Can user recommendations be useful for improving MOOCs accessibility? A project for inclusive design and profitable feedback

At present there are no applications which include accessibility revisions for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), neither in the context of MOOCs provider institutions nor from the point of view of any Open Educational Resource (OER) initiative. In this paper an approximation to this problem is presented, in the form of a specific web portal which will offer the possibility for any user to freely judge the accessibility of a certain course and advice about the missing means of meeting user needs or required adaptations. This kind of user feedback can be of great value for the future development of MOOC platforms, courses and the educational resources. The development of this web tool will gather valuable information directly from the users themselves to improve the educational quality and accessibility of these learning environments

YourMOOC4all: a MOOCs inclusive design and useful feedback research project

User feedback can be of great value for the development of guidelines to design MOOC platforms, courses, and open educational resources. Considering other learners’ experiences may benefit the development of course recommender systems that consider not only the quality of the content but also the level of accessibility to address disabled learners needs. In this paper a novel design for a recommender website is introduced which collects user feedback requests for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), offering the possibility to freely rate the taken courses following Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. The development of this website, which is currently in a pilot process by UNED, will gather valuable information directly from the learners themselves to improve aspects such as the educational quality, accessibility, and usability of this open learning environment advising about the missing means regarding inclusive design

Accessible user profile modeling for academic services based on MOOCs

MOOCs are examples of the evolution of eLearning environments, it is a fact that the flexibility of the learning services allows students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhances continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building, benefits people with disabilities and therefore can improve their level of employability and social inclusion. MOOCs are leading a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will emergence new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes, for that reason a strategy of the use of metadata regarding the achievement of accessibility from content to user preferences is presented in this paper, in order to achieve a better accessibility level while designing new learning services for people with functional diversity based upon MOOCs

Accessibility assessment of MOOC platforms in Spanish: UNED COMA, COLMENIA and Miriada X

This article develops a methodology for the assessment of MOOC courses, focusing on the degree of accessibility of three Spanish MOOC platforms: UNED COMA, COLMENIA and Miriada X. Four different criteria have been used in this context: automatic tools, disability simulators, testing tools and educational conten

Análisis de la accesibilidad del portal OpenScout para la búsqueda, etiquetación y difusión de OERs en redes sociales

El presente artículo describe las posibilidades de trabajo colaborativo desde el punto de vista de la accesibilidad que ofrece el portal OpenScout para la adaptación multicultural de contenido educativo en abierto REAs. Para ello se han analizado en detalle el grado de accesibilidad que ofrecen las herramientas de compartición y reutilización de los recursos así como los aspectos de integración del portal con el uso de las redes sociale

Pautas para la evaluación de la accesibilidad en las plataformas MOOC

El presente artículo presenta una metodología para en el análisis de la accesibilidad de las plataformas MOOC y los cursos que contienen, la misma se compone de cuatro pautas distintas de evaluación: herramientas automáticas, simuladores de discapacidad, herramientas de testeo y finalmente a través del contenido educativo, dichas pautas se realizan de una manera secuencial y complementaria

OpenScout accesible: análisis de un portal de herramientas de adaptación multicultural de contenido en abierto

Este artículo describe la evaluación de la accesibilidad Web del portal basado en la producción mediante redes sociales de contenido abierto en las áreas de Economía y Administración de Empresas, OpenScout. El contenido del sitio Web persigue la generación y adaptación autorregulada por los propios usuarios (profesores y estudiantes principalmente) y busca la mejora de las comunidades de usuarios para la gestión de la educación y la formación de habilidades específicas. Se pretende por lo tanto dar unas pautas para la evaluación y resultados de la misma

Estándares y accesibilidad en el ciclo de creación de OERs mediante herramientas de autor

Las personas con discapacidad tienen y han tenido muchas desventajas a la hora de integrarse plenamente en la sociedad, no sólo en cuanto a las limitaciones para el acceso a los servicios generales de la misma, sino a uno muy importante como es la educación. El desarrollo de la educación mediante las TIC permite dar muchas esperanzas a personas con discapacidades. Para ello es necesario producir materiales que sean plenamente accesibles, la relación de la accesibilidad con los estándares se describe en este artículo

Holistic vision for creating accessible services based on MOOCs

MOOCs are examples of the evolution of eLearning environments towards more a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will lead to the emergence of new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes. The flexibility of the learning service students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhancing continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building, especially benefits people with disabilities and therefore can improve their level of employability and social inclusion. However, the access to MOOC platforms still present barriers, there is also a lack of accessibility on the learning resources, the communicating tools and even personalized user interfaces. All these issues present definitive barriers that add extra difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity. Therefore, an holistic vision of different strategies regarding the achievement of accessibility (from content to user preferences) is presented in this paper, strategies than should be addressed in order to achieve the better accessibility level while designing new learning services for people with functional diversity based upon MOOC

Learning ecologies in online students with disabilities

E-Learning environments are enhancing both their functionalities and the quality of the resources provided, thus simplifying the creation of learning ecologies adapted for students with disabilities. The number of students with disabilities enrolled in online courses is so small, and their impairments are so specific that it becomes difficult to quantify and identify which specific actions should be taken to support them. This work contributes to scientific literature with two key aspects: 1) It identifies which barriers these students encounter, and which tools they use to create learning ecologies adapted to their impairments; 2) It also presents the results from a case study in which 161 students with recognised disabilities evaluate the efficiency and ease of use of an online learning environment in higher education studies. The work presented in this paper highlights the need to provide multimedia elements with subtitles, text transcriptions, and the option to be downloadable and editable so that the student can adapt them to their needs and learning style