Research challenges in accessible MOOCs: a systematic literature review 2008–2016
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paper_title: Qualitative Analysis Techniques for the Review of the Literature

paper_content:

In this article, we provide a framework for analyzing and interpreting sources that inform a literature review or, as it is more aptly called, a research synthesis. Specifically, using Leech and Onwuegbuzie’s (2007, 2008) frameworks, we delineate how the following four major source types inform research syntheses: talk, observations, drawings/photographs/videos, and documents. We identify 17 qualitative data analysis techniques that are optimal for analyzing one or more of these source types. Further, we outline the role that the following five qualitative data analysis techniques can play in the research synthesis: constant comparison analysis, domain analysis, taxonomic analysis, componential analysis, and theme analysis. We contend that our framework represents a first step in an attempt to help literature reviewers analyze and interpret literature in an optimally rigorous way. Keywords: Review of the Literature, Research Synthesis, Qualitative Analysis, Constant Comparison Analysis, Domain Analysis, Taxonomic Analysis, Componential Analysis, Theme Analysis
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paper_title: The promotion of digital inclusion through MOOC design and use: a literature review

paper_content:

The use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is being increasingly equated as a viable option by several educational shareholders in the scope of many scientific areas; nevertheless, research as to its potentialities in terms of digital (and consequently social) inclusion is still sparse and somehow atomised. Thus, this paper aims at putting forward the results of a thorough literature review focussed on the studies that bring together the concepts of MOOC and digital inclusion, published between January 2014 and January 2015. Thus, the main goal was to find out if there is evidence that MOOCS can be an important means for embracing digital inclusion, in particular, by promoting the development of soft skills (e.g., digital skills, communication skills, interaction skills). First and because the concept is becoming more and more polysemic (due to its manifold uses, theoretical frameworks, and application contexts), the MOOC’s main facets are depicted, considering its derivatives (e.g., cMOOC and xMOOC). Moreover, some critical aspects that stand out from the content analysis of the results of the literature review are also highlighted, namely as to: accessibility, employability and lifelong learning promoted through MOOC use. In general, results suggest that there is still a long way to go for MOOCs to fully address the digital inclusion challenge.
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paper_title: META-ANALYSIS OF THE RESEARCH ABOUT MOOC DURING 2013-2014

paper_content:

ABSTRACT The first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) was launched in 2008 in Canada. Since then these new model of online education has proliferated around the world and sparked many interesting and often heated discussions regarding their benefits and implications in the field of education. In order to understand and contribute to the debate surrounding MOOCs and their educational possibilities it is necessary to go beyond opinion, intuition or isolated experiences. It is necessary to have evidence that allows for systematic, detailed and contrastive evaluation. Following the methodology used in an earlier investigation that analyzed publications from the first five years of MOOC delivery, this article looks at studies that focus on MOOCs between 2013-2014. Through a systematic search of the available literature, we found 228 investigative works, published in peer reviewed journals. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of these publications is presented. Classification was based on the year of publication, the type of publication and eleven distinct categories we found of interest. We found that increases in the number of publications and, to a lesser extent, presentations at conferences. Pedagogical strategies are the most common focus as well as learner motivation, presentence and implications for higher education systems. The reach/scope of the MOOC phenomenon for online teaching has sparked and challenged both institutions (their structure, pedagogical model, management and business) as well as instructors (their roles and competencies). In order for answers to be able to settle in what the evidence in the investigation has been building, it is necessary to agree on a common set of topics and research methodologies.
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paper_title: Analysis of MOOCs Practices from the Perspective of Learner Experiences and Quality Culture.

paper_content:

This explanatory analysis of the relevant literature seeks to identify factors affecting quality in massive open online courses (MOOCs). The paper highlights sub-dimensions of quality in MOOCs using the ladder of analytical abstraction. Communication, trust, collaboration, inclusiveness, innovation, and commitment are identified as key elements in developing a quality culture in online education. In seeking to merge the organizational and pedagogical aspects of online education, MOOCs raise new questions concerning personalization, widening recruitment, internationalization or globalization, and lifelong learning. However, the pedagogical aspects of MOOCs remain insufficiently described and explored. As MOOCs are now a significant presence in digital education, it is essential to understand learners’ experiences and participation in such courses.
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paper_title: Accessibility of MOOCs for Blind People in Developing Non-English Speaking Countries

paper_content:

Besides the globally popular MOOCs, localized MOOCs specific to a region or language are also emerging. These specialized MOOCs often aim to address specific needs that are typically unaddressed by the global MOOCs. Such example is Almooc that aims to address the needs of the Albanian-speaking persons who lack English proficiency. Despite the MOOCs adage to include and offer education to all people, research has shown that their interface is not accessible to people with disabilities, such as the blind. To evaluate the level of accessibility of Almooc, in this paper we report findings from three different methods: usability testing, automatic accessibility checking, and heuristic evaluation. The results indicate that Almooc is not currently accessible to blind people, however, we present recommendations to easily overcome the discovered issues.
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paper_title: Web Accessibility Requirements for Massive Open Online Courses

paper_content:

This work is partially funded by the Prometheus project of the National Secretary of Higher Education, Science and Technology (SENESCYT), Government of Ecuador.
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paper_title: From Blended to Inclusive Learning: Accessibility, Profiles, Openness, and Higher Education

paper_content:

The use of technology can be seen as an innovative challenge to restructure the teaching-learning process and integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in independent, collaborative and interactive work. The main purposes of this study are to understand users' needs and to identify their profiles, in order to empower the quality of online teaching-learning process. Identifying teachers' and students' profiles and their needs as Course Management System users, in particular, is necessary to guarantee the quality of a b-learning process, with a more comprehensive face, towards inclusive learning. Sixty-eight (68) face-to- face interviews were conducted and validated, and a systematic content analysis was merged with a multivariate analysis. The results reveal four profiles of teachers, i.e., activities-oriented, interaction-oriented, assessment-oriented, and collaboration-oriented, and three profiles of students, i.e., interactive learning environment-oriented, training-oriented, teachers' beliefs- oriented. In terms of recognizing, understanding and responding to the academic community specific needs, this study can support an inclusive, multi-dimensional and holistic ICT knowledge for choosing adjustable teaching-learning strategies that could be applied into the enhancement of accessibility and info-inclusion into the learning environment.
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paper_title: How Could MOOCs Become Accessible? The Case of edX and the Future of Inclusive Online Learning

paper_content:

This work has been partially supported by the Prometeo Project by SENESCYT, Ecuadorian Government.
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paper_title: Setting accessibility preferences about learning objects within adaptive elearning systems: User experience and organizational aspects

paper_content:

Higher and further education providers are facing the challenge of supporting the interaction needs of an increasing number of students who feature accessibility preferences to use both elearning contents and services. In the next future, we can expect that, within adaptive elearning systems, both automatic and manual procedures will interoperate to elicit users' interaction needs for ensuring accessibility. In this paper, we report findings from the user experience with the self-assessment of interaction needs, as part of a content personalization system, which tackles possible mismatches in the interaction between the user and the learning objects. All stakeholders involved in providing this service along with intended user groups (students with visual, auditory or mobility impairments, and without impairments) participated in the evaluation with over 100 users described in this paper. From the evaluation, results follow that our approach allows students to self-assess and report adequately their interaction preferences. Furthermore, the paper describes findings of interest and open issues about how massive online courses may address the accessibility needs of an increasing number of elearning users.
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paper_title: Method for analysing the user experience in MOOC platforms

paper_content:

