Designing Personalised Learning Resources for Disabled Students Using an Ontology-Driven Community of Agents

2013 ◽  
pp. 81-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julius T. Nganji ◽  
Mike Brayshaw
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Semantic Web ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Learning Resources ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Personalised Learning ◽  
Development Methodology ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Adaptive Technologies ◽  
Visual Interface

The exploration of social artifacts for the disabled is an important and timely issue. The affordances of new technologies like the Semantic Web allow more intelligent handling of educational learning resources that open up the potential of personalisation of services to individuals. Contemporary legislation calls for “reasonable adjustments” and “reasonable accommodation” to be made to services in order to accommodate the needs of disabled people. Here, the authors examine, from a design perspective, how this might be done in the context of higher education. Specifically, they advocate a design based upon an ontology-based personalisation of learning resources to deliver to students’ real needs. To this end, so far little effort has been directed towards disabled students in higher education. The authors note some of the problems and issues with online assistive/adaptive technologies and propose a methodological fix. Here, they propose an ontology-based methodology for a Semantic Web community of agents that personalises learning resources to disabled students in higher education, specifically highlighting a disability-aware Semantic Web agency development methodology. The authors also present the results of usability evaluation of the implemented visual interface with some disabled and non-disabled students.

scholarly journals Providing equitable education through personalised adaptive learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Punithavathy Palanisamy ◽  
Shamini Thilarajah ◽  
Zihui Chen
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Special Needs ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Adaptive Learning ◽  
Learning Systems ◽  
Learning Resources ◽  
Personalised Learning ◽  
Adaptive Learning Systems ◽  
Adaptive Technologies

Educators around the globe are striving to promote equity in their classrooms by adopting adaptive learning systems to provide customised learning resources and tools to help the learners achieve mastery at their own pace. This personalised approach goes a long way in closing the divide between students' socioeconomic status and special needs. Over the years, the advancement in technology offers more sophisticated adaptive technologies. It aggregates data such as students' prior knowledge and academic performances to predict and better adapt the learning paths. This paper presents the evaluation of adaptive technologies for personalised learning and the vision of a Personalised Adaptive Learning and Assessment (PALAS) system for Higher Education. This vision could be an imperative piece supporting Singapore's ‘National AI Strategy’, set to focus on personalised education through adaptive learning and assessment.

scholarly journals Gender inequality and disabled inclusivity in accounting higher education and the accounting profession during financial crises

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 335-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suman Lodh ◽  
Monomita Nandy
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Financial Crises ◽  
Wage Gap ◽  
Accounting Profession ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Accounting Professionals ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
And Gender

In this article, the authors find that, during financial crises, the wage gap between female and male accounting professionals declines and gender inequality in higher education is affected. In addition, less support and lower wages for disabled accounting professionals demotivate disabled students in accounting higher education. Because of budget cuts during financial crises, universities limit their support to women and the disabled. The authors consider 104 universities from the database of the United Kingdom’s Higher Education Statistics Agency for 2005–2011. Their theoretical and empirical findings establish that there was a growth in female students and a decline in disabled accounting students during the recent financial crisis. The established link between the higher education and the accounting profession enriches the accounting literature and may help policymakers to identifying better ways of enhancing equality and the inclusion of disabled students in accounting higher education to address inequality and non-inclusivity in the profession, especially during periods of financial crisis.

scholarly journals Contemporary Social Theory as a Tool to Understand the Experiences of Disabled Students in Higher Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
Jonathan Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Contemporary Social Theory

This is a conceptual article which seeks to consider the use of contemporary social theory to help understand the experience of disabled students in higher education. The use of social theoretical insights has been criticised by many as demonstrating a lack of engagement with the everyday experiences of disabled people. Work which strives to embed theoretical insights into the study of disability has also been criticised for lacking engagement with the ‘reality’ of impairment. In this article I intend to address some of these criticisms by suggesting some ways in which the use of contemporary social theory may provide an explanatory tool which disentangles confusion regarding the journey undertaken by the disabled student. I will discuss how the writings of several social theorists may be helpful in making sense of disabled student journeys. I will begin by discussing why the work of Jacques Derrida can be useful in this regard. These writings will be considered alongside a debate which draws on the writings of Michel Foucault on the use of power in contemporary higher education institutions. I will critically discuss the theoretical insights of Deleuze and Guattari and their offerings on the notion of ‘becoming’. I will then critically interrogate the work of Rosi Braidotti and apply these to a re-imagining of the disabled student journey. The writings of these important theorists have been used before to explore the experiences of disabled people. However, this article is unique in that it proposes that these writings can be used to demystify the experiences of disabled students in higher education. I suggest some ways the work of Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari and Braidotti enable a greater understanding of my personal student journey. I suggest that they could be used to make sense of a far wider range of student journeys. I conclude the article by offering a model which utilises some important aspects of these theoretical insights.

