Abstract:

The constant growth of a globalized education model in which information and communication technology (ICT) becomes a fundamental element to carry out ubiquitous teaching and learning processes (Altbach, 2004) has involved changes at all levels. Specifically, at a university level, the need to catch up with the latest educational tools has transformed the learning environment to a context in which technology and in-class tuition coexist. This situation which is relatively new has led to the exploration of blended learning processes in which in-class tuition is combined with an online environment in which between 20% to 79% of course contents are delivered online (Arbaugh, 2014). In this sense, although these learning environments may be beneficial for some students, others may experience learning difficulties as they may experience cognitive or physical disabilities. For those students with hearing or visual impairments, online contents may become problematic due to the use of audio and video contents. At the same time those students with cognitive disabilities may struggle to understand the explanations due to the absence of a direct teacher feedback during the learning process. Thus, it seems necessary to further explore which elements can contribute to generating more inclusive blended learning environment following a universal design. By universal design, we understand a learning design in which all the students are considered, not only focusing on the average university students, but also on those suffering from disabilities. In this sense, elements such as the use of captions, subtitles, sign language, instant feedback, or an appropriate speed of delivery of the contents may contribute to improving inclusivity in blended learning contexts. Thus, this presentation will tackle these elements and show examples of learning experiences in which inclusive elements have been put into practice.

Keywords:

Blended learning, Inclusive learning, Universal design, Inclusive ICT.