Advanced Design Methodologies for the Production of Virtual Learning Environments for Use by People with Learning Disabilities

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The authors have previously presented a methodology to guide the development of virtual learning environments (VLEs) for use by people with learning disabilities (Brown, Neale, Cobb, & Reynolds 1999). This paper presents the results of two sets of studies and shows how these studies enhance this methodology. The first set of studies are user-centered designs for VLE to teach horticultural-related employment, leisure, travel, and public presentation skills to young people with learning disabilities. These projects have allowed us for the first time to distill a set of design guidelines for the production of VLEs for use by people with a learning disability. The second set of studies aims to determine the tutoring strategies employed by support workers, teachers, and care providers when supporting people with learning disabilities using VLEs. These strategies will be embedded in the VLEs to further scaffold the learning process of our target users and allow us to expand the guidance given within the implementation component of the development methodology. These enhancements of the existing methodology are clearly developed within the paper and illustrated diagrammatically.