Guidance on How Learning at Scale Can be Made More Accessible

Papathoma, Tina; Ferguson, Rebecca; Iniesto, Francisco; Rets, Irina; Vogiatzis, Dimitrios; Murphy, Victoria L.

doi:10.1145/3386527.3406730

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(9 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The language level used in OER was found to be a barrier to many learners (e.g. Cobo, 2013; Hatakka, 2009; Papathoma et al, 2020; Rets et al, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

To simplify or not? Facilitating English L2 users' comprehension and processing of open educational resources in English using text simplification

Rets

Rogaten²

2020

Computer Assisted Learning

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Open Educational Resources (OER) aim to provide equal access to education. Yet, as the language level used in OER presents a barrier to many learners, there is a need to make these resources more comprehensible. This study combined eye‐tracking methodology and comprehension assessment to explore the effect of text simplification on English second language (L2) users, while also accounting for text organizational structure and individual predispositions. A total of 37 adult English L2 users took part in the study. They had to read either an authentic narrative, authentic expository OER or their linguistically simplified versions. The analysis showed that simplification led to better text comprehension, and text narrativity facilitated text recall, particularly at lower English proficiency levels. Eye‐tracking measures revealed that text simplification led to an increase in processing time during the initial reading of the text and a decrease in processing time during text re‐inspection. These findings have strong practical applications for online teaching with OER.

show abstract

“…The language level used in OER was found to be a barrier to many learners (e.g. Cobo, 2013; Hatakka, 2009; Papathoma et al, 2020; Rets et al, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

To simplify or not? Facilitating English L2 users' comprehension and processing of open educational resources in English using text simplification

Rets

Rogaten²

2020

Computer Assisted Learning

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For instance, by studying the online course design and teaching practices of awardwinning teachers, Kumar et al (2019) uncovered that including video, audio, reading, and interactive content made courses more engaging and appreciated by learners during their learning sessions, though no explicit mention of the effectiveness of variety on learning gains has been made. In another study, Papathoma et al (2020) highlighted how this variety of formats increases the accessibility of a course, given that learners may struggle with a particular medium (e.g., due to a reading barrier such as dyslexia or a video barrier such as hearing or attention problem). Therefore, monitoring whether a course provides learners with a large variety of content formats is crucial.…”

Section: Definition 4 (Variety) Variety Is Defined As Whether the Recommendation Takes Into Account That Learners Are Different And Learnmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equality of Learning Opportunity via Individual Fairness in Personalized Recommendations

Marras

Boratto

Ramos

et al. 2021

Int J Artif Intell Educ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Online education platforms play an increasingly important role in mediating the success of individuals’ careers. Therefore, while building overlying content recommendation services, it becomes essential to guarantee that learners are provided with equal recommended learning opportunities, according to the platform principles, context, and pedagogy. Though the importance of ensuring equality of learning opportunities has been well investigated in traditional institutions, how this equality can be operationalized in online learning ecosystems through recommender systems is still under-explored. In this paper, we shape a blueprint of the decisions and processes to be considered in the context of equality of recommended learning opportunities, based on principles that need to be empirically-validated (no evaluation with live learners has been performed). To this end, we first provide a formalization of educational principles that model recommendations’ learning properties, and a novel fairness metric that combines them to monitor the equality of recommended learning opportunities among learners. Then, we envision a scenario wherein an educational platform should be arranged in such a way that the generated recommendations meet each principle to a certain degree for all learners, constrained to their individual preferences. Under this view, we explore the learning opportunities provided by recommender systems in a course platform, uncovering systematic inequalities. To reduce this effect, we propose a novel post-processing approach that balances personalization and equality of recommended opportunities. Experiments show that our approach leads to higher equality, with a negligible loss in personalization. This paper provides a theoretical foundation for future studies of learners’ preferences and limits concerning the equality of recommended learning opportunities.

show abstract

“…The lack of accessibility data from learners in MOOC platforms should be addressed by considering the role of MOOC recommender systems (Iniesto & Rodrigo, 2019) and that of learning analytics (Cooper et al, 2016). As discussed with MOOC providers, future research should involve developing accessibility profiling standards and their practical application in open education (Navarrete & Luján-Mora, 2018) and in learning at scale (Papathoma et al, 2020). Those aspects, if addressed, will allow personalisation and possibilities for offering advice and guidance for learners (Iniesto et al, 2021).…”

Section: Limitations and Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

A qualitative study to understand the perspectives of MOOC providers on accessibility

Iniesto

McAndrew

Minocha

et al. 2021

AJET

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are widely available and have become a common option for learners. However, their full potential cannot be realised if they are not accessible to all learners, including those with disabilities. It is, therefore, important to understand the different stakeholders and their requirements and perspectives in designing accessible MOOCs. This research investigated the perspectives of MOOC providers on MOOC learners who have accessibility needs and the processes used to manage accessibility and MOOCs in their individual organisations. In this paper, we report the results of a study using thematic analysis, which involved 26 semi-structured interviews with MOOC providers and focused on MOOC accessibility. The results show that, while MOOC providers are aware of learners with accessibility needs who are participating in MOOCs, they prioritise legislation over learners’ accessibility preferences. MOOC providers consider the technology of the platform itself creates barriers and are aware of the limitations for learners in finding help, reporting accessibility barriers and obtaining feedback, when participating in MOOCs. Implications for policy and practice: Course providers should acknowledge MOOC design is being guided by legal requirements. That involves uncertainty to who is the responsible to deliver accessible MOOCs. Platform providers need to consider the lack of information about their learners makes it difficult to design educational resources that consider different target groups and provide personalisation. Learners can find MOOCs helpful for continuing professional development and lifelong learning. MOOCs are attractive due to their low-cost and self-regulated learning.

show abstract

Guidance on How Learning at Scale Can be Made More Accessible

Cited by 6 publications

References 10 publications

To simplify or not? Facilitating English L2 users' comprehension and processing of open educational resources in English using text simplification

To simplify or not? Facilitating English L2 users' comprehension and processing of open educational resources in English using text simplification

Equality of Learning Opportunity via Individual Fairness in Personalized Recommendations

A qualitative study to understand the perspectives of MOOC providers on accessibility

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About