Blended learning strategy, information technologies and universal design principles applied to teaching cognitively disabled people

Laburpena

In the current economic environment, highly skilled, productive and efficient workers are among a company¿s best assets. But keeping employees at peak performance and teaching them new skills requires effective life-long learning. Therefore, effective training strategies have become an important need in many tasks. The need of effective learning strategies is also found in groups at risk of work exclusion such as people with cognitive disabilities. People with cognitive disabilities are often excluded of the labour market as they can¿t found learning strategies adapted to their individual needs. Therefore, this thesis tries to ease work, social and electronic inclusion of people with cognitive disabilities through a blended based learning strategy. The main objective of this thesis is the design and development of a blended based learning strategy suitable for people with cognitive disabilities. This strategy combines traditional learning methods and computer tools to teach theory contents and let student practice tasks. In this thesis, the learning methods of the blended based learning strategy are presented indicating their benefits to the whole learning process. The proposed strategy combines 5 learning methods including a CBT and a virtual reality simulator. This thesis defines the characteristics of those computer tools. The visual interface, interaction devices and software characteristics of both tools are detailed. Particularly, the thesis describes a CBT using a touch screen and a virtual reality simulator using real tools, motion capture and a head mounted display. Along the hardware and software specifications, the pedagogical elements are described, such as the intelligent feedback and diagnosis system. The design of the CBT and virtual reality simulator has followed universal design principles. Those principles ensure that most users will be able to use the computer tools without any modification. This thesis also tries to ease the instructors¿ work since going from a traditional learning strategy to a blended based learning strategy entails additional effort. In the thesis, the characteristics of an instructional plan and a learning management system are detailed. These tools are used to manage the learning process so instructors can gain all the advantages of the learning strategy. Lastly, all the computer tools and the learning strategy are validated using a user centred development methodology. A pilot group consisting of 15 people with cognitive disabilities, several pedagogues and gardening instructors helped testing the strategy on the gardening work domain. This group performed several tests suggesting changes and improvements to the computer tools until the main objective of the thesis was achieved.