MOOCs have recently become very popular, since some of these massive online courses can reach thousand students. Faculty members from top universities deliver courses through MOOC platforms: Coursera, Edx, Miriada X, etc. Apart from the content, many other factors can influence the quality of a course; for instance, a bad user experience of a Web MOOC platform can lead students to drop out an interesting and well-organised course. MOOC platforms require much effort to care for the user experience. This research aims to develop a specific method for evaluating the user experience of MOOC platforms. The method is based on the general principles of Web user experience and highlights the aspects influencing MOOCs. The system proposed in this paper calculates a quantifiable index, useful for comparing different MOOC platforms, quantifying the quality evolution of the user experience, and promoting further studies so as to determine the impact of the user experience on students: satisfaction in surveys, enrollment figures, dropout rates, among others.
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paper_title: Accessibility of MOOCs: Understanding the Provider Perspective

paper_content:

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) have become an accepted way to make learning opportunities available at large scale and with low cost to the learner. However, only if these are made accessible will they be able to offer flexibility of learning and benefits to all, irrespective of disability. Experience in providing accessible online learning at distance universities suggests that this can be best achieved through understanding different roles and the options in planning for adjustments to be made. To effectively apply similar approaches to MOOCs, it is necessary to understand the various viewpoints and roles of stakeholders and how these impact on accessibility. This includes educators who create materials and facilitate learning, and technologists who develop and maintain platforms. In this paper, we report the results from a study involving semi-structured interviews to investigate the perceptions and accessibility-related processes of MOOC platform accessibility managers, platform software developers and designers, and MOOC accessibility researchers. Our results show the awareness that MOOCs can be valuable for disabled learners, and indicate that legislation acts as a driver for accessibility. However, our investigations suggest limited progress to date in either producing universally accessible MOOCs, or tailoring MOOCs to meet the needs of individual learners with disabilities.
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paper_title: Balancing pedagogy, student readiness and accessibility: A case study in collaborative online course development

paper_content:

Abstract As institutions of higher education continue to roll out online courses and programs, issues of undergraduate student readiness on the one hand, and the challenges surrounding the design and development of pedagogically-sound online experiences that are also accessible to students with disabilities on the other, remain of concern. This paper describes the results of a case study of collaboration between the Instructional Design and Technology faculty and the Assistive Technology Initiative (ATI) group at a 4-year public institution to address both of these issues simultaneously during the development of an online course designed to teach undergraduates to cultivate the self-discipline and self-direction required to become successful online learners. The authors of this paper discuss project challenges, particularly concerning accessibility, along with lessons learned from both a process and a student outcome perspective. The authors also share insights into creating sustainable collaborative processes for successful online initiatives.
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paper_title: The current state of accessibility of MOOCs: What are the next steps?

paper_content:

Accessibility focuses on supporting people with disabilities – such as those related to auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and vision requirements. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are no longer a novelty and the technologies associated with them should cater to all users irrespective of their accessibility requirements. In this paper, we will discuss the current state of research related to accessibility of MOOCs. We will then outline a research plan towards developing recommendations for the effective design of accessible MOOCs. The plan includes stages such as developing an evaluation instrument, evaluation of existing MOOCs and conducting empirical research with design teams of MOOCs and learners (MOOC-users).
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paper_title: A Usability Evaluation of a Blended MOOC Environment: An Experimental Case Study

paper_content:

In the past few years, there has been an increasing interest in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a new form of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL), in higher education and beyond. Recognizing the limitations of standalone MOOCs, blended MOOCs (bMOOCs) that aim at bringing in-class (i.e. face-to-face) interactions and online learning components together have emerged as an alternative MOOC model of teaching and learning in a higher education context. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation details of a bMOOC course on “Teaching Methodologies” at Fayoum University, Egypt in cooperation with RWTH Aachen University, Germany, provided using the bMOOC platform L2P-bMOOC. In order to gauge the usability and effectiveness of the course, we employed an evaluation approach based on Conole’s 12 dimensions rubrics, ISONORM 9241/110-S as a general usability evaluation, and a custom effectiveness questionnaire reflecting the different MOOC stakeholder perspectives.
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paper_title: Web Accessibility Requirements for Massive Open Online Courses

paper_content:

This work is partially funded by the Prometheus project of the National Secretary of Higher Education, Science and Technology (SENESCYT), Government of Ecuador.
---
paper_title: How Could MOOCs Become Accessible? The Case of edX and the Future of Inclusive Online Learning

paper_content:

This work has been partially supported by the Prometeo Project by SENESCYT, Ecuadorian Government.
---
paper_title: Setting accessibility preferences about learning objects within adaptive elearning systems: User experience and organizational aspects

paper_content:

Higher and further education providers are facing the challenge of supporting the interaction needs of an increasing number of students who feature accessibility preferences to use both elearning contents and services. In the next future, we can expect that, within adaptive elearning systems, both automatic and manual procedures will interoperate to elicit users' interaction needs for ensuring accessibility. In this paper, we report findings from the user experience with the self-assessment of interaction needs, as part of a content personalization system, which tackles possible mismatches in the interaction between the user and the learning objects. All stakeholders involved in providing this service along with intended user groups (students with visual, auditory or mobility impairments, and without impairments) participated in the evaluation with over 100 users described in this paper. From the evaluation, results follow that our approach allows students to self-assess and report adequately their interaction preferences. Furthermore, the paper describes findings of interest and open issues about how massive online courses may address the accessibility needs of an increasing number of elearning users.
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paper_title: How Accessible Are MOOCs to the Elderly

paper_content:

Literature has shown that learning, including eLearning and distance education, plays an important role in promoting well-being among the elderly. Currently elderly participants constitute less than 10 % of MOOC participants and very limited research has been conducted on the accessibility of MOOCs for elderly users. This paper presents the findings from a case study focusing on the accessibility of a MOOC demo course for the elderly. Different accessibility issues were found from automated testing and user testing. Although the elderly participants expressed general positive attitude towards using MOOCs to learn new knowledge, it is important for MOOC providers to address the accessibility issues and make their courses accessible to elderly users.
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paper_title: Web accessibility of MOOCs for elderly students

paper_content:

Internet use by older people has increased dramatically during the past 10 years. According to different sources, the number of users over age 65 has more than doubled since 2000. Besides, the inevitable effect of younger users aging will increase the number of older people using the Internet the next decades. Unfortunately, older people face several challenges when using the web due to diminishing capacities related to aging, such as vision decline, hearing loss, decremented motor skills and cognition issues. On the other hand, e-learning can be an opportunity in helping older people become integrated with the rest of society. In this context, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) bring great opportunities to enhance the quality of life of older people by enabling lifelong learning and inclusion in learning communities. However, MOOCs can present some barriers that could hamper full participation by elderly students. In order to avoid these barriers, MOOCs have to meet different user needs, skills and situations: MOOCs have to successfully address web accessibility challenges for elderly students. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness towards a better understanding of the web accessibility challenges that elderly students of MOOCs face.
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paper_title: A preliminary study for developing accessible MOOC services

paper_content:

