Concept of Digital Accessibility of e-Learning in the Context of Pedagogical Theories

Cognitive load theory (Sweller, Ayres, & Kalyuga, 2011) is an instructional theory based on some aspects of human cognition. It takes an evolutionary approach to cognition. The theory assumes two categories of knowledge: biologically primary and biologically secondary knowledge. Primary knowledge is knowledge we have evolved to acquire over many generations. Secondary knowledge is cultural knowledge that humans have required more recently and have not specifically evolved to acquire. Cognitive load theory applies to secondary rather than primary knowledge. With respect to secondary knowledge, the theory assumes that human cognition constitutes a natural information processing system that has evolved to mimic another natural information processing system, biological evolution, with both systems characterised by the same basic principles. These principles lead directly to the assumption that biologically secondary knowledge consists of a very large range of domain-specific knowledge structures and that the primary aim of instruction is to assist learners in the acquisition of that knowledge. There are two basic structures associated with human cognitive architecture that are critical to instructional design – working memory and long-term memory.Cognitive load theory assumes a limited working memory used to process novel information and a large, long-term memory used to store knowledge that has been acquired for subsequent use. The purpose of instruction is to store information in long-term memory. That information consists of everything that has been learned, from isolated, rote-learned facts to complex, fully understood concepts and procedures. Learning is defined as a positive change in long-term memory. If nothing has changed in long-term memory, nothing has been learned.The theory has been used to generate a wide range of instructional procedures. Each of the procedures is designed to reduce extraneous working memory load in order to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge in long-term memory. One such procedure is based on the transient information effect, an effect that is closely associated with the use of instructional technology to present information.When technology is used to present information to learners, the modality and format of the presentation is frequently changed. For example, written information may be substituted by spoken information and the static graphics associated with hard copy may be replaced by animations. While instructional designers are usually highly cognizant of these changes, there is another, concomitant but less obvious change that occurs. Relatively transient forms of information such as speech or animations replace a relatively permanent form of information such as written text or visual graphics. Frequently, this change is treated as being incidental and is ignored. Cognitive load theory suggests that it may be critical. Limited human working memory results in transient, technology-based information having considerable instructional consequences, many of them negative. Theory and data associated with the transient information effect will be discussed in relation to e-learning.

The article deals with issues of standardization of e-learning digital accessibility. It aims to analyze the content of the current digital accessibility standards and to assess the possibility of their use to ensure the accessibility of e-learning and its components. International and Russian federal standards that are directly or indirectly related to the digital accessibility of e-learning were studied. The search for documents was carried out in October 2021 – February 2022 on the official websites of standardization bodies by thematic headings and keywords in the title or abstract of the document. A sample of 92 current standards was obtained, including: international (global) – 57 (62%); international (European) – 23 (25%); international (Commonwealth of Independent States) – 2 (3%); Russian federal – 10 (11%). Using the content analysis method, the standards were systematized according to the following parameters: publication date; publication language; full text access features; geographical coverage; digital accessibility standardized parameters; digital accessibility beneficiary groups. The corresponding data set was published in the Mendeley Data online repository. The obtained data were studied using descriptive statistics in Microsoft Excel. As a result of the study, five categories of digital accessibility standards were identified (by areas of application in elearning): digital content accessibility standards (39; 42%), software accessibility standards (26; 28%), Internet communications accessibility standards (10; 11%), standards for ensuring individual needs and preferences (20; 22%), standards for the development and interpretation of digital accessibility standards (15; 16%). Some standards (13; 14%) cover more than one category. It has been determined that the beneficiaries of applying the most digital accessibility standards are all e-learning users who may be in conditions that make learning difficult. The analysis has identified two key groups of standards that can be used as a basis for the implementation of universally accessible elearning – standards based on the WCAG and AccessForAll concepts. WCAG regulates the requirements for the development of accessible digital content, and AccessForAll methods for meeting the user’s personal needs and preferences. It was determined that both concepts together can form a unified system in which WCAG is a mandatory component, and AccessForAll is an optional one. The need to develop new combined standards for e-learning digital accessibility, taking into account the best standardization practices, has been identified.

