Inclusion in an Electronic Classroom - 2000

Appendix E

The following is a summary of problems encountered and their corresponding sources for all participants on items requiring either instructions or physical intervention for completion. These summaries are based on the data obtained from the observational protocols and the session transcriptions.

The report is organized in the following ways for your convenience:

For an Overall Summary of the problems and the corresponding sources of the problems encountered by a particular participant in all courseware packages, click on the associated link for the participant of interest. You may proceed directly to the Overall Summary located at the bottom of the page.

For an Itemized Summary of the problems and sources, please refer to the Summary located after each Item.

For a more Detailed Description of the problems encountered and corresponding sources of each problem, you can read the entire report. Items are presented in a numerical order according to Courseware.

NOTE: The brief overviews describing the participant's disability and other relevant characteristics are organized into one of four categories: Blind, Low Vision, Learning Disability and Mobility Impaired.

Blind

This participant is blind with no residual vision. She is an expert JAWS user and has significant experience navigating in a web-based environment.

Difficulties experienced were predominantly a result of problems with the courseware.

This participant is blind but with some residual vision for very global shapes but not for finer details such as those found on a computer screen. Consequently, her limited vision was of no benefit to her in completing the exercises. This participant also experienced a lot of difficulties with JAWS particularly because she has very little experience using it.

Difficulties were encountered as a result of factors associated with the participant's limited experience with JAWS, problems directly attributable to the courseware and other participant-oriented factors.

Low Vision

This participant has only some vision. She experienced very little difficulty completing the exercises.

Difficulties experienced were a sole result of problems with the courseware and were not in any way associated with the experience or abilities of the participant.

This participant is severely visually impaired and needs high contrast in order to make some use of her limited vision. She used JAWS as a screen reader. Although she is not a fluent JAWS user she had used it before and was able to navigate without many problems. The participant was able to resort to her vision when difficulties were encountered with JAWS. This participant has very little experience with web based navigation.

Difficulties were experienced as a result of problems with the courseware and problems inherent or associated directly with the participant.

Learning Disability

This participant has a moderate Learning Disability. He has very little experience with the Internet and with adaptive technology. Overall this participant had little difficulty navigating through the modules.

Most of the problems encountered were a direct result of problems associated with the courseware. Some difficulties were also encountered because of the participant's lack of experience with chat-rooms and the participant's lack of attention to detail.

Participant 2009 has Erlin's syndrome and also a Reading Disability, which is characterized by a slow reading speed rather than poor comprehension. His comprehension skills are good but he has some obvious short-term memory problems especially for multi-stepped items. This participant also has very little experience working in a web-based environment.

Problems were experienced as a result of both problems with the courseware and characteristics inherent to the participant.

This participant has a severe learning disability. She has difficulties with short-term memory, retention, organization, new learning and transfer of new learning. She also has some fine motor problems, which interferes with her ability to handle a mouse. This participant has very little experience using the Internet or adaptive technology.

Most of the problems encountered were directly associated with limitations inherent to the participant. Other problems were associated with the courseware but not exclusive to the courseware. Characteristics of the participant also played a role in these cases.

Mobility

This participant is a Quadriplegic and hence has no functional control over his arms or legs. He has significant experience and knowledge of web based technologies and accesses the computer using an on-line keyboard and a head mouse.

This participant experienced very little difficulty navigating through the different modules. Much of the difficulty was due to direct limitations of the courseware. He did experience some problems that were encountered as a result of his limited experience with the Virtual Cafe but overall, this participant found the exercises to be very accessible.