The flexibility of the MOOC service allows students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhancing continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building. This model especially benefits people with disabilities, which can improve therefore their level of employability and social inclusion, reaching a better quality of life. Unfortunately the access to MOOC platforms present severe barriers: there is a lack of accessibility on the learning resources, the communicating tools and personalized user interfaces. All these issues add extra difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity. In this context, MOOCs are leading a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will emerge new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes. For that reason, this paper describes the need for designing an information model and related specifications to support a new strategy for delivering accessible MOOC courses to learners with special needs, in terms of their preferences and context of use based on a particular application profile. This user profile’s design is based on standard metadata schemas, data that provides information about other data, regarding the achievement of accessibility from content to user preferences.
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paper_title: ICT for Older People to Learn about ICT: Application and Evaluation

paper_content:

Information and communication technologies are becoming a common instrument of daily life. They are available to more and more people everyday, but that does not imply that they are usable and useful for everyone. There are specific groups such as older people, with specific characteristics, such as motor control problems or reduced vision, that affect both the way they use these technologies and also how they learn how to use them. In this paper, we propose to use massive open online courses in order to show older people how to take advantage of the resources available through new technologies. This proof of concept shows that the use of ICT for learning about ICT can be an adequate solution for older people.
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paper_title: Massive Online Course for Deaf and Dumb People

paper_content:

The ceremony on the rights of differently able peoples emphasizes that person with disabilities should be able to participate in all the phases of life including education also [1]. All the same statistics shows than a low percentage of persons with disabilities complete higher education. All types of disabilities which are included in HCI. MOOCs, providing online courses to a very large number of people, MOOCs have a great ability to fulfill the learning needs of millions of people. While designing a MOOC, it's important to rate the multicity of all potential learners. Actual universality and openness can only achieved if all kind of users can reach and use MOOCs to engage their abilities to regardless learning. The concept of MOOCs is a recent stake in distance education, and it's possible to educate differently able students worldwide by MOOCs.[2][3].
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paper_title: Holistic vision for creating accessible services based on MOOCs

paper_content:

MOOCs are examples of the evolution of eLearning environments towards more a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will lead to the emergence of new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes. The flexibility of the learning service students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhancing continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building, especially benefits people with disabilities and therefore can improve their level of employability and social inclusion. ::: However, the access to MOOC platforms still present barriers, there is also a lack of accessibility on the learning resources, the communicating tools and even personalized user interfaces. All these issues present definitive barriers that add extra difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity. Therefore, an holistic vision of different strategies regarding the achievement of accessibility (from content to user preferences) is presented in this paper, strategies than should be addressed in order to achieve the better accessibility level while designing new learning services for people with functional diversity based upon MOOC.
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paper_title: The Accessibility of MOOC Platforms from Instructors’ Perspective

paper_content:

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) provides remarkable learning opportunities for a great diversity of people. MOOCs have been studied from several perspectives, including accessibility. However, little attention has so far been paid to investigating whether MOOC platforms themselves are accessible for instructors who are the authors of MOOCs. To ensure universal and equal access to the MOOC platforms, a systematic study of the accessibility of the MOOC platforms from instructors’ perspective is essential. This paper presents results from a heuristic evaluation of the Canvas platform, focusing on its accessibility to instructors creating course contents in MOOCs. We have based the evaluation on Part A of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The preliminary results show that although Canvas provides much support for instructors to create accessible MOOCs, it does not comply fully with ATAG 2.0.
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paper_title: Accessible user profile modeling for academic services based on MOOCs

paper_content:

MOOCs are examples of the evolution of eLearning environments, it is a fact that the flexibility of the learning services allows students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhances continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building, benefits people with disabilities and therefore can improve their level of employability and social inclusion. MOOCs are leading a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will emergence new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes, for that reason a strategy of the use of metadata regarding the achievement of accessibility from content to user preferences is presented in this paper, in order to achieve a better accessibility level while designing new learning services for people with functional diversity based upon MOOCs.
---
paper_title: Balancing pedagogy, student readiness and accessibility: A case study in collaborative online course development

paper_content:

Abstract As institutions of higher education continue to roll out online courses and programs, issues of undergraduate student readiness on the one hand, and the challenges surrounding the design and development of pedagogically-sound online experiences that are also accessible to students with disabilities on the other, remain of concern. This paper describes the results of a case study of collaboration between the Instructional Design and Technology faculty and the Assistive Technology Initiative (ATI) group at a 4-year public institution to address both of these issues simultaneously during the development of an online course designed to teach undergraduates to cultivate the self-discipline and self-direction required to become successful online learners. The authors of this paper discuss project challenges, particularly concerning accessibility, along with lessons learned from both a process and a student outcome perspective. The authors also share insights into creating sustainable collaborative processes for successful online initiatives.
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paper_title: Accessible blended learning for non-native speakers using MOOCs

paper_content:

This paper proposes a design for enabling accessible blended learning experiences for non-native speakers (NNS) using massive open online courses (MOOCs). It describes some of the challenges that NNS experience when participating in a MOOC and identifies the requirements that ought to be met to accomplish accessibility for NNS. The requirements were elicited from WCAG 2.0 guidelines, ISO/IEC 24751:2008 recommendations, published results of related research, NNS that have participated in MOOCs in English, and authors' own experience as instructors and students of MOOCs. The design includes and architecture that involves three actors: NNS, local instructors, and MOOC authors; one non-virtual component (a local study group), and three platform components: a learning management system (LMS), a content management system (CMS), and an adaptive content engine (ACE).
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paper_title: Accessibility considerations of Massive Online Open Courses as creditable courses in Engineering Programs

paper_content:

This paper proposal is to include MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) as creditable courses in engineering programs at the National Polytechnic School of Ecuador. In addition to fulfilling a number of requirements related to the content and duration of the courses, one important challenge is that these selected MOOCs should comply with web accessibility requirements specific for the special needs of non-native speakers. Web accessibility is the property of a website to support the same level of effectiveness for people with disabilities as it does for non-disabled people. As an accessible website is designed to meet different user needs, preferences, skills and situations, this flexibility also benefits people without disabilities in certain situations, such as MOOC students who are non-native speakers. Unfortunately, MOOCs raise new challenges on web accessibility. For example, cultural differences and background knowledge have to be taken into account when choosing contents, examples, and learning activities which might be unfamiliar or even offensive to certain cultures. Also, user interfaces requires special adaptations for non-native speakers. We present a preliminary list of web accessibility requirements and highlight the challenges non-native speakers experience when using MOOCs. The goal is to raise awareness about the particular needs of non-native speakers. This understanding will be the base for establishing criteria for a preliminary selection of MOOCs as creditable courses in engineering programs at the National Polytechnic School. These criteria can also be useful for other higher education institutions interested in including MOOCs in their official programs.
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paper_title: MOOCs for all: evaluating the accessibility of top MOOC platforms

paper_content:

Nowadays, experiences with massive open online courses (MOOCs) are being part of modern engineering degrees, thusproviding practical interactive activities to improve teaching-learning strategies with online courses and social communitylearning with peers from different countries. Additionally, this MOOC movement is being identified as a valuable tool toprovide engineering education to all students, including students with disabilities that for different reasons cannot be partof a face-to-face session and, naturally, have the rights to make use of this myriad of teaching-learning strategies. In thissense, if a teacher wants to develop a MOOC course or to recommend a course to his students, it is imperative to identify thebest accessible platforms in order to provide inclusive learning strategies. The aim of this study is to analyze the accessibilityof a selection of eight popular MOOC platforms: Coursera, edX, Udacity, MiriadaX, UNED COMA, Udemy,Futurelearn and NovoEd. To this end, three automatic accessibility evaluation tools have been used: eXaminator, FAEand Tingtun. Hence, it has been checked the degree of conformance of these platforms with the Web Content AccessibilityGuidelines (WCAG) created by the World Wide Consortium and adopted by ISO as an international standard. The studyhasbeen complemented witha heuristic evaluationbyexperts in order to havea holistic perspective of MOOC accessibility.The idea behind this study is that the stakeholders in the teaching-learning process will be able to identify and select themost inclusive platform based on the international standards. Moreover, the technical staff in educational institutions willbe provided with a procedure to identify accessibility issues in other platforms and engineering teachers will be aware of thepotential obstacles that students with disabilities may experience. The results of this study identify edX and Futurelearn asthe best MOOC platforms. Finally, conclusions and future work ideas are presented.
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paper_title: MOOCs gone wild

paper_content:

