Accessible Chats for Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Environments in Mobile Devices (Doctoral Consortium),

Proceedings of: Seventh IEEE International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science. Took place May 29-31, 2013 in Paris (France). The event Web site is http://www.rcis-conf.com/rcis2013/The use of chats in Mobile Devices (MD) for learning environments is being increased in the last decade. However, they present many accessibility barriers that prevent people from using them. As a result, some people do not have the same opportunities to learn. This research aims to solve the accessibility barriers of chats in learning environments for its use in MDs. Thus, this paper presents the proposal of an model-based design and the strategy development process to create an accessible chatThis research work has been partially supported by the Regional Government of Madrid under the Research Network MA2VICMR (S2009/TIC-1542) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy under the project MULTIMEDICA (TIN2010-20644-C03-01)Publicad

Accessible collaborative learning environments for mobile devices

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorNew technologies and devices are being used in learning environments by teachers and students. Some of these tools are computer supported collaborative learning tools that help them collaborate with each other and share knowledge. Chat applications are one of these tools. These tools allow sharing materials and knowledge or solve doubts in real time without the necessity of being in the same room at the same time. Especially, these tools are being used in mobile devices which make collaboration more ubiquitous because people can use them everywhere. However, existing chat applications are not fully accessible and present accessibility barriers that users need to face every day. People with disabilities encounter these barriers every day despite of they have the same rights as people without disabilities according to multiple regulations in many countries around the World. These barriers might not be faced by people with disabilities only, people with disabilities who use mobile devices in different environments e.g. on the move or in bright environments can suffer similar problems as people with disabilities. This thesis aims to identify the accessibility barriers that m-learning chat applications have. Besides, considering these problems, this research aims, as far as possible, to improve the accessibility of chat applications. As a result, people with and without disabilities could collaborate with each other without facing accessibility barriers that will mermaid their learning. The main objectives of this thesis are: firstly, identify accessibility barriers that people with and without disabilities face when they use chat applications; secondly, specify the requirements that accessible m-learning chat applications should include for being accessible; and finally, provide an accessible interaction improvement for these applications. All these objectives have been achieved following a user centred design approach. As a result, more than 200 people with and without disabilities have participated in this thesis.Las tecnologías de la información se utilizan en entornos educativos para ayudar a los estudiantes y profesores a compartir y mejorar el aprendizaje. Algunas de estas herramientas permiten a los estudiantes compartir conocimiento y aprender colaborando entre sí, y se suelen denominar herramientas de aprendizaje colaborativas. Un ejemplo de herramienta colaborativa es la aplicación Chat. A través de estas aplicaciones, los profesores y estudiantes pueden compartir recursos y conocimiento o resolver dudas en tiempo real, sin la necesidad de encontrarse en la misma aula al mismo tiempo. Estas herramientas se utilizan hoy en día en dispositivos móviles que permiten realizar colaboraciones de forma ubicua, ya que se pueden utilizar desde cualquier lugar. Sin embargo, hoy en día las aplicaciones chats que existen en el mercado no son completamente accesibles, presentando barreras de accesibilidad que los usuarios tienen que sortear cada día. Las personas con discapacidad sufren estas barreras, a pesar de que están amparados por leyes de todo el mundo que especifican que tienen los mismos derechos que las personas sin discapacidad. Estas barreras de accesibilidad no son barreras que sólo personas con discapacidad pueden percibir, personas sin discapacidad pueden sufrir los mismos problemas cuando utilizan estas herramientas en dispositivos móviles, cuando se están desplazando o cuando utilizan los dispositivos en espacios abiertos con mucha luz. En esta tesis doctoral se pretende estudiar las barreras de accesibilidad que presentan las aplicaciones chat en entornos educativos con dispositivos móviles. De esta forma, se trata, en la medida de lo posible, de mejorar la accesibilidad de este tipo de aplicaciones. Como resultado, personas con discapacidad y sin discapacidad podrán colaborar entre sí, sin encontrar problemas de accesibilidad. Los tres objetivos principales de esta tesis son: primero, identificar los problemas que las personas con y sin discapacidad tienen cuando utilizan los chats; segundo, especificar los requisitos de accesibilidad que los chats deben incluir en entornos de aprendizaje utilizando dispositivos móviles; y finalmente, realizar una propuesta de mejora de accesibilidad de este tipo de aplicaciones. Todos estos objetivos se han alcanzado siguiendo para ello un diseño centrado en el usuario en el que se ha contado con la participación de más de 200 personas con y sin discapacidad para obtener cada una de las aportaciones resultado de los objetivos propuestos.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología InformáticaPresidente: Covadonga Rodrigo San Juan.- Secretario: María Belén Ruiz Mezcua.- Vocal: Leonel Caseiro Morgad

Are all Chats suitable for learning purposes? A study of the required characteristics

Proceedings of: 5th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion, DSAI 2013. Took place in November 13-15, 2013, in Vigo, Spain. The web site is http://dsai2013.utad.pt/The Chat is being used for more than one decade in learning environments as a useful Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)Tool. However, nowadays some students still usually face accessibility barriers when using Chats and, as a result, they cannot learn in the same way as their classmates. Thus, some of the equality principles of education are not accomplished. This paper shows a study of chat's characteristics and analyzes if commercial Chats with general purposes can be used for learning environments in an accessible way. This study has been carried out from the point of view of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines 2.0. The study analyzes fifteen commercial chats (desktop, mobile and web chats) and provides some recommendations in order to improve the accessibility of chats in learning environments.This research work has been partially supported by the research project MA2VICMR (S2009/TIC-1542) and by the project MULTIMEDICA (TIN2010-20644-C03-01).Publicad

