Advertisement

Disability - The National Benefit Authority

Newsletter 58

Adaptech eLearning Study Seeks Survey Participants

The Adaptech Research Network continues Canada’s first study examining the accessibility of eLearning to college and university students with disabilities, including students with learning disabilities. If you completed our survey this past fall, we thank you very much.

For the purposes of this study, eLearning refers to the range of information and communication technologies that professors use when teaching their courses entirely in the classroom, entirely online, or a combination of both. Examples include: PowerPoint in the classroom, online tests, CD-ROMs, and WebCT. Accessibility refers to the ability of a learner, regardless of their disability, to easily and independently use eLearning. For some learners, this may require the use of adaptive technology (e.g., software that reads what is on the screen).

We are looking for:

1. Students with disabilities at Canadian colleges and universities who have taken at least one course in the last three years where a professor used some form of eLearning;
2. Staff who provide disability-related services at Canadian post-secondary institutions;
3. College and university professors who have taught at least one student with a disability during the last three years in a course where they used some form of eLearning; and
4. Individuals who support/implement eLearning at Canadian post-secondary institutions. This includes managers of distance education and instructional technology departments; persons who train faculty to use technology or multimedia; designers and developers of eLearning on campus, and so on. Note that for this fourth group, we are very much interested to hear your views, regardless of your current knowledge of or level of involvement with issues of eLearning and accessibility to students with disabilities.

The online survey is confidential and lasts approximately 20 minutes. To participate go to http://www.adaptech.org/elearning Send questions to elearning@Adaptech.org

This study is part of the Disability and Information Technologies Research Alliance and is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Top