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have been around since 2008, when 2,300 students took part in a course called “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” organized by University of Manitoba, Canada. The year 2012 was widely recognized as “The year of the MOOC”, because several MOOC initiatives gained a world-wide popularity. Nowadays, many experts consider MOOCs a “revolution in education”. However, other experts think is too soon to make such a claim since MOOCs still have to prove they are here to stay. With the spread of MOOCs, different providers have appeared, such as Coursera, Udacity and edX. In addition, some popular LMS (Learning Management Systems), such as Moodle or Sakai, have also been used to provide MOOCs. Besides, a new breed of LMS has appeared in recent months with the aim of providing specific tools to create MOOCs: OpenMOOC and Google CourseBuilder being two of them. The growing interest of MOOCs has led to the emergence of different forms of use. In some cases, such as xMOOCs, the initial concept has been distorted. In other cases, such as SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses), it has become possible to use MOOCs in alternative contexts which they were originally created.
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paper_title: The current state of accessibility of MOOCs: What are the next steps?

paper_content:

Accessibility focuses on supporting people with disabilities – such as those related to auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and vision requirements. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are no longer a novelty and the technologies associated with them should cater to all users irrespective of their accessibility requirements. In this paper, we will discuss the current state of research related to accessibility of MOOCs. We will then outline a research plan towards developing recommendations for the effective design of accessible MOOCs. The plan includes stages such as developing an evaluation instrument, evaluation of existing MOOCs and conducting empirical research with design teams of MOOCs and learners (MOOC-users).
---
paper_title: Strategies for improving the level of accessibility in the design of MOOC-based learning services

paper_content:

Access to MOOC platforms has barriers: there is a lack of accessibility to educational resources, communications tools and even the personalisation of user interfaces. Added to this are difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for those students with functional diversity. Therefore, a vision of the different strategies in relation to the achievement of accessibility (from the content to user preferences) is presented in this work; strategies which must be tackled with the aim of achieving a better level of accessibility during the design of new learning services based on MOOCs.
---
paper_title: Accessibility of MOOCs for Blind People in Developing Non-English Speaking Countries

paper_content:

Besides the globally popular MOOCs, localized MOOCs specific to a region or language are also emerging. These specialized MOOCs often aim to address specific needs that are typically unaddressed by the global MOOCs. Such example is Almooc that aims to address the needs of the Albanian-speaking persons who lack English proficiency. Despite the MOOCs adage to include and offer education to all people, research has shown that their interface is not accessible to people with disabilities, such as the blind. To evaluate the level of accessibility of Almooc, in this paper we report findings from three different methods: usability testing, automatic accessibility checking, and heuristic evaluation. The results indicate that Almooc is not currently accessible to blind people, however, we present recommendations to easily overcome the discovered issues.
---
paper_title: Accessibility analysis in MOOC platforms. A case study: UNED COMA and UAbiMOOC

paper_content:

This article has come about as a result of joint work between the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED, Spain) and the Universidade Aberta (Portugal), pioneering universities in the development of MOOC platforms with pedagogical approximations different from the xMOOC and cMOOC models. The work has been centred on the analysis of the degree of accessibility of both platforms from the ::: point of view of the User Centred Design for which tools suitable for this purpose such as eXaminator and aDesigner have been used
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paper_title: Stepwise Approach to Accessible MOOC Development.

paper_content:

Developing resources for online learning in its many guises and more recently for MOOCs has been discussed across the educational sector, usually by individuals working for one institution or organisation. Rarely are there discussions that highlight the issues of collaborative working on content that is delivered over a period of weeks for a wide range of abilities and skills. In particular there is a reluctance to face the issues presented by barriers to access for those with disabilities and even the issues that could arise should an academic be unable to access the development platform to present content. This paper aims to approach these issues by providing guidance in a series of practical steps that highlight an inclusive design approach
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paper_title: Setting accessibility preferences about learning objects within adaptive elearning systems: User experience and organizational aspects

paper_content:

Higher and further education providers are facing the challenge of supporting the interaction needs of an increasing number of students who feature accessibility preferences to use both elearning contents and services. In the next future, we can expect that, within adaptive elearning systems, both automatic and manual procedures will interoperate to elicit users' interaction needs for ensuring accessibility. In this paper, we report findings from the user experience with the self-assessment of interaction needs, as part of a content personalization system, which tackles possible mismatches in the interaction between the user and the learning objects. All stakeholders involved in providing this service along with intended user groups (students with visual, auditory or mobility impairments, and without impairments) participated in the evaluation with over 100 users described in this paper. From the evaluation, results follow that our approach allows students to self-assess and report adequately their interaction preferences. Furthermore, the paper describes findings of interest and open issues about how massive online courses may address the accessibility needs of an increasing number of elearning users.
---
paper_title: Editor for accessible images in e-Learning platforms

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a set of twenty features for managing accessible images when generating educational content. With this set of features, we assessed a sample of eight e-Learning platforms and found that, regarding image accessibility, Moodle and Sakai are the most accessible e-Learning platforms, whereas edX and Udemy are the least accessible. We also present an HTML visual text editor for accessible images designed to be a base component across e-Learning platforms. As future work, we plan to propose additional sets of accessibility features regarding other formats, e.g. text, audio, video.
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paper_title: Holistic vision for creating accessible services based on MOOCs

paper_content:

MOOCs are examples of the evolution of eLearning environments towards more a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will lead to the emergence of new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes. The flexibility of the learning service students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhancing continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building, especially benefits people with disabilities and therefore can improve their level of employability and social inclusion. ::: However, the access to MOOC platforms still present barriers, there is also a lack of accessibility on the learning resources, the communicating tools and even personalized user interfaces. All these issues present definitive barriers that add extra difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity. Therefore, an holistic vision of different strategies regarding the achievement of accessibility (from content to user preferences) is presented in this paper, strategies than should be addressed in order to achieve the better accessibility level while designing new learning services for people with functional diversity based upon MOOC.
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paper_title: ECO European project: inclusive education through accessible MOOCs

paper_content:

In this paper, we describe one of the most important aspects to consider in a quality online, open and inclusive education, which is the compliance with an accessible web design. ECO European Project offers quality massive, open and online courses (MOOCs) for everybody with no exclusion. Based on the "universal design" and the "accessible web design" principles, we host experiences for the inclusiveness, such as the "sMOOC Step by Step", created and organized for diversity, making no distinction between capacities, needs and social or cultural conditions. Moreover, our participants -most of them teachers and social workers- learn how to create their own accessible and inclusive MOOCs, which implies a great multiplier effect.
---
paper_title: An ecosystem for corporate training with accessible MOOCs and OERs

paper_content:

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a relatively new type of online courses characterized by their ability to reach massive amounts of learners. Open Educational Resources (OERs) are freely available, openly licensed materials that are useful for teaching, learning, and research. In the last years, both MOOCs and OERs have steadily increased its presence in online learning, especially in higher education. Their massive and open reach have also raised the need of designing them accessible to learners with disabilities. Nevertheless, new approaches are necessary to use them successfully in the context of corporate training where the goal is to facilitate employees learning of job-related competencies within their company culture and goals. This paper proposes an ecosystem to have a sustainable mechanism to enable accessible MOOCs and OERs deployment in corporate training contexts. The proposed ecosystem includes three stages: develop, publish and improve.
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paper_title: A Persona-based Extension for Massive Open Online Courses in Accessible Design

paper_content:

Abstract In this paper, we present a new participatory design for learning, developed in the context of a transnational initiative for creating Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on Accessible Design for ICT. The core idea is creating an additional learning benefit by means of immersive learning experience. This is achieved by simulating scenarios, in which the participants in the MOOC course are prompted to take on the role of accessible media author, and user, vice versa. The approach is based on the concept of “personas”, a user centered design methodology that illustrates practical needs by portraying realistic personal profiles of hypothetical characters.
---
paper_title: The current state of accessibility of MOOCs: What are the next steps?

paper_content:

Accessibility focuses on supporting people with disabilities – such as those related to auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and vision requirements. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are no longer a novelty and the technologies associated with them should cater to all users irrespective of their accessibility requirements. In this paper, we will discuss the current state of research related to accessibility of MOOCs. We will then outline a research plan towards developing recommendations for the effective design of accessible MOOCs. The plan includes stages such as developing an evaluation instrument, evaluation of existing MOOCs and conducting empirical research with design teams of MOOCs and learners (MOOC-users).
---
paper_title: Strategies for improving the level of accessibility in the design of MOOC-based learning services

paper_content:

Access to MOOC platforms has barriers: there is a lack of accessibility to educational resources, communications tools and even the personalisation of user interfaces. Added to this are difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for those students with functional diversity. Therefore, a vision of the different strategies in relation to the achievement of accessibility (from the content to user preferences) is presented in this work; strategies which must be tackled with the aim of achieving a better level of accessibility during the design of new learning services based on MOOCs.
---
paper_title: OLA! A Scenario-Based Approach to Enhance Open Learning Through Accessibility

paper_content:

Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) have not developed with an inherent capacity to attend to the needs of disabled students. In our research, we aim to understand the social, contextual and organisational issues behind these inadequacies. Through this, interventions and best practices can be developed to improve the situation.
---
paper_title: How Could MOOCs Become Accessible? The Case of edX and the Future of Inclusive Online Learning

paper_content:

This work has been partially supported by the Prometeo Project by SENESCYT, Ecuadorian Government.
---
paper_title: Extending web-based educational systems with personalised support through User Centred Designed recommendations along the e-learning life cycle

paper_content:

Abstract In this paper we address an open key issue during the development of web-based educational systems. In particular, we provide an educational-oriented approach for building personalised e-learning environments that focuses on putting the learners' needs in the centre of the development process. Our approach proposes user centred design methodologies involving interdisciplinary teams of software developers and domain experts. It is illustrated in an adaptive e-learning system, where a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) was taken by nearly 400 learners. In particular, we report where user centred design methods can be applied along the e-learning life cycle to designing and evaluating personalisation support through recommendations in learning management systems.
---
paper_title: Method for analysing the user experience in MOOC platforms

paper_content:

MOOCs have recently become very popular, since some of these massive online courses can reach thousand students. Faculty members from top universities deliver courses through MOOC platforms: Coursera, Edx, Miriada X, etc. Apart from the content, many other factors can influence the quality of a course; for instance, a bad user experience of a Web MOOC platform can lead students to drop out an interesting and well-organised course. MOOC platforms require much effort to care for the user experience. This research aims to develop a specific method for evaluating the user experience of MOOC platforms. The method is based on the general principles of Web user experience and highlights the aspects influencing MOOCs. The system proposed in this paper calculates a quantifiable index, useful for comparing different MOOC platforms, quantifying the quality evolution of the user experience, and promoting further studies so as to determine the impact of the user experience on students: satisfaction in surveys, enrollment figures, dropout rates, among others.
---
paper_title: A preliminary study for developing accessible MOOC services

paper_content:

The flexibility of the MOOC service allows students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhancing continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building. This model especially benefits people with disabilities, which can improve therefore their level of employability and social inclusion, reaching a better quality of life. Unfortunately the access to MOOC platforms present severe barriers: there is a lack of accessibility on the learning resources, the communicating tools and personalized user interfaces. All these issues add extra difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity. In this context, MOOCs are leading a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will emerge new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes. For that reason, this paper describes the need for designing an information model and related specifications to support a new strategy for delivering accessible MOOC courses to learners with special needs, in terms of their preferences and context of use based on a particular application profile. This user profile’s design is based on standard metadata schemas, data that provides information about other data, regarding the achievement of accessibility from content to user preferences.
---
paper_title: Holistic vision for creating accessible services based on MOOCs

paper_content:

MOOCs are examples of the evolution of eLearning environments towards more a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will lead to the emergence of new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes. The flexibility of the learning service students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhancing continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building, especially benefits people with disabilities and therefore can improve their level of employability and social inclusion. ::: However, the access to MOOC platforms still present barriers, there is also a lack of accessibility on the learning resources, the communicating tools and even personalized user interfaces. All these issues present definitive barriers that add extra difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity. Therefore, an holistic vision of different strategies regarding the achievement of accessibility (from content to user preferences) is presented in this paper, strategies than should be addressed in order to achieve the better accessibility level while designing new learning services for people with functional diversity based upon MOOC.
---
paper_title: Accessible blended learning for non-native speakers using MOOCs

paper_content:

This paper proposes a design for enabling accessible blended learning experiences for non-native speakers (NNS) using massive open online courses (MOOCs). It describes some of the challenges that NNS experience when participating in a MOOC and identifies the requirements that ought to be met to accomplish accessibility for NNS. The requirements were elicited from WCAG 2.0 guidelines, ISO/IEC 24751:2008 recommendations, published results of related research, NNS that have participated in MOOCs in English, and authors' own experience as instructors and students of MOOCs. The design includes and architecture that involves three actors: NNS, local instructors, and MOOC authors; one non-virtual component (a local study group), and three platform components: a learning management system (LMS), a content management system (CMS), and an adaptive content engine (ACE).
---
paper_title: Strategies for improving the level of accessibility in the design of MOOC-based learning services

paper_content:

Access to MOOC platforms has barriers: there is a lack of accessibility to educational resources, communications tools and even the personalisation of user interfaces. Added to this are difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for those students with functional diversity. Therefore, a vision of the different strategies in relation to the achievement of accessibility (from the content to user preferences) is presented in this work; strategies which must be tackled with the aim of achieving a better level of accessibility during the design of new learning services based on MOOCs.
---
paper_title: From Blended to Inclusive Learning: Accessibility, Profiles, Openness, and Higher Education

paper_content:

The use of technology can be seen as an innovative challenge to restructure the teaching-learning process and integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in independent, collaborative and interactive work. The main purposes of this study are to understand users' needs and to identify their profiles, in order to empower the quality of online teaching-learning process. Identifying teachers' and students' profiles and their needs as Course Management System users, in particular, is necessary to guarantee the quality of a b-learning process, with a more comprehensive face, towards inclusive learning. Sixty-eight (68) face-to- face interviews were conducted and validated, and a systematic content analysis was merged with a multivariate analysis. The results reveal four profiles of teachers, i.e., activities-oriented, interaction-oriented, assessment-oriented, and collaboration-oriented, and three profiles of students, i.e., interactive learning environment-oriented, training-oriented, teachers' beliefs- oriented. In terms of recognizing, understanding and responding to the academic community specific needs, this study can support an inclusive, multi-dimensional and holistic ICT knowledge for choosing adjustable teaching-learning strategies that could be applied into the enhancement of accessibility and info-inclusion into the learning environment.
---
paper_title: How Could MOOCs Become Accessible? The Case of edX and the Future of Inclusive Online Learning

paper_content:

This work has been partially supported by the Prometeo Project by SENESCYT, Ecuadorian Government.
---
paper_title: Setting accessibility preferences about learning objects within adaptive elearning systems: User experience and organizational aspects

paper_content:

Higher and further education providers are facing the challenge of supporting the interaction needs of an increasing number of students who feature accessibility preferences to use both elearning contents and services. In the next future, we can expect that, within adaptive elearning systems, both automatic and manual procedures will interoperate to elicit users' interaction needs for ensuring accessibility. In this paper, we report findings from the user experience with the self-assessment of interaction needs, as part of a content personalization system, which tackles possible mismatches in the interaction between the user and the learning objects. All stakeholders involved in providing this service along with intended user groups (students with visual, auditory or mobility impairments, and without impairments) participated in the evaluation with over 100 users described in this paper. From the evaluation, results follow that our approach allows students to self-assess and report adequately their interaction preferences. Furthermore, the paper describes findings of interest and open issues about how massive online courses may address the accessibility needs of an increasing number of elearning users.
---
paper_title: Accessibility of MOOCs: Understanding the Provider Perspective

paper_content:

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) have become an accepted way to make learning opportunities available at large scale and with low cost to the learner. However, only if these are made accessible will they be able to offer flexibility of learning and benefits to all, irrespective of disability. Experience in providing accessible online learning at distance universities suggests that this can be best achieved through understanding different roles and the options in planning for adjustments to be made. To effectively apply similar approaches to MOOCs, it is necessary to understand the various viewpoints and roles of stakeholders and how these impact on accessibility. This includes educators who create materials and facilitate learning, and technologists who develop and maintain platforms. In this paper, we report the results from a study involving semi-structured interviews to investigate the perceptions and accessibility-related processes of MOOC platform accessibility managers, platform software developers and designers, and MOOC accessibility researchers. Our results show the awareness that MOOCs can be valuable for disabled learners, and indicate that legislation acts as a driver for accessibility. However, our investigations suggest limited progress to date in either producing universally accessible MOOCs, or tailoring MOOCs to meet the needs of individual learners with disabilities.
---
paper_title: A preliminary study for developing accessible MOOC services

paper_content:

The flexibility of the MOOC service allows students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhancing continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building. This model especially benefits people with disabilities, which can improve therefore their level of employability and social inclusion, reaching a better quality of life. Unfortunately the access to MOOC platforms present severe barriers: there is a lack of accessibility on the learning resources, the communicating tools and personalized user interfaces. All these issues add extra difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity. In this context, MOOCs are leading a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will emerge new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes. For that reason, this paper describes the need for designing an information model and related specifications to support a new strategy for delivering accessible MOOC courses to learners with special needs, in terms of their preferences and context of use based on a particular application profile. This user profile’s design is based on standard metadata schemas, data that provides information about other data, regarding the achievement of accessibility from content to user preferences.
---
paper_title: ICT for Older People to Learn about ICT: Application and Evaluation

paper_content:

Information and communication technologies are becoming a common instrument of daily life. They are available to more and more people everyday, but that does not imply that they are usable and useful for everyone. There are specific groups such as older people, with specific characteristics, such as motor control problems or reduced vision, that affect both the way they use these technologies and also how they learn how to use them. In this paper, we propose to use massive open online courses in order to show older people how to take advantage of the resources available through new technologies. This proof of concept shows that the use of ICT for learning about ICT can be an adequate solution for older people.
---
paper_title: Holistic vision for creating accessible services based on MOOCs

paper_content:

MOOCs are examples of the evolution of eLearning environments towards more a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will lead to the emergence of new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes. The flexibility of the learning service students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhancing continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building, especially benefits people with disabilities and therefore can improve their level of employability and social inclusion. ::: However, the access to MOOC platforms still present barriers, there is also a lack of accessibility on the learning resources, the communicating tools and even personalized user interfaces. All these issues present definitive barriers that add extra difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity. Therefore, an holistic vision of different strategies regarding the achievement of accessibility (from content to user preferences) is presented in this paper, strategies than should be addressed in order to achieve the better accessibility level while designing new learning services for people with functional diversity based upon MOOC.
---
paper_title: Accessible user profile modeling for academic services based on MOOCs

paper_content:

MOOCs are examples of the evolution of eLearning environments, it is a fact that the flexibility of the learning services allows students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhances continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building, benefits people with disabilities and therefore can improve their level of employability and social inclusion. MOOCs are leading a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will emergence new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes, for that reason a strategy of the use of metadata regarding the achievement of accessibility from content to user preferences is presented in this paper, in order to achieve a better accessibility level while designing new learning services for people with functional diversity based upon MOOCs.
---
paper_title: Accessible blended learning for non-native speakers using MOOCs

paper_content:

This paper proposes a design for enabling accessible blended learning experiences for non-native speakers (NNS) using massive open online courses (MOOCs). It describes some of the challenges that NNS experience when participating in a MOOC and identifies the requirements that ought to be met to accomplish accessibility for NNS. The requirements were elicited from WCAG 2.0 guidelines, ISO/IEC 24751:2008 recommendations, published results of related research, NNS that have participated in MOOCs in English, and authors' own experience as instructors and students of MOOCs. The design includes and architecture that involves three actors: NNS, local instructors, and MOOC authors; one non-virtual component (a local study group), and three platform components: a learning management system (LMS), a content management system (CMS), and an adaptive content engine (ACE).
---
paper_title: Strategies for improving the level of accessibility in the design of MOOC-based learning services

paper_content:

Access to MOOC platforms has barriers: there is a lack of accessibility to educational resources, communications tools and even the personalisation of user interfaces. Added to this are difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for those students with functional diversity. Therefore, a vision of the different strategies in relation to the achievement of accessibility (from the content to user preferences) is presented in this work; strategies which must be tackled with the aim of achieving a better level of accessibility during the design of new learning services based on MOOCs.
---
paper_title: Accessibility of MOOCs for Blind People in Developing Non-English Speaking Countries

paper_content:

Besides the globally popular MOOCs, localized MOOCs specific to a region or language are also emerging. These specialized MOOCs often aim to address specific needs that are typically unaddressed by the global MOOCs. Such example is Almooc that aims to address the needs of the Albanian-speaking persons who lack English proficiency. Despite the MOOCs adage to include and offer education to all people, research has shown that their interface is not accessible to people with disabilities, such as the blind. To evaluate the level of accessibility of Almooc, in this paper we report findings from three different methods: usability testing, automatic accessibility checking, and heuristic evaluation. The results indicate that Almooc is not currently accessible to blind people, however, we present recommendations to easily overcome the discovered issues.
---
paper_title: How Could MOOCs Become Accessible? The Case of edX and the Future of Inclusive Online Learning

paper_content:

This work has been partially supported by the Prometeo Project by SENESCYT, Ecuadorian Government.
---
paper_title: Accessibility analysis in MOOC platforms. A case study: UNED COMA and UAbiMOOC

paper_content:

This article has come about as a result of joint work between the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED, Spain) and the Universidade Aberta (Portugal), pioneering universities in the development of MOOC platforms with pedagogical approximations different from the xMOOC and cMOOC models. The work has been centred on the analysis of the degree of accessibility of both platforms from the ::: point of view of the User Centred Design for which tools suitable for this purpose such as eXaminator and aDesigner have been used
---
paper_title: A First Look into MOOCs Accessibility - The Case of Coursera.

paper_content:

Since the inception of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), millions of people have benefitted from their provided content. Yet, the question we need to ask is: how accessible are MOOCs especially to the Visually Impaired People (VIP)? In this paper we look thoroughly into the accessibility problems VIP face while using one of the well-know MOOCs environments (Coursera.org) and provide some recommendations to improve its accessibility.
---
paper_title: Method for analysing the user experience in MOOC platforms

paper_content:

MOOCs have recently become very popular, since some of these massive online courses can reach thousand students. Faculty members from top universities deliver courses through MOOC platforms: Coursera, Edx, Miriada X, etc. Apart from the content, many other factors can influence the quality of a course; for instance, a bad user experience of a Web MOOC platform can lead students to drop out an interesting and well-organised course. MOOC platforms require much effort to care for the user experience. This research aims to develop a specific method for evaluating the user experience of MOOC platforms. The method is based on the general principles of Web user experience and highlights the aspects influencing MOOCs. The system proposed in this paper calculates a quantifiable index, useful for comparing different MOOC platforms, quantifying the quality evolution of the user experience, and promoting further studies so as to determine the impact of the user experience on students: satisfaction in surveys, enrollment figures, dropout rates, among others.
---
paper_title: Accessibility of MOOCs: Understanding the Provider Perspective

paper_content:

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) have become an accepted way to make learning opportunities available at large scale and with low cost to the learner. However, only if these are made accessible will they be able to offer flexibility of learning and benefits to all, irrespective of disability. Experience in providing accessible online learning at distance universities suggests that this can be best achieved through understanding different roles and the options in planning for adjustments to be made. To effectively apply similar approaches to MOOCs, it is necessary to understand the various viewpoints and roles of stakeholders and how these impact on accessibility. This includes educators who create materials and facilitate learning, and technologists who develop and maintain platforms. In this paper, we report the results from a study involving semi-structured interviews to investigate the perceptions and accessibility-related processes of MOOC platform accessibility managers, platform software developers and designers, and MOOC accessibility researchers. Our results show the awareness that MOOCs can be valuable for disabled learners, and indicate that legislation acts as a driver for accessibility. However, our investigations suggest limited progress to date in either producing universally accessible MOOCs, or tailoring MOOCs to meet the needs of individual learners with disabilities.
---
paper_title: How Accessible Are MOOCs to the Elderly

paper_content:

Literature has shown that learning, including eLearning and distance education, plays an important role in promoting well-being among the elderly. Currently elderly participants constitute less than 10 % of MOOC participants and very limited research has been conducted on the accessibility of MOOCs for elderly users. This paper presents the findings from a case study focusing on the accessibility of a MOOC demo course for the elderly. Different accessibility issues were found from automated testing and user testing. Although the elderly participants expressed general positive attitude towards using MOOCs to learn new knowledge, it is important for MOOC providers to address the accessibility issues and make their courses accessible to elderly users.
---
paper_title: Web accessibility of MOOCs for elderly students

paper_content:

Internet use by older people has increased dramatically during the past 10 years. According to different sources, the number of users over age 65 has more than doubled since 2000. Besides, the inevitable effect of younger users aging will increase the number of older people using the Internet the next decades. Unfortunately, older people face several challenges when using the web due to diminishing capacities related to aging, such as vision decline, hearing loss, decremented motor skills and cognition issues. On the other hand, e-learning can be an opportunity in helping older people become integrated with the rest of society. In this context, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) bring great opportunities to enhance the quality of life of older people by enabling lifelong learning and inclusion in learning communities. However, MOOCs can present some barriers that could hamper full participation by elderly students. In order to avoid these barriers, MOOCs have to meet different user needs, skills and situations: MOOCs have to successfully address web accessibility challenges for elderly students. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness towards a better understanding of the web accessibility challenges that elderly students of MOOCs face.
---
paper_title: Editor for accessible images in e-Learning platforms

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a set of twenty features for managing accessible images when generating educational content. With this set of features, we assessed a sample of eight e-Learning platforms and found that, regarding image accessibility, Moodle and Sakai are the most accessible e-Learning platforms, whereas edX and Udemy are the least accessible. We also present an HTML visual text editor for accessible images designed to be a base component across e-Learning platforms. As future work, we plan to propose additional sets of accessibility features regarding other formats, e.g. text, audio, video.
---
paper_title: A preliminary study for developing accessible MOOC services

paper_content:

The flexibility of the MOOC service allows students to learn at their own time, place and pace, enhancing continuous communication and interaction between all participants in knowledge and community building. This model especially benefits people with disabilities, which can improve therefore their level of employability and social inclusion, reaching a better quality of life. Unfortunately the access to MOOC platforms present severe barriers: there is a lack of accessibility on the learning resources, the communicating tools and personalized user interfaces. All these issues add extra difficulties such as the need to develop specific digital or even social skills for students with functional diversity. In this context, MOOCs are leading a revolutionary computer and mobile-based scenario along with social technologies that will emerge new kinds of learning applications that enhance communication and collaboration processes. For that reason, this paper describes the need for designing an information model and related specifications to support a new strategy for delivering accessible MOOC courses to learners with special needs, in terms of their preferences and context of use based on a particular application profile. This user profile’s design is based on standard metadata schemas, data that provides information about other data, regarding the achievement of accessibility from content to user preferences.
---
paper_title: ICT for Older People to Learn about ICT: Application and Evaluation

paper_content:

Information and communication technologies are becoming a common instrument of daily life. They are available to more and more people everyday, but that does not imply that they are usable and useful for everyone. There are specific groups such as older people, with specific characteristics, such as motor control problems or reduced vision, that affect both the way they use these technologies and also how they learn how to use them. In this paper, we propose to use massive open online courses in order to show older people how to take advantage of the resources available through new technologies. This proof of concept shows that the use of ICT for learning about ICT can be an adequate solution for older people.
---
paper_title: The Accessibility of MOOC Platforms from Instructors’ Perspective

paper_content:

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) provides remarkable learning opportunities for a great diversity of people. MOOCs have been studied from several perspectives, including accessibility. However, little attention has so far been paid to investigating whether MOOC platforms themselves are accessible for instructors who are the authors of MOOCs. To ensure universal and equal access to the MOOC platforms, a systematic study of the accessibility of the MOOC platforms from instructors’ perspective is essential. This paper presents results from a heuristic evaluation of the Canvas platform, focusing on its accessibility to instructors creating course contents in MOOCs. We have based the evaluation on Part A of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The preliminary results show that although Canvas provides much support for instructors to create accessible MOOCs, it does not comply fully with ATAG 2.0.
---
paper_title: Web accessibility evaluation of massive open online courses on Geographical Information Systems

paper_content:

This paper describes some of the challenges that exist to make accessible massive open online courses (MOOCs) on Geographical Information Systems (GIS). These courses are known by the generic name of Geo-MOOCs. A MOOC is an online course that is open to the general public for free, which causes a massive registration. A GIS is a computer application that acquire, manipulate, manage, model and visualize geo-referenced data. The goal of a Geo-MOOC is to expand the culture of spatial thinking and the use of geographic information, enabling geospatial web technologies for widespread use. However, the Geo-MOOCs, by nature, have inherent problems of accessibility. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Article 24, recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. “States Parties must ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others” [1]. Therefore, it is important to have accessible Geo-MOOCs. In this paper, we present the results of the evaluation of a Geo-MOOC called “Maps and the Geospatial Revolution” using three tools available for free on the Internet: Chrome Developer Tools - Accessibility Audit, eXaminator and WAVE; and included a selection of web content and geographical data representative of the course. This provided feedback for establishing recommendations to improve the accessibility of the analyzed course. Other Geo-MOOCs can also benefit from these recommendations.
---
paper_title: Balancing pedagogy, student readiness and accessibility: A case study in collaborative online course development

paper_content:

Abstract As institutions of higher education continue to roll out online courses and programs, issues of undergraduate student readiness on the one hand, and the challenges surrounding the design and development of pedagogically-sound online experiences that are also accessible to students with disabilities on the other, remain of concern. This paper describes the results of a case study of collaboration between the Instructional Design and Technology faculty and the Assistive Technology Initiative (ATI) group at a 4-year public institution to address both of these issues simultaneously during the development of an online course designed to teach undergraduates to cultivate the self-discipline and self-direction required to become successful online learners. The authors of this paper discuss project challenges, particularly concerning accessibility, along with lessons learned from both a process and a student outcome perspective. The authors also share insights into creating sustainable collaborative processes for successful online initiatives.
---
paper_title: Can user recommendations be useful for improving MOOCs accessibility? A project for inclusive design and profitable feedback

paper_content:

At present there are no applications which include accessibility revisions for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), neither in the context of MOOCs provider institutions nor from the point of view of any Open Educational Resource (OER) initiative. In this paper an approximation to this problem is presented, in the form of a specific web portal which will offer the possibility for any user to freely judge the accessibility of a certain course and advice about the missing means of meeting user needs or required adaptations. This kind of user feedback can be of great value for the future development of MOOC platforms, courses and the educational resources. The development of this web tool will gather valuable information directly from the users themselves to improve the educational quality and accessibility of these learning environments.
---
paper_title: MOOCs for all: evaluating the accessibility of top MOOC platforms

paper_content:

Nowadays, experiences with massive open online courses (MOOCs) are being part of modern engineering degrees, thusproviding practical interactive activities to improve teaching-learning strategies with online courses and social communitylearning with peers from different countries. Additionally, this MOOC movement is being identified as a valuable tool toprovide engineering education to all students, including students with disabilities that for different reasons cannot be partof a face-to-face session and, naturally, have the rights to make use of this myriad of teaching-learning strategies. In thissense, if a teacher wants to develop a MOOC course or to recommend a course to his students, it is imperative to identify thebest accessible platforms in order to provide inclusive learning strategies. The aim of this study is to analyze the accessibilityof a selection of eight popular MOOC platforms: Coursera, edX, Udacity, MiriadaX, UNED COMA, Udemy,Futurelearn and NovoEd. To this end, three automatic accessibility evaluation tools have been used: eXaminator, FAEand Tingtun. Hence, it has been checked the degree of conformance of these platforms with the Web Content AccessibilityGuidelines (WCAG) created by the World Wide Consortium and adopted by ISO as an international standard. The studyhasbeen complemented witha heuristic evaluationbyexperts in order to havea holistic perspective of MOOC accessibility.The idea behind this study is that the stakeholders in the teaching-learning process will be able to identify and select themost inclusive platform based on the international standards. Moreover, the technical staff in educational institutions willbe provided with a procedure to identify accessibility issues in other platforms and engineering teachers will be aware of thepotential obstacles that students with disabilities may experience. The results of this study identify edX and Futurelearn asthe best MOOC platforms. Finally, conclusions and future work ideas are presented.
---
paper_title: The current state of accessibility of MOOCs: What are the next steps?

paper_content:

Accessibility focuses on supporting people with disabilities – such as those related to auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and vision requirements. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are no longer a novelty and the technologies associated with them should cater to all users irrespective of their accessibility requirements. In this paper, we will discuss the current state of research related to accessibility of MOOCs. We will then outline a research plan towards developing recommendations for the effective design of accessible MOOCs. The plan includes stages such as developing an evaluation instrument, evaluation of existing MOOCs and conducting empirical research with design teams of MOOCs and learners (MOOC-users).
---
paper_title: ECO European project: inclusive education through accessible MOOCs

paper_content:

In this paper, we describe one of the most important aspects to consider in a quality online, open and inclusive education, which is the compliance with an accessible web design. ECO European Project offers quality massive, open and online courses (MOOCs) for everybody with no exclusion. Based on the "universal design" and the "accessible web design" principles, we host experiences for the inclusiveness, such as the "sMOOC Step by Step", created and organized for diversity, making no distinction between capacities, needs and social or cultural conditions. Moreover, our participants -most of them teachers and social workers- learn how to create their own accessible and inclusive MOOCs, which implies a great multiplier effect.
---
paper_title: Can user recommendations be useful for improving MOOCs accessibility? A project for inclusive design and profitable feedback

paper_content:

At present there are no applications which include accessibility revisions for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), neither in the context of MOOCs provider institutions nor from the point of view of any Open Educational Resource (OER) initiative. In this paper an approximation to this problem is presented, in the form of a specific web portal which will offer the possibility for any user to freely judge the accessibility of a certain course and advice about the missing means of meeting user needs or required adaptations. This kind of user feedback can be of great value for the future development of MOOC platforms, courses and the educational resources. The development of this web tool will gather valuable information directly from the users themselves to improve the educational quality and accessibility of these learning environments.
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paper_title: Can user recommendations be useful for improving MOOCs accessibility? A project for inclusive design and profitable feedback

paper_content:

At present there are no applications which include accessibility revisions for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), neither in the context of MOOCs provider institutions nor from the point of view of any Open Educational Resource (OER) initiative. In this paper an approximation to this problem is presented, in the form of a specific web portal which will offer the possibility for any user to freely judge the accessibility of a certain course and advice about the missing means of meeting user needs or required adaptations. This kind of user feedback can be of great value for the future development of MOOC platforms, courses and the educational resources. The development of this web tool will gather valuable information directly from the users themselves to improve the educational quality and accessibility of these learning environments.
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Title: Research challenges in accessible MOOCs: a systematic literature review 2008–2016

Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: In this section, you should introduce the study, explain the importance of accessible MOOCs, and outline the objectives and potential audience for the literature review.

Section 2: Method
Description 2: This section should describe the systematic literature review method used, including the four stages: Pretest literature reviews, Initial search, Literature selection, and Analysis and synthesis.

Section 3: Results
Description 3: This section should present the findings from the literature review, including the pretest literature reviews, initial search results, literature selection outcomes, and analysis and synthesis of the relevant studies.

Section 4: Discussion
Description 4: In this section, you should discuss the findings, highlight the main research challenges identified, and provide an in-depth analysis of each research dimension.

Section 5: Conclusion
Description 5: This section should summarize the main findings of the study, emphasize the significance of the research challenges identified, and suggest potential directions for future research in accessible MOOCs.