Ericsson and Kintsch (1995) proposed that, in situations of expertise, individuals can overcome working memory limitations by using long-term working memory. It allows a greater capacity than working memory thanks to long-term memory encoding and retrieving. To test this characteristic, an adaptation of Daneman and Carpenter's (1980) reading span was used. To operationalise expertise, the personalisation method (Guida & Tardieu, 2005) was employed. In Experiment 1, a personalised group, which read reading span sentences that mentioned familiar locations, was compared to a nonpersonalised group, which read sentences with unfamiliar locations. In Experiment 2, a personalised group, which read reading span sentences with neutral locations, was encouraged to mentally personalise these locations by thinking about known locations. This group was compared to a nonpersonalised group, which was encouraged to think about unknown locations. The personalised groups were expected to store and retrieve information in long-term memory via long-term working memory more easily than the nonpersonalised groups, which had to count massively on working memory. The results showed that personalisation enhanced reading span and confirmed one implication of the long-term working memory theory: high- and low-reading-span differences could also be due to long-term memory retrieval. Finally, these results are interpreted in terms of interaction between working memory size and long-term memory knowledge, showing that participants with a lower reading span benefited more from high domain knowledge than participants with a higher reading span.

Strategies of presenting instructional information affect the type of cognitive load imposed on the learner's working memory. Effective instruction reduces extraneous (ineffective) cognitive load and promotes germane (effective) cognitive load. Eighty first-year students from two veterinary schools completed a two-section questionnaire that evaluated their perspectives on the educational value of a computer-based instructional program. They compared the difference between cognitive loads imposed by paper-based and computer-based instructional strategies used to teach the anatomy of the canine skeleton. Section I included 17 closed-ended items, rated on a five-point Likert scale, that assessed the use of graphics, content, and the learning process. Section II included a nine-point mental effort rating scale to measure the level of difficulty of instruction; students were asked to indicate the amount of mental effort invested in the learning task using both paper-based and computer-based presentation formats. The closed-ended data were expressed as means and standard deviations. A paired t test with an alpha level of 0.05 was used to determine the overall mean difference between the two presentation formats. Students positively evaluated their experience with the computer-based instructional program with a mean score of 4.69 (SD=0.53) for use of graphics, 4.70 (SD=0.56) for instructional content, and 4.45 (SD=0.67) for the learning process. The mean difference of mental effort (1.50) between the two presentation formats was significant, t=8.26, p≤.0001, df=76, for two-tailed distribution. Consistent with cognitive load theory, innovative computer-based instructional strategies decrease extraneous cognitive load compared with traditional paper-based instructional strategies.

Cognitive load theory is an instructional theory based on the following assumptions. (1) Information can be divided into biologically primary information that we have evolved to process and acquire unconsciously, and secondary information that requires conscious effort. (2) Secondary information is either acquired during problem solving or from other people. It is processed by a limited capacity, limited duration working memory before being stored for subsequent use in long-term memory. Once stored, information may be transferred back to working memory to govern action relevant to the extant environment. Working memory has no known capacity or duration limits when dealing with information transferred back from long-term memory. (3) The major consequence that flows from instruction is the accumulation of information in long-term memory. (4) That differential knowledge results in individual differences in expertise and provides a major source, possibly the only source, of modifiable cognitive differences between learners. (5) Learners with differential knowledge held in long-term memory require different instructional procedures leading to the expertise reversal effects of cognitive load theory. Educational relevanceCognitive load theory is an instructional theory based on our knowledge of evolutionary psychology leading to human cognitive architecture. That architecture specifies individual differences due to either biological or environmental factors. Information held in long-term memory provides the major source of environmentally mediated individual differences. The theory uses randomised, controlled trials to determine instructional effectiveness.

