Improving Accessibility and Personalisation for HE Students with Disabilities in Two Countries in the Indian Subcontinent - Initial Findings

Shopland, Nicholas; Brown, David J.; Daniela, Linda; Rūdolfa, Arta; Rūdolfa, Astra; Rahman, Muhammad Arifur; Burton, Audrey; Mahmud, Mufti; Isacker, Karel Van

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-05039-8_8

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Most of the participants in the study have given relatively little thought to aspects of inclusive education in digital environments, although Latvian academics believe this is essential if digital environments are to be accessible to everyone and support everyone's need to learn (Daniela & Lytras, 2018;Thompson & Copeland, 2020;Shopland et al, 2022). If digital environments do not take into account the different needs of individuals, then this can make the digital divide even wider.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On a Pathway Towards the Digitalisation of Higher Education: The Case of Latvia

Daniela¹,

Ivsiņa²

2022

Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2022

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The European project POWERHEAD (Empowering Higher Education in Adopting Digital Learning), involving the Latvian Ministry of Education and Science (project partner) and the Flemish Department of Education and Training (project lead partner), aims to analyse the possibilities of digitising higher education. In order to identify the way forward, digitising higher education in Latvia and Belgium (Flemish Region) was mapped according to the methodology developed in the project, taking into account Laurillard’s model of drivers and enablers. The project aims to develop policy guidelines for partners at two levels: 1) guidelines for a national policy strategy on digital learning in higher education; and 2) guidelines including recommendations for higher education institutions to develop teaching and learning in this format and environment and to plan the next steps in the digitalisation of higher education. To this end, a multi-stage study was carried out to identify the situation in Latvia. The first phase consisted of a series of focus group discussions with higher education stakeholders (students, lecturers, business representatives and policy-makers). The second phase consisted of a survey of academic staff comprising 40 questions, two of which were designed to elicit demographic information, while the remaining questions were open-ended. The results (and related challenges) were analysed using content analysis principles. The key finding is that stakeholders are generally supportive of the digitalisation of higher education but point to a number of challenges that need to be addressed: support for lecturers in learning digital skills, collaboration between lecturers, and digital solution designers to ensure that digital solutions are of high quality and avoid the risks of knowledge fragmentation. It is also important to think about the principles of inclusive education so that the digital learning environment is accessible to everyone.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On a Pathway Towards the Digitalisation of Higher Education: The Case of Latvia

Daniela¹,

Ivsiņa²

2022

Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2022

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“…Using the Metaverse, educators can personalise educational content and activities based on student's abilities and preferences. Interactive learning environments offer personalised adjustments in difficulty, pace, and content, ensuring inclusivity [78,79]. Students can pursue their interests and interact with peers and experts, fostering engagement.…”

Section: Personalised Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metaverse for Education: Developments, Challenges and Future Direction

Chamola,

Hassija,

Singh

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Recent digital transformations have significantly impacted the current society, economy, and culture. This includes adoption of rapidly emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), immersive technology (e.g., virtual, augmented, mixed and extended reality (VR/AR/MR/XR)), cloud services, and internet of things, in our day-to-day life. `Metaverse’ has emerged as a technology that incorporates many of these transforming technologies to deliver personalised immersive experience related to specific application areas. A potential major beneficiary of Metaverse is the educational ecosystem, where highly immersive learning experiences can be delivered to students, catering to their personal learning needs and train them on life skills such as empathy, ethical qualities, and communication skills. The present-day Metaverse allows physical engagement, enabling users to utilise limb movements to interact with the presented materials. However, ethical concerns and technical limitations impede the widespread implementation of the Metaverse in the real-world. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the existing literature covering the architecture, type and components of Metaverse, followed by practical aspects of metaverse implementation. The paper is concluded by discussing on the open challenges and issues along with their mitigation strategies and future research directions after the detailed usecase of Metaverse in Education.

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“…Several studies on inclusive HE have been carried out, and in most cases, the results show that there are still many unresolved issues where resources need to be invested to make HE accessible to people with different special needs (Shopland et al, 2022). Various regulations and political guidelines indicate that this is to be recommended, and most European universities are bound to guarantee people with disabilities or special educational needs the appropriate environment to facilitate access, promotion, as well as full participation in academic life under equal conditions (Faura-Martínez & Cifuentes-Faura, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inclusive Education in India and Bangladesh – Preliminary Results

Daniela¹,

Rūdolfa²,

Rūdolfa³

et al. 2022

Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2022

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This study was conducted as part of the DIVERSASIA project “Embracing Diversity in ASIA Through the Adoption of Inclusive Open Practices”, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. DIVERSASIA’s overall aim is to ensure that students with disabilities (sensorial and cognitive) can enjoy the same access to higher education (HE) as their peers without disabilities and enjoy access to digital training materials, open education resources (OERs) and massive open online courses (MOOCs). These are especially relevant to students who cannot currently physically access HE (and instead are part of distance learning schemes and courses) due to existing architectural barriers. The project partners developed questionnaires to be filled in by HE staff and students in order to identify the current situation of inclusive education provision in India and Bangladesh and to understand what focused activities are needed. This article summarizes the results of the staff surveys.

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Improving Accessibility and Personalisation for HE Students with Disabilities in Two Countries in the Indian Subcontinent - Initial Findings

Cited by 7 publications

References 4 publications

On a Pathway Towards the Digitalisation of Higher Education: The Case of Latvia

On a Pathway Towards the Digitalisation of Higher Education: The Case of Latvia

Metaverse for Education: Developments, Challenges and Future Direction

Inclusive Education in India and Bangladesh – Preliminary Results

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