A Theoretical Accessible Approach for Collaborative Learning in Mobile Devices

[Poster] 3rd. International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2011), 6-8, May 2011, Noordvijkerhout (The Netherlands). Poster session 1, CeLS-12The concept of accessing to the Internet has changed in the last decade. Nowadays, the access to the Internet is more flexible and users are able to surf on it from different Mobile Devices. Then, why not learn through mobile devices as mobile phones? The main aim of this paper is to propose a theoretical model of a web collaborative module for mobile devices. It pretends to provide a list of features that all mobile Learning Management Systems (LMSs) should have in their collaborative modules and how they should be implemented in mobile devices.The work presented in this paper has been partially founded by GEMMA (TSI-020302-2010-141) research project

Chats for all: a user survey to improve chats' interaction

Proceedings of: XIV Congreso Internacional de Interacción Persona-Ordenador (INTERACCIÓN 2013), celebrado en el marco del IV Congreso Español de Informática (CEDI 2013), 17-20 de septiembre de 2013, en Madrid.The use of chats is being increased; however, they cannot be used by everybody because they present accessibility barriers. Previous research works have solved some of these problems, but accessibility problems related to the user interaction have not been solved yet. This work is part of a research which main goals are to provide a model-based accessible chat and a development process strategy to create accessible chats using it. This research is in the analysis phase and the elicited requirements must be validated. Thus, this study aims to validate one of the requirements proposed to improve the chats' user interaction, the Stop Auto-refresh functionality, and to obtain the necessities that users need in a chat. To achieve it, 45 questionnaires and 3 interviews have been carried out by users with diversity of abilities. Finally, it could be underlined that people with visual, motor or learning and cognitive disabilities could found this new feature very interesting and useful.This research work has been partially supported by the research project MA2VICMR (S2009/TIC-1542) and by the project MULTIMEDICA (TIN2010-20644-C03-0)Publicad

Overlapping Chat's Accessibility Requirements between students with and without disabilities due to the mobile limitations

Proceeding in: The 10th International Conference on Mobile Learning 2014.Took place 2014, 28 February, 2, March, in Madrid, Spain. The event Web site at http://mlearning-conf.org/oldconferences/2014/The use of Chats has been extended for mobile-learning (m-learning) environments in the last decade. Students and teachers can communicate in real time and they do not need to wait till their next tutoring date. However, Chats have many accessibility barriers and many students cannot use this collaborative tool. These accessibility barriers affect students with disabilities but students without disabilities can face the same accessibility problems too due to the restrictions and limitations of handheld devices. Previous studies have improved the accessibility of Chats for a specific environment or disabilities but none of them is focused on the limitations that students without disabilities can face when they are using Chats in handheld devices. This is the main aim of this research; specify how the Chats' accessible requirements have been elicited and analyze the benefits that obtained requirements can produce for people without disabilities in m-learning contexts.This research work has been partially supported by the MA2VICMR (S2009/TIC-1542) research projectPublicad

Evaluación con personas reales de un Chat accesible a través de la plataforma UNINNOVA

[Comunicación] CIUD, II Congreso Internacional Universidad y Discapacidad, Madrid, 27 y 28 de noviembre de 2014Vivimos en una era en la que la innovación debería formar parte de la cultura de una sociedad para poder mejorarla, con la necesaria participación de los ciudadanos en el proceso de innovación. Sin embargo, la búsqueda de financiación y de participantes para poder desarrollar y validar una idea puede convertirse en una tarea muy ardua. Como resultado, muchos proyectos de investigación no llegan a concluirse o a poder obtener resultados adecuados desde un punto de vista inclusivo. Con esta motivación surge la Red Universitaria de Innovación en Accesibilidad (Red UNINNOVA) que pone en contacto universidades y usuarios para desarrollar ideas que permiten mejorar la accesibilidad de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC). En este artículo se realiza una breve introducción a la plataforma UNINNOVA así como una breve descripción de un trabajo de investigación en el ámbito de la accesibilidad: la Tesis Doctoral de Rocío Calvo, obteniendo resultados muy positivos y un conocimiento enriquecedor para la investigación

Accessibility evaluation of chats and forums in e-learning environments

Proceedings of: 2013 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science & Computer Engineering (FECS'13): WORLDCOMP'13, July 22-25, 2013, Las Vegas, Nevada (USA)Collaborative learning is useful for students in their learning process. Nowadays, most e-learning systems include Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) tools like chats and forums; however, are they accessible for everybody? This paper presents a heuristic evaluation of accessibility of two CSCL tools (chat and forum) in four web-based, open-source Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS): Moodle, ATutor, dotLRN and Claroline. The evaluation results show that the CSCL tools evaluated present accessibility barriers which are a handicap for many students who want to use the LCMSs Moreover, some recommendations are offered in order to improve the accessibility of the evaluated tools. Considering these recommendations in the development of the evaluated tools, all students could participate actively in the collaborative tasks proposed by teachersThis research work has been supported by the Regional Government of Madrid under the Research Network MA2VICMR (S2009/TIC-1542) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy under the project MULTIMEDICA (TIN2010-20644-C03-01)Publicad

Are chats and forums accessible in e-learning systems?: a heuristic evaluation comparing four learning content management systems

[Poster] 18th ACM conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education (ITiCSE'13), 1-3, July 2013, Canterbury (England)This paper presents a heuristic evaluation of accessibility of the Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) tools: chat and forums in four Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS): Moodle, ATutor, dotLRN and Claroline. Moreover, some recommendations are offered in order to improve the accessibility of the toolsThis study has been partially funded by the MA2VICMR (S2009/TIC-1542) research projectPublicad