Using Blended Learning to Support Community Development: Lessons Learnt from a Platform for Accessibility Experts Christophe Ponsard
Joël Chouassi
CETIC Research Centre, Charleroi, Belgium
[email protected]
HEPH Condorcet High School, Mons, Belgium
Vincent Snoeck, Anne-Sophie Marchal Gamah/Atingo, Namur, Belgium
Julie Vanhalewyn Plain-Pied asbl, Namur, Belgium
Context and Objectives E-Learning from universities to companies = text/audio/video and communication channels between learners, teachers and tutors (forums, instant messaging,…) Blended (or hybrid) learning = wide spectrum of teaching and learning styles between the traditional face-to-face in classrooms and the pure online course Beyond (e-)learning = community development is often a key issue for optimal knowledge transfer/renewal especially in narrow domains Objective: experiment with blended learning in contexts (i.e. accessibility of public places) which are highly specific and require field practice but can also rely on e-learning and off-line interactions among people of different levels or (sub-)areas of expertise (i.e. wheelchair, blind, deaf,…)
Case study – training and building a community of experts in accessibility of public places Functional Requirements (FRs)
Involved Profiles
FR1 - support different courses and dependencies FR2 - support different types of media (text, audio, video...) FR3 – variety of communication channels: blogs/forums/chats/…
Non Functional Requirements (NFRs)
NFR1 - web-based, without requiring any installation NFR2 - providing a simple user interface for the trainee NFR3 - relying only on Open-Source components NFR4 - secured (authentication, access control, privacy) NFR5 - compliant with e-accessibility standards (WCAG) NFR6 - an (external) e-accessibility expert (AnySurfer)
Sprint 1- Design & Platform Design
domain experts (trainers of previous sessions) motivated trainees selected from previous sessions an IT architect with some experience in e-learning software a web developer and system administrator
Agile Design, Development and Validation: 3 sprints 1. 2. 3.
Design, technology selection and demonstrator First prototype: FRs and simple user stories Improved prototype: more user stories and NFRs
Sprint 2 – Functional Structure (course)
Sprint 3 – Improved (NFRs) Infrastructure improvement (PHP op code)
Better forum feature Framework:
vs
Public level and basic modules
Deployment: http://cena.accessible-it.org
Lessons learnt (1) Have all community stakeholders on board: community of experts, former trainees gaining expertise and becoming trainers. (2) Platform usability is a key point: better KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and usable than too many features and loosing users. (3) Adapt to the community specificities: In our case: e-Accessibility. Involvement of specific experts for this. Multilingual support can also be considered here.
Conclusion: our work is an interesting experience on how to address the needs for a platform supporting both blended e-learning and community building for accessibility experts. We believe our feedback can be applied more generally.
On-going/next steps: (1) Continuous improvement of the platform based on the upcoming training sessions. (2) Management of evolving training material through time and the organization of more specific material for the second level of training. (3) Development of a specific picture annotation tool, in order to comment on the accessibility of pictures gathered by experts. (4) Opening a direct channel where infrastructure owners can report and get advice about their accessibility problems.
Key References Dougiamas, M. (2002). Moodle - Open-Source Software Learning Management System. https://moodle.org Garrison, D. and Vaughan, N. (2011). Blended Learning in Higher Education: Framework, Principles, and Guidelines. Wiley Kitchenham, A. (2011). Blended Learning across Disciplines: Models for Implementation. Information Science Reference. Stein, J. and Graham, C. (2014). Essentials for Blended Learning: A Standards-Based Guide. Essentials of Online Learning. Taylor & Francis.
Work supported by the IDEES CO-INNOVATION project