scholarly journals Roadblock on the Way of Disabled Students in the Higher Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-102
Author(s):  
Aditi Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Locomotor Disability ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
The Disabled

The development of any nation depends on its citizens. Every citizen has their contribution to the development of a nation even the disabled person. They also have an equal rights to get a higher education. Higher education increases the chance of employability, thus, affirming dignified life for persons with disabilities. As per Census 2011, in India, out of the 121 Cr population, about 2.68 Cr persons are ‘disabled’ which is 2.21% of the total population. But it has been seen that very few of these people reach higher education. According to census 2011, 61% of the disabled children aged 5-19 years are attending an educational institution, 12% attended educational institutions earlier while 27% never attended educational institutions. That makes the author think and ask about how our higher education institutions are accessible for disabled students. How inclusive are our higher education institutions? In the light of the above-mentioned problems the present paper has discussed the education of children with special needs in higher education specifically with respect to visual impairment, hearing impairement, locomotor disability, and speech-related impairment. The discussion starts with what all kind of legal provisions and reservations which are there for them in higher education and how many are utilized and used by them. What all things are there in the new education policy for them specifically in higher education, whether their needs have been realized in detail or it has been just touched superficially and at the end, few suggestions related to all these issues have been discussed.

Using ePortfolios in Higher Education to Encourage Learner Reflection and Support Personalised Learning

2010 ◽  
pp. 185-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susi Peacock ◽  
Kate Morss ◽  
Alison Scott ◽  
Jane Hislop ◽  
Lindesay Irvine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Learner Engagement ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Reflective Process ◽  
Personalised Learning ◽  
Learning Challenges ◽  
Subject Areas

Personalisation, with its emphasis on learner choice and lifelong learning, challenges educators to provide an innovative, student-centric educational experience. New technologies have great potential to support personalisation; however, institutions must review their approaches to assessment and feedback and their strategies to learning and teaching as well as increasing opportunities for collaborative learning and extending their external partnerships. This is a significant agenda for any institution. In this chapter, through the authors’ four case studies drawn from different subject areas in a higher educational institution, they illustrate how ePortfolios when integrated into the curriculum and combined with reflection can support personalised learning. The authors’ also discuss the challenges of such an approach including lack of learner engagement with the reflective process, an increase in tutor time, restricted learner access to technology and the need for dynamic ePersonalisation. They offer suggestions for educators in addressing such issues in order to provide a truly personalised learning experience.

scholarly journals ‘Dreaming in colour’: disabled higher education students’ perspectives on improving design practices that would enable them to benefit from their use of technologies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Seale ◽  
Chetz Colwell ◽  
Tim Coughlan ◽  
Tali Heiman ◽  
Dana Kaspi-Tsahor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Design Practices ◽  
Technology Products ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Current Design ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Academic Potential

Abstract The focus of this paper is the design of technology products and services for disabled students in higher education. It analyses the perspectives of disabled students studying in the US, the UK, Germany, Israel and Canada, regarding their experiences of using technologies to support their learning. The students shared how the functionality of the technologies supported them to study and enabled them to achieve their academic potential. Despite these positive outcomes, the students also reported difficulties associated with: i) the design of the technologies, ii) a lack of technology know-how and iii) a lack of social capital. When identifying potential solutions to these difficulties the disabled students imagined both preferable and possible futures where faculty, higher education institutions, researchers and technology companies are challenged to push the boundaries of their current design practices.

scholarly journals Szemléleti akadálymentesség a felsőoktatásban

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrix Séllei
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Emotional Competencies ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Special Part ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Short And Long Term

