Planning Effective HCI to Enhance Access to Educational Applications Ismail Ansara

1. Universal Access in the Information Society JournalElspeth McKay Published Online: March 24, 2007 Planning Effective HCI to Enhance Access to Educational Applications Ismail Ansara

2. Introduction • “Effective learning is expressed in terms of knowing” • Qualitative measurement? • How to create appropriate educational environments for those who require assistance like the disabled? • In relation to the mentally and physically disabled, means of providing a “skills/competency measurement tool that is efficient, reliable, and safe to administer,” are – non-existent.

3. Project 1 • Seeks to enhance evaluation of “young peoples’ potential to participate in appropriate educational programs following a mental health episode” • Case managers who dealt with them were to harness academic competency, so as to provide programs that help build skills in the short term. • So ultimately having proper plans to achieve long-term “personal goals.” • “Therefore, it was crucial to determine individual capabilities in terms of intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, verbal information, motor skills, and attitudes”

4. Project 2 • Enhancing “Web-based resources” for helping disabled new-entrants to the work force find jobs. • Short-term goal: Develop an IS that is able to provide functionality and exhibit the benefits of a personalized “work-searching system.” • Long-term goal: Build a complete system based on a web-portale “linking these job seekers with considerate employers.” • Financing from: community service provider – private sector

5. Instructional Design Approach • Cognitive Skill Acquisition: Knowledge with respect to: declarative (knowing what) - procedural (knowing how) 1. Verbal information (knowing basic terms). 2. Intellectual skill development (basic rules, discriminating and understanding concepts and principles). 3.Intellectual skill (higher-order-rules, problem solving, the ability to apply concepts and principles in new situations 4. Two different types of cognitive strategies • to identify sub-tasks, recognize un-stated assumptions, and • to recall simple prerequisite rules and concepts, integrating learning from different areas into a plan for solving a problem.

6. Instructional Design Approach • Both Projects illustrated that the participants preferred visual or verbal representation • It is critical to create an instructional environment which caters for the full range of cognitive style preference with delivery options for users to choose from.

7. Prototype Project 1:Educational/Academic Skills Evaluation

8. Prototype Project 2: “eWRAP”

9. Evaluation

10. Evaluation • To be able to evaluate cognitive performance, the QUEST Interactive Test Analysis System was used. • “QUEST develops a one dimensional scale with equal intervals along each axis, to measure individuals’ performance and test items together.” • The resultant cognitive performance measurement instrument was adjusted to ensure substance.

11. Results • Project 1: Observations of the case managers as well as the QUEST tool, were able to identify that some participants performed well with visual tasks. However text/numeric test items proved to be difficult Visual tasks i.e (select the closest flower, pick the largest building block, etc.) Text/numeric test-items i.e (find an ingredient from a recipe, calculate the cost of several grocery items, etc.). • Project 2:Preliminary qualitative feedback mainly ease of use ‘the person applying for the computer position reminded me of people I know, it made me think that behaving like that is not good’ ‘ I can see that wearing suitable clothing is important for an interview’

12. Access to Information • “The design process of a computer-human interface is complex…..careful attention [must be] paid to sound, and well-founded instructional design principles” • Limitations of present-day approaches fail to recognize and accommodate learning process dynamics. • To articulate requirements aspects must be implemented from: • instructional science • cognitive psychology • educational research

13. Summary and Conclusions ICT applications that promote the principles of correct instructional design, plus….the importance of the interacting relationships amongst the various HCI components.

14. Application in Egyptian Educational Reform “To prevent fatigue or frustration with the disabled, and to harbor a positive learning environment, creative visualization and sounds must be implemented in any system to enhance cognitive absorption.” Ahmed Farouq M.A, Special Education, University of Pittsburgh

15. Works Cited • Database: Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text • McKay, Elspeth. Universal Access in the Information Society, Jun2007, Vol. 6 Issue 1, p77-85, 9p, 2 Color Photographs, 2 Diagrams, 3 Charts; • http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lih&AN=26199037&site=ehost-live">Planning effective HCI to enhance access to educational applications.