Adapting Learning Environments with AccessForAll Greg Gay Faculty of Information Adaptive Technology Resource Centre University of Toronto 130 St. George St. Toronto, Ontario, Canada 01 416 978-4043
Silvia Mirri Department of Computer Science University of Bologna Via Mura Anteo Zamboni 7 40127 Bologna (BO), Italy 39 051 2094880
[email protected]
[email protected] Marco Roccetti Department of Computer Science University of Bologna Via Mura Anteo Zamboni 7 40127 Bologna (BO), Italy 39 051 2094503
[email protected]
Paola Salomoni Department of Computer Science University of Bologna Via Mura Anteo Zamboni 7 40127 Bologna (BO), Italy 39 051 2094880
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
specifications [1].
ATutor is an Open Source Web-based learning environment that has accessibility as a guiding development principle. From its beginning, ATutor was created to fill a need for an accessible network-based Learning Management System (LMS) [2] [3].
The ISO FDIS 24751 [4] standards were introduced in September of 2008 as another way of matching learning environments to users. They include two sub-standards: the Digital Resource Description (DRD), and the Personal Needs and Preferences (PNP). The ISO standards closely resemble the IMS ACCMD and ACCLIP specifications.
Continuing with its attention to accessibility, ATutor adds the first implementation of the ISO FDIS 24751 [4] accessibility standards.
Categories and Subject Descriptors K.3.1 [Computer Uses in Education]: Distance learning; K.4.2 [Social Issues]: Handicapped persons/special needs.
General Terms
With the release of the ISO standards while this project was underway, the original goal of implementing IMS AccessForAll 1.0 changed to implementing ISO FDIS 24751, understanding that it would influence the developing IMS AccessForAll 2.0. Implementing AccessForAll in ATutor is described in Section 2 that follows, and can be summarized as three areas of development:
Management, Design, Human Factors, Standardization.
1.
Adding user Display, Content, and Control Preferences (Implementing ISO PNP).
Keywords
2.
Extending the ATutor Content Editor to author adapted content, and displaying that content when learner content preferences call for it (Implementing ISO DRD).
3.
Extending Content Packaging to include importing and exporting of AccessForAll content.
Learning Management, accessibility, content adaptability, IMS AccessForAll, ISO FDIS 24751.
1.INTRODUCTION In August 2004 the IMS Global Learning Consortium introduced the AccessForAll Metadata Specification (ACCMD) and the Accessibility for Learner Information Package Accessibility for LIP specification (ACCLIP) [5]. These specifications were developed to standardize the way content and learning environments match the needs of individual learners. Adoption of these specifications has been slow. Work is underway at IMS on AccessForAll 2.0 to improve upon the first version of the
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Finally Section 3 concludes with a summary of the learned and the outcomes of the project
lessons
2.IMPLEMENTING ACCESSFORALL IN ATUTOR 2.1 Personal Needs and Preferences (PNP) Implementing ISO PNP in ATutor involved collecting user set preferences through a Web form, enabling these settings into a session each time a user logs in, and having settings do something to the environment if they are turned on. Similar settings already existed in ATutor so it was primarily a matter of attaching the new preference settings to those already in a user session. User preferences are set through a series of four tabs added to the ATutor Preferences configuration tool, like that shown below in Figure 1. Users can control the Display appearance, the forms of
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Content they prefer, the scaffolds they prefer to use, and the Controls they use to navigate. Once preferences are stored in a session, they are rendered either through conditional statements scattered throughout theme templates, or through a generated style sheet which overrides a theme’s styles with those of the user.
Content authors can choose to export adapted content with the content packages they distribute, and instructors and course designers can choose to import adapted content when restoring content packages into their course learning materials.
3.CONCLUSIONS In this first implementation of AccessForAll we learned a couple lessons. First we needed content to either append to, or replace original content, allowing users to display adaptations as supplemental to the original content, or to replace it completely. The standard did not offer an obvious way to accommodate this, so we added our own content preference so learners could themselves choose to append adapted content, or use it to replace original content.
Figure 1. Personal Needs and Preferences Screen.
2.2 Digital Resource Descriptions (DRD) Much of the effort in implementing AccessForAll in ATutor went into creating the tools for authoring adapted content, and rendering it based on a user’s content preference settings. Figure 2 shows the Adapted Content panel of the ATutor content editor, with a list of resources in the content being edited on the left, and a list of files available as adaptations being displayed on the right. Authors define the modality of resources in the original content as visual, textual, or auditory information, or a combination thereof. Then they associate alternate resources (i.e. files), of different modalities, as adaptations of original content. Once adapted content has been associated with the original, the content is displayed in the preferred form based on each user’s preferences.
Secondly, we needed adaptations for text content, to accommodate users with print disabilities. The standards were not amenable to such adaptations. Our first attempt at creating adaptations for text was to provide full-page alternatives to original content, though this created conflicts with individual resource adaptations, if for instance the full page and a single resource file both had adaptations for the same particular modality. Adapting larger pieces of content than individual files, involves a whole range of complexities that can fuel future development of standards in areas of personalized learning [7]. The primary outcome of the ATutor AccessForAll project was a relatively complete open source functional implementation of the ISO FDIS 24571 and IMS AccessForAll standards, freely available for use, and for developers to study and improve upon in the ATutor 1.6.2 release.
4.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Our thanks go to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its financial support of this project.
5.REFERENCES [1] Charter for IMS AccessForAll 2.0 http://www.imsglobal.org/getpdf.cfm?docname=accv2charter .pdf (Jan 2009). [2] Gay, G, Harrison, L., Richards, J., and Treviranus, J. Courseware Accessibility Study (1999) http://www.atutor.ca/research/crseval/crseval.html. [3] Gay, G. Treviranus, J., and Landon, B., (2000) Inclusion in and Electronic Classroom http://www.atutor.ca/research/access_study/inclusion.html. [4] ISO FDIS 24571 Accessibility Standards http://www.iso.org/iso/search.htm?qt=24751&searchSubmit =Search&sort=rel&type=simple&published=on (Dec 2008). [5] IMS AccessForAll Metadata Specifications http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility/index.html (Dec 2008). Figure 2. Authoring Digital Resource Descriptions.
2.3 Content Packaging Interoperability The final piece of the AccessForAll implementation was making it possible to share adapted content once it had been created. This involved extending IMS Content Packaging [6] in ATutor to include AccessForAll content when importing and exporting content packages.
[6] IMS Content Packaging Specification http://www.imsglobal.org/content/packaging/index.html (Dec 2008). [7] Mirri, S., Gay, G., Roccetti, M., Salomoni, P. (2009), Meeting learners’ preferences: implementing content adaptability in e-learning, in Proceedings of New Learning Technologies 2009, Orlando, accepted for publication.
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