A hátrányos helyzetű csoportok, mint a fogyatékkal élő emberek, jelenleg alulreprezentáltak a felsőoktatásban, ami egy önrontó körként tovább csökkenti az elvben egyenlő esélyeiket a boldog és sikeres élethez. Háttér és célkitűzések: A felsőoktatásban az esélyegyenlőséget fizikai és környezeti oldalról is vizsgálhatjuk, melyből jelen kutatás a környezetre fókuszál, ezen belül is a társas környezetre. A hallgatótársak fogyatékossággal és egyes fogyatékos hallgatótársakkal kapcsolatos attitűdje nagy szerepet játszhat abban, hogy mind rövid-, mind hosszútávon a felsőoktatás elérhetőbb legyen a fogyatékos fiatalok számára is. A célunk, hogy megvizsgáljuk a különféle fogyatékossággal kapcsolatos attitűdöt, és ezzel kapcsolatban álló személyes jellemzőket, mint a demográfiai különbségek, a tapasztalat szerepe vagy az érzelmi kompetenciák. Módszer: Kérdőíves kutatással felmértük a Budapesti Műszaki- és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem hallgatóinak fogyatékossággal kapcsolatos attitűdjét (n=400) az ATDP-skálával (YUKER és mts-ai, 1970), valamint Bogardus-féle rangsorolással és az ezt meghatározó lehetséges háttérváltozókat saját kérdésekkel, illetve az EQ-i (BAR-ON, 2004) alkalmazásával. Eredmények: A különböző fogyatékossági csoportok elfogadottsága egyértelműen eltérő, s ez a sorrend egy új trendre utal a fogyatékossággal kapcsolatos gondolkodásmódban, mely elveti a korábbi, láthatóság alapján történő attitűd kialakítást. Következtetések: A fogyatékos hallgatók felsőoktatási integrációjának növeléséhez fontos figyelembe venni, hogy az ép és a fogyatékkal élő hallgatók közösen konstruálhatnak egy inkluzív teret. Ahhoz, hogy ez akadálymentes legyen, szükség van az interakciók számának növelésére és az érzelmi képességek fejlesztésére is.***Attitude Towards Disability In Higher EducationThe disadvantaged groups, like people with disabilities are nowadays underrepresented in higher education. This can be a basis of a negative spiral, and can reduce the in theory equal opportunity of these people for a happy and successful life.Background and aims: We can examine the equality of higher education from physical and environmental approach. This study focuses on a special part of it, on the social context. The attitude of students towards disability and disabled students can have an influence on short- and long term on the accessibility of higher education for students with disabilities. Our aim is to examine the attitude towards different kinds of disabilities and the related personal attributes.Methods: We made some surveys with the students of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (n=400) with a questionnaire. We focused on their attitude towards disability by the help of ATDP (YUKER et al., 1970) and Bogardus ranking, and some background variables moderating this view, with our own questions and by the help of EQ-i (BAR-ON, 2004).Results: The acceptance of different kinds of disability is significantly variant. This shows us a new trend in the attitude. The view of disability is no more based on its visibility. Discussion: When we talk about equality and inclusion in higher education we’ve to take it into consideration that the average and the disabled students can build an inclusive space and community together. To make this unobstructed there is a need for more interactions and development of emotional competencies. 

scholarly journals Developing Inclusive Technical Capital beyond the Disabled Students’ Allowance in England

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 29-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hayhoe ◽  
Kris Roger ◽  
Sebastiaan Eldritch-Böersen ◽  
Linda Kelland
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
London School ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Early Results ◽  
The Disabled

The Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) is a government grant for students aged 18 years and over in English Higher Education. Amongst other things, this grant supports the provision of traditional assistive technologies. In April 2014, the UK’s Minister for Universities, Science and Cities proposed cuts to the DSA. Although a later announcement delayed these cuts until the academic year 2016−2017, a number of universities are already preparing alternative means to support disabled students. In this article, it is argued that cuts to the DSA will potentially reduce the cultural and technical capitals of students with disabilities and lessen social inclusion in Higher Education. In particular, less support will potentially lead to a reduction in the development of study skills. As a counter weight, this article proposes a new model of inclusive technical capital. This model originates in Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and habitus. The proposed model supports the use of native apps and settings in ubiquitous mainstream mobile technologies. It also espouses the use of m-learning for the passive inclusion of students with disabilities. This article also presents the early results of a project on the use of mobile technologies at the London School of Economics and Canterbury Christ Church University. This project found that students with disabilities and their lecturers already used mobile technologies alongside or instead of customized traditional assistive technologies. The project also found that students preferred not to attend, or found it difficult to attend, separate study skills courses using mobile technologies. However, they were more likely to access m-learning tutorial materials on Learning Management Systems. The study concludes that mobile technologies have the potential to develop a number of study skills that are at risk after cuts to the DSA. However, their use in this regard needs further research and support from universities.

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