Online e-learning and cognitive disabilities: A systematic review
Introduction
There are more than one billion persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the world (World Health Organization, 2011). Although the situation has evolved, notably through political decisions aimed at combating discrimination, there are still many areas where the opportunities for persons with disabilities lag behind those for society as a whole, as demonstrated by WHO reports. It is particularly the case for education: the representation of PWDs in education decreases drastically from primary school to higher education, leading to a lower level of qualifications. This situation is one of the causes of an adverse social consequence in the professional world where the unemployment rate for PWDs is much higher than the overall average (World Health Organization, 2011). It is even more important for persons with intellectual deficiencies or cognitive impairments because they are the least likely to be engaged in school or work. Therefore, the access barriers to learning opportunities reinforce the social exclusion of PWDs, as denounced by the CRPD ratified by 177 countries (Convention of Rights of People with Disability, (UN General Assembly, 2007)).
Advances in computer-based education are seen as an effective way of remedying this situation by providing assistance and compensation for learners with specific needs. Indeed, there has been a real revolution in computer-based approaches to education, driven by the explosive growth in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): starting from 0 in 2011, at the end of 2017 there were more than 81 million registered users around the world.1 Such online e-learning systems radically change the way people approach learning and training. They offer access to learning content to everyone, regardless of where the learners are, and make these learners more active across their lifespan by allowing them to choose how, when and where to study. Since these platforms are available around the clock, learners can progress through the course at their own pace, reviewing concepts that have not been fully grasped and skipping those that have. These systems are also compatible with life-long training, allowing people to gain new skills and knowledge in order to adapt to an ever-changing job market. These factors provide great opportunities for creating learning environments which are beneficial to PWDs, notably those with cognitive impairments and limited learning activities, as they may offer the flexibility to adapt their training program to meet their specific needs.
Schelly, Davies, and Spooner (2011) have shown that a growing number of students are reporting specific learning disabilities, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, or mental/emotional disabilities. Such disabilities are encountered in numerous developmental (autism, epilepsy, attention disorders and hyperactivity, psychiatric diseases, etc.) or acquired (traumatic brain injury, stroke, tumor, etc.) neuropsychological disorders and can appear when aging (Craik & Salthouse, 2011). Although these impairments are common, they are often referred to as invisible disabilities because they are generally not apparent or well understood outside medical or specialized environments.
These two observations raise a question: are online e-learning systems sufficiently accessible to people with cognitive impairments, and do such people benefit from the use of these technologies? The purpose of this article is to explore this question and thus to contribute to the field by reviewing the current state of research into the accessibility of online e-learning that supports individuals with cognitive disabilities.
Section snippets
ICF framework and cognitive impairments
In this paper, we based our work on a functional view of disability following the biopsychosocial framework proposed by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, which is backed by the WHO and is widely used by disability experts (World Health Organization, 2001).
Firstly, this framework depicts disability as the negative outcome from a person's interaction with their social and physical environments. This emphasizes the role of environmental factors in creating
Related work
In this section, as a rationale of our systematic review, we present prior literature reviews related to our research question with a focus on systematic reviews. Most of the previous literature reviews we retrieved do not focus on the accessibility of online e-learning platforms, but rather on the use of assistive technologies in all learning situations.
In a review of 118 articles from education technology journals, Istenic Starcic and Bagon (2014) showed that the field of inclusion of people
Questions
Using a systematic literature search procedure, our goal is to explore the theoretical and applied aspects of accessibility of e-learning literature and describe the nature of the existing research activities with a focus on studies geared to individuals with cognitive impairments. The overview of the field will be addressed in terms of factual information through four sets of research questions in order to document the domain activity, the background scaffolding (accessibility standards and
Survey methodology
The methodology used was a systematic literature review according to Prisma international standards (Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, & Altman, 2010). Our objective was to identify a set of relevant studies in the field of accessible online e-learning systems for persons with cognitive impairment and to provide an analysis of the results of these studies. To do this, we conducted a four-step method depicted below (a flowchart of the paper selection process appears in Fig. 2). As a result of the paper
Results
The next step of the review was to perform a within-study and between-study analysis from the final corpus of selected articles to identify characteristics and answer the research questions defined for our review purpose. A summary of the main findings and the principal characteristics of the reviewed studies are provided in Table 5. For ease of reading, we have assigned an ID number to each study, so that the reader can refer to this table for further information.
Discussion and recommendations
This systematic review aimed to provide an overview of the current state of research on e-learning accessibility for persons with cognitive disabilities. The results showed a lack of use of both accessibility and special education references in the design process, and a focus on specific neuropsychological disorders or syndromes (dyslexia, ADHD, etc.) rather than cognitive function (attention, memory, etc.). The studies also exhibited a lack of effectiveness evaluation, which was mostly done
Limitations
This current systematic review has three main limitations. Similar to other reviews, the selection of the research keywords and the exclusion criteria was mostly subjective. However, the three authors participated in the final selection process to ensure a reduction of bias. Secondly, as the systematic review relies on literature databases, it is not fully exhaustive: studies not referenced in the selected databases are not reviewed. However, we reduced the bias by choosing a set of databases
Conclusion
The aim of our study was to contribute to laying the groundwork for a better understanding of online e-learning platform accessibility targeted at persons with cognitive impairments.
Four main conclusions can be formulated. Firstly, there is a paucity of studies that address the accessibility of e-learning for persons with cognitive impairments. Additionally, the studies available tend to focus more on design recommendations than on evaluating the effectiveness of e-learning systems.
Secondly,
Acknowledgements
This work was partially funded by a PhD Research Fellowship [Doctoral Contract n°2016-KB-01] from the Doctoral School of Society, Politics, Public Health (SP2) at the University of Bordeaux. The authors would like to thank Inria Learning Lab for its effective support during the overall research project.
References (77)
- et al.
Mobile cloud computing: An effective multimodal interface tool for students with dyslexia
Computers in Human Behavior
(2017) - et al.
Elearning platform for personalized therapy of learning disabilities
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences
(2013) - et al.
Are all chats suitable for learning purposes? A study of the required characteristics
Procedia Computer Science
(2014) Activating devices and their use in e-learning–focussed on handicapped students
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences
(2015)- et al.
A systematic review of strategies and computer-based intervention (cbi) for reading comprehension of children with autism
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
(2013) - et al.
Induced alpha band power changes in the human eeg and attention
Neuroscience Letters
(1998) - et al.
Identifying emerging trends for implementing learning technology in special education: A state-of-the-art review of selected articles published in 2008–2012
Research in Developmental Disabilities
(2013) - et al.
Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The prisma statement
International Journal of Surgery
(2010) - et al.
Computer-aided relearning activity patterns for people with acquired brain injury
Computers & Education
(2011) - et al.
Assistive technology interventions for adolescents and adults with learning disabilities: An evidence-based systematic review and meta-analysis
Computers & Education
(2017)
Assistive e-learning system for the learning disabled
Procedia Computer Science
Understanding e-learning continuance intention in the workplace: A self-determination theory perspective
Computers in Human Behavior
Gamification in theory and action: A survey
International Journal of Human-computer Studies
Pre-vocational skills laboratory: Development and investigation of a web-based environment for students with autism
Procedia Computer Science
Enhancing e-learning effectiveness using an intelligent agent-supported personalized virtual learning environment: An empirical investigation
Information & Management
Assessment in massive open online courses
Electronic Journal of e-Learning
Experimentally augmenting an intelligent tutoring system with human-supplied capabilities: Adding human-provided emotional scaffolding to an automated reading tutor that listens
Effects of mathematics computer games on special education students' multiplicative reasoning ability
British Journal of Educational Technology
Ims guidelines for developing accessible learning applications
Online gardening to promote social inclusion
Task-evoked pupillary responses, processing load, and the structure of processing resources
Psychological Bulletin
Supporting dyslexic's learning style preferences in adaptive virtual learning environment
Universal design of instruction (udi): Definition, principles, guidelines, and examples
Evaluation of accessibility barriers and learning features in m-learning chat applications for users with disabilities
Universal Access in the Information Society
Scaffolding the design of accessible elearning content: A user-centered approach and cognitive perspective
Cognitive Processing
Cognitive support embedded in self-regulated e-learning systems for students with special learning needs
Education and Information Technologies
E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning
A comparison of automatic teaching strategies for heterogeneous student populations
The handbook of aging and cognition
How can hci factors improve accessibility of m-learning for persons with special needs?
Redesigning an introduction to special education course by infusing technology
Computers in the Schools
Fundamentals of physiological computing
Interacting with Computers
Web 2.0: Engaging those with learning disabilities
Self-determination: A key to success in postsecondary education for students with learning disabilities
Remedial and Special Education
Web accessibility design recommendations for people with cognitive disabilities
Technology and Disability
Web accessibility in the development of an e-learning system for individuals with cognitive and learning disabilities
Adaptive web-based educational application for autistic students
Cognitive function and assistive technology for cognition: A systematic review
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
Cited by (103)
The Landscape of Technology Research in Special Education: A Bibliometric Analysis
2024, Journal of Special Education TechnologyAccessibility of learning management systems: the perception of people with visual disabilities
2024, RISTI - Revista Iberica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informacao“Below 58 BPM,” involving real-time monitoring and self-medication practices in music performance through IoT technology
2024, Frontiers in Computer ScienceA SWOT analysis of integrating cognitive and non-cognitive learning strategies in education
2024, European Journal of Education