Evidence for a single mechanism gating perceptual and long-term memory information into working memory

Recently, Soemer (2015) criticized our theoretical review paper published in this journal (Schweppe and Rummer 2014). In our article, we argued for a new perspective on (working) memory within theories of multimedia learning. Our main idea was that a theory that focuses on interactions between attention and long-term memory (as does Cowan’s 1999, embedded-processes model) provides a more unitary account of the multi-faceted principles associated with working memory in multimedia research than those models currently incorporated in multimedia theories. Even though many of the recommendations for how to design multimedia learning materials relate to reducing cognitive load in working memory, they refer to attention and long-term memory at least as much. Our article had two core messages: (1) Based on a description of the multicomponent model of working memory (e.g., Baddeley 2000; Baddeley & Hitch 1974) and how it is adapted in theories of multimedia learning, we concluded that the most important principles for multimedia learning are neither clearly attributable to the basic model (i.e., the multicomponent model) nor to the applied models (i.e., the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, e.g., Mayer 2009, and the cognitive load theory, e.g., Sweller 1999). (2) As an alternative, we suggested incorporating a different model that conceives of working memory as the interplay of attentional processes and long-term memory and thus allows for explaining principles related to attention, working memory, and long-term memory in a unitary manner (i.e., the embeddedprocesses model by Cowan 1999). Soemer’s (2015) comment mainly concerned our description of the multicomponent model of working memory. More specifically, he criticized that, unlike suggested in our article, the current version of the multicomponent model of working memory (Baddeley 2000, and later) does not postulate structurally independent working and long-term memory systems but rather Educ Psychol Rev (2016) 28:201–204 DOI 10.1007/s10648-015-9336-0

Visual long-term memory can store thousands of objects with surprising visual detail, but just how detailed are these representations, and how can one quantify this fidelity? Using the property of color as a case study, we estimated the precision of visual information in long-term memory, and compared this with the precision of the same information in working memory. Observers were shown real-world objects in random colors and were asked to recall the colors after a delay. We quantified two parameters of performance: the variability of internal representations of color (fidelity) and the probability of forgetting an object’s color altogether. Surprisingly, the fidelity of color information in long-term memory was comparable to the asymptotic precision of working memory. These results suggest that long-term memory and working memory may be constrained by a common limit, such as a bound on the fidelity required to retrieve a memory representation.

Digital accessibility has been supported through several global initiatives, starting with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 Recommendation issued in 1999 and continuing with the WCAG 2.0 ISO 40500 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or the DIRECTIVE (EU) 2016/2102 on the accessibility of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies, all aiming to make information, services, and functionalities of the Web accessible to as many people as possible. Applying such standards and recommendations in education remains an issue, as awareness on accessibility and its requirements is limited among those creating educational content, as well as among those designing and implementing educational web sites and applications. Research on digital accessibility has identified lack of awareness, resources, and specific training related to accessibility as key top challenges that need to be overcome in the next few years. The paper presents an overview of the accessibility features available in mainstream applications and tools that content creator can use to develop accessible and inclusive digital learning content and discusses the findings of an online questionnaire that aimed to gather insights on the availability, user-friendliness and use of accessibility features available in tools such as Open Office, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, PDF, videos and educational games. Findings have shown that digital accessibility practices are not widely spread, and that the road to a more accessible future is yet to be built. Findings have shown that digital accessibility practices are not widely spread, and that the road to a more accessible future is yet to be built.

Health and behavior change programs play a crucial role in improving health behaviors at individual and family levels. However, these programs face challenges with engagement and retention and typically show modest efficacy. Cognitive load theory is an established and highly used educational theory that proposes individuals have a finite capacity to process new information ("working memory"). Learning, engagement, and performance are negatively impacted when working memory is exceeded. Cognitive load theory is grounded in an understanding of human cognition and conceptualizes different types of cognitive loads imposed on individuals by a learning experience. Cognitive load theory aims to guide the design of learning experiences, considering how the human mind works, leading to more meaningful and effective learning. Cognitive load theory is increasingly applied to domains outside the classroom, such as designing patient and clinical education. Applying cognitive load theory to the design of health programs, their materials, and interfaces can provide insights. By considering the cognitive demands placed on individuals when interacting with health programs, design can be optimized to reduce cognitive load and better facilitate learning and behavior adoption. This may enhance engagement, retention, and effectiveness of programs. Cognitive load theory may be particularly valuable for individuals with diminished working memory due to high levels of mental load and stress. Design principles are presented to consolidate knowledge from cognitive load theory and existing approaches to guide researchers, policymakers, and health programmers. Further research and interdisciplinary collaboration are needed to realize the potential of cognitive load theory in health.

Purpose This paper aims to present a practical case study from the University of Nairobi Library, outlining the efforts to enhance digital inclusion for Students with Disabilities (SWDs). This study focused on three key areas of support: interdepartmental collaboration, financial investment in accessibility and staff training. Through a direct survey of SWDs and interviews with library and disability services leaders, the authors identified practical challenges and opportunities. This paper shares the findings and offers actionable recommendations for academic libraries aiming to create genuinely accessible digital environments, drawing on real-world experiences from a major Kenyan institution. Design/methodology/approach This study used a practical, user-centered case study approach at the University of Nairobi Library. Data was gathered through a direct survey administered to SWDs to capture their experiences and perspectives on digital resource accessibility. In-depth interviews were conducted with three key personnel: the University Librarian, the Systems Librarian and the Director of Disability Services. This dual approach provided a comprehensive understanding of digital inclusion from both the user’s standpoint and the institutional, administrative and technical perspectives, allowing for the identification of practical challenges and opportunities. Findings The assessment revealed that, although a willingness to cooperate exists, interdepartmental collaboration on digital accessibility is primarily informal and reactive, resulting in fragmented efforts and student confusion regarding support. Funding for accessibility initiatives is inconsistent and insufficient, resulting in outdated assistive technologies and limited accessible content. Furthermore, library and IT staff demonstrate a clear need for specialized training in assistive technologies, Universal Design principles and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards, impacting their ability to provide comprehensive and proactive support to SWDs. Research limitations/implications This study, being a single-institution case study at the University of Nairobi Library, inherently limits the generalizability of its findings to other academic libraries, particularly those in different socio-economic contexts or with varying institutional structures. While the findings offer valuable insights into a major Kenyan institution, direct replication of all recommendations might require adaptation elsewhere. However, the detailed exploration of challenges such as fragmented collaboration, insufficient funding, training gaps and the practical, actionable recommendations provides significant implications for academic libraries in similar resource-constrained environments globally. The user-centered approach emphasizes the crucial need to integrate student perspectives to improve digital inclusion efforts genuinely. Future research could explore multi-institutional comparative studies to validate and broaden these findings. Practical implications This study provides actionable steps for academic libraries to enhance digital inclusion genuinely. Libraries should formalize interdepartmental collaboration through dedicated task forces and embed accessibility in all digital resource procurement. Crucially, securing a consistent and protected budget for assistive technologies, content conversion and accessible resources is vital. Finally, mandatory, ongoing staff training in Universal Design, WCAG and disability awareness will equip staff to provide effective and proactive support, directly improving the learning experience for SWDs. Social implications Successfully implementing digital inclusion as outlined in this study extends beyond mere compliance; it fosters a more equitable and inclusive educational environment. By addressing accessibility gaps, the University of Nairobi Library empowers SWDs to participate fully in academic life, reducing feelings of marginalization and enhancing their self-reliance and academic success. This promotes a societal shift toward valuing diversity and ensuring equal opportunities for all individuals, ultimately contributing to a more inclusive and productive citizenry in Kenya and beyond. It also serves as a model for other institutions to champion social equity. Originality/value This case study offers significant originality and value by providing a rare, practical and in-depth examination of digital inclusion efforts at a major public university in a developing country context, specifically, the University of Nairobi Library in Kenya. Unlike theoretical discussions, it draws on real-world experiences from both SWDs and key institutional staff. The direct identification of specific, actionable challenges (informal collaboration, inconsistent funding and training gaps) and the subsequent provision of concrete recommendations make this a convenient and valuable resource for academic libraries globally, especially those facing similar resource constraints and aiming to move from policy to tangible, impactful implementation.

Individuals can use information stored in episodic long-term memory (LTM) to optimize performance in a working memory (WM) task, and the WM system negotiates the exchange of information between WM and LTM depending on the current memory load. In this study, we assessed the ability of different accounts of interactions between LTM and WM to explain these findings, by investigating whether the position of pