Abstract:

The development of technology has beneficial impact on our lives and education has not remained outside. Nowadays, it is difficult to think in modes of study that do not use technology. The learning and teaching modes (face to face, blended learning, virtual) are based in Learning Management Systems (LMS). With the LMS and the huge possibilities that the Web offers, E-Learning allows everyone to have the same possibilities to access to education.

However, the truth is different because the percentage of student dropout is very high despite that we can suppose that with the technological tools, the learning might be easier. The student dropout could be related to the lack of the web accessibility of the LMS, and it might cause the exclusion of students with temporary or permanent disability. This reality makes us remember that the education is a right not a privilege, and we should overcome all the barriers to achieve learning outcomes. The equality of opportunities, the right of education and the participation in the community are the principles in inclusive education.

On the other hand, the accessibility features of the LMS are not directly perceived by the students during their use, but its existence can influence in the emotions of students in the teaching and learning process. Emotions, such as happiness, pride, enthusiasm, sadness, anger, shame, preoccupation, stress etc., influence in the decision of students to continue the course or drop it. Some investigations show that effectively the emotions are a very important factor on the E-learning.

Definitely, one of the biggest learning challenges is to try to keep the students interested in the class during each lesson. This student interest is related with the emotions, some of them have been identified in this work. However, the analysis of these emotions with regard to the accessibility web is a topic that needs to be researched with more precision.

The objective of this study is to identify the most common web accessibility errors that the LMS present and how these errors can induce different emotions on the students. In relation to web accessibility of the LMS, the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM), proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), has been applied in this study. The emotions have been identified by means of a descriptive analysis of surveys answered by students.

From the results obtained, we may conclude that a good accessibility of the LMS can produce positive emotions in the students. Therefore, high levels of web accessibility in LMS contribute to efficient autonomous work in the E-Learning.

Finally, as a case study, we present an analysis of the emotions felt by students from an Ecuadorian university. The results of this study can help to apply a better instructional design of E-Learning courses.

Keywords:

Accessibility web, emotions, e-learning, learning management system, LMS, Moodle.