and learning processes, and the importance of OER is recognized in government initiatives and international instances such as UNESCO in the 2012 World Open Educational Resource Congress. However, people with disabilities usually face access barriers when using these resources. The causes of access barriers are two-fold: OER can be no accessible or websites can have accessibility issues in their design. In previous works, we conducted accessibility evaluation in OER websites through automated tools as a preliminary and quick way of evaluation, but with some drawbacks related to the reliability of results. The aim of this research is to complement the evaluation of web accessibility in OER websites, using a heuristic method based on “Barrier Walkthrough”, proposed by Giorgio Brajnik, a web accessibility researcher. This method considers the context of use of the website for persons with specific disabilities, and tests the potential barriers for achieving goals. The results presented in this paper contribute to validate the method and offer another perspective of web accessibility evaluation of OER websites based on specific disabilities. Additionally, this work is part of a method for evaluating the quality of OER and the websites where these are published.
View paper online: Evaluating accessibility of Open Educational Resources websites with a heuristic method
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Proceedings of the 9th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED 2015), p. 6402-6412, Madrid (Spain), March 2-4 2015. ISBN: 978-84-606-5763-7.
Abstract
Open Educational Resources (OER) are digital contents with educational purpose available through websites that can be freely reused by educators and self-learners. There is a growing trend in using OER to improve quality in teaching and learning processes, and the importance of OER is recognized in government initiatives and international instances such as UNESCO in the 2012 World Open Educational Resource Congress. However, people with disabilities usually face access barriers when using these resources. The causes of access barriers are two-fold: OER can be no accessible or websites can have accessibility issues in their design. In previous works, we conducted accessibility evaluation in OER websites through automated tools as a preliminary and quick way of evaluation, but with some drawbacks related to the reliability of results. The aim of this research is to complement the evaluation of web accessibility in OER websites, using a heuristic method based on “Barrier Walkthrough”, proposed by Giorgio Brajnik, a web accessibility researcher. This method considers the context of use of the website for persons with specific disabilities, and tests the potential barriers for achieving goals. The results presented in this paper contribute to validate the method and offer another perspective of web accessibility evaluation of OER websites based on specific disabilities. Additionally, this work is part of a method for evaluating the quality of OER and the websites where these are published.
View paper online: Evaluating accessibility of Open Educational Resources websites with a heuristic method
Thursday 31 July 2014
Metadata in Open Educational Resources websites: a review from the perspective of disabled users’ requirements
Metadata in Open Educational Resources websites: a review from the perspective of disabled users’ requirements
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (Edulearn 2014), p. 111-120, Barcelona (Spain), July 7-9 2014. ISBN: 978-84-617-0557-3. ISSN: 2340-1117.
Abstract
The Open Educational Resources (OERs) are digital pieces usually conceptualized as Learning Objects (LOs). LOs are prepared for use in educational environments. LOs are collected in Learning Object Repositories (LORs), which are a kind of a digital library or database, accessible through a website. The LORs store both LOs and their metadata. The metadata is data that describe LOs and can be used to facilitate the discovery of LOs. Besides, metadata also helps support archiving and preservation of LOs. In the context of this research the discoverability of LOs based on the users' requirements is analysed from the perspective of users with disabilities, hence we analyse accessibility and usability issues in OER websites. Additionally, this study performs a review of the most important metadata standards to verify if they include accessibility descriptors. Finally, based on the results, we can evaluate the current situation in the use of metadata in LOR from the perspective of disabled users’ requirements.
View paper online: Metadata in Open Educational Resources websites: a review from the perspective of disabled users’ requirements
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (Edulearn 2014), p. 111-120, Barcelona (Spain), July 7-9 2014. ISBN: 978-84-617-0557-3. ISSN: 2340-1117.
Abstract
The Open Educational Resources (OERs) are digital pieces usually conceptualized as Learning Objects (LOs). LOs are prepared for use in educational environments. LOs are collected in Learning Object Repositories (LORs), which are a kind of a digital library or database, accessible through a website. The LORs store both LOs and their metadata. The metadata is data that describe LOs and can be used to facilitate the discovery of LOs. Besides, metadata also helps support archiving and preservation of LOs. In the context of this research the discoverability of LOs based on the users' requirements is analysed from the perspective of users with disabilities, hence we analyse accessibility and usability issues in OER websites. Additionally, this study performs a review of the most important metadata standards to verify if they include accessibility descriptors. Finally, based on the results, we can evaluate the current situation in the use of metadata in LOR from the perspective of disabled users’ requirements.
View paper online: Metadata in Open Educational Resources websites: a review from the perspective of disabled users’ requirements
Monday 31 March 2014
Open Educational Resources as an opportunity for access to learning for people with disabilities in Latin American and Caribbean
Open Educational Resources as an opportunity for access to learning for people with disabilities in Latin American and Caribbean
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Proceedings of the 8th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED 2014), p. 1378-1386, Valencia (Spain), March 10-12 2014. ISBN: 978-84-616-8412-0. ISSN: 2340-1079.
Abstract
The Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative involves resources released by their authors, under an open free license and that are available through websites for self-learning and learning environments. Currently, a significant number of universities are involved in this initiative and increasingly incorporate more. Similarly the number of educational resources available continues to grow. However, despite the increasing offer of OER, there is no significant response in relation to resources that can be suitable for people with disabilities, for whom self-learning through digital media is an opportunity for their personal growth, and consequently, a positive influence faced their expectations of social inclusion and access to employment. According to the “World Report on Disabilities 2011”, released by the World Health Organization of the United Nations, 85 million people live with some kind of disability in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. For people from these countries, the language barrier is added, so it is necessary that OER websites also provide content in Spanish language, because this is the predominant official language in those countries. This research explores some of the most representative OER websites that offer content in Spanish language, to verify the existence of resources that meet accessibility conditions to recommend their use in the context of self-learning and as resources to support teaching of people with disabilities, particularly for LAC countries. Additionally, considering that most efforts to improve the educational level for people with disabilities are focused on the initial or basic education, in this research it is important to verify that the educational level of the open resources correspond to high school as minimum. Since visual and auditory disabilities have a high rate of incidence in the population, this study focuses on the accessibility considerations about resources for people with such disabilities. The accessibility analysis is performed based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), because is a world-wide standard accepted by many countries. This study can be useful to verify that the universities involved in the OER initiative encourage the inclusion and equitable access to learning opportunities to people with disabilities, and therefore, they fulfil their role to support the vulnerable sectors of society.
View paper online: Open Educational Resources as an opportunity for access to learning for people with disabilities in Latin American and Caribbean
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Proceedings of the 8th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED 2014), p. 1378-1386, Valencia (Spain), March 10-12 2014. ISBN: 978-84-616-8412-0. ISSN: 2340-1079.
Abstract
The Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative involves resources released by their authors, under an open free license and that are available through websites for self-learning and learning environments. Currently, a significant number of universities are involved in this initiative and increasingly incorporate more. Similarly the number of educational resources available continues to grow. However, despite the increasing offer of OER, there is no significant response in relation to resources that can be suitable for people with disabilities, for whom self-learning through digital media is an opportunity for their personal growth, and consequently, a positive influence faced their expectations of social inclusion and access to employment. According to the “World Report on Disabilities 2011”, released by the World Health Organization of the United Nations, 85 million people live with some kind of disability in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. For people from these countries, the language barrier is added, so it is necessary that OER websites also provide content in Spanish language, because this is the predominant official language in those countries. This research explores some of the most representative OER websites that offer content in Spanish language, to verify the existence of resources that meet accessibility conditions to recommend their use in the context of self-learning and as resources to support teaching of people with disabilities, particularly for LAC countries. Additionally, considering that most efforts to improve the educational level for people with disabilities are focused on the initial or basic education, in this research it is important to verify that the educational level of the open resources correspond to high school as minimum. Since visual and auditory disabilities have a high rate of incidence in the population, this study focuses on the accessibility considerations about resources for people with such disabilities. The accessibility analysis is performed based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), because is a world-wide standard accepted by many countries. This study can be useful to verify that the universities involved in the OER initiative encourage the inclusion and equitable access to learning opportunities to people with disabilities, and therefore, they fulfil their role to support the vulnerable sectors of society.
View paper online: Open Educational Resources as an opportunity for access to learning for people with disabilities in Latin American and Caribbean
Saturday 30 November 2013
Accessibility considerations in learning objects and open educational resources
Accessibility considerations in learning objects and open educational resources
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2013), p. 521-530, Seville (Spain), November 18-20 2013. ISBN: 978-84-616-3847-5.
Abstract
The motivation for this paper resides in two societal phenomena. First, the rapid expansion in the use of technologies to support learning in formal education on universities and educational institutions, as well as in online environments that promote open and free learning. Second, the dynamic growth of educational resources that faculty and learners have globally released for use in open and free learning contexts, which allow interaction and collaboration between students and academic peers, giving rise to a new space that promotes equity opportunities in access to non-formal learning. Moreover, there is an important recognition in a global scale about the rights of people with disabilities in all social spheres, and certainly the access to non-formal education is one of them. In this paper we will conduct a preliminary evaluation over some of the most important websites of Open Educational Resources, in terms of the web accessibility to the web page and the educational resources themselves. The obtained results provide a starting point about the dissimilar levels of concern around the accessibility issues and try to identify the needed actions to ensure accessibility for and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
View paper online: Accessibility considerations in learning objects and open educational resources
Rosa Navarrete, Sergio Luján-Mora
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2013), p. 521-530, Seville (Spain), November 18-20 2013. ISBN: 978-84-616-3847-5.
Abstract
The motivation for this paper resides in two societal phenomena. First, the rapid expansion in the use of technologies to support learning in formal education on universities and educational institutions, as well as in online environments that promote open and free learning. Second, the dynamic growth of educational resources that faculty and learners have globally released for use in open and free learning contexts, which allow interaction and collaboration between students and academic peers, giving rise to a new space that promotes equity opportunities in access to non-formal learning. Moreover, there is an important recognition in a global scale about the rights of people with disabilities in all social spheres, and certainly the access to non-formal education is one of them. In this paper we will conduct a preliminary evaluation over some of the most important websites of Open Educational Resources, in terms of the web accessibility to the web page and the educational resources themselves. The obtained results provide a starting point about the dissimilar levels of concern around the accessibility issues and try to identify the needed actions to ensure accessibility for and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
View paper online: Accessibility considerations in learning objects and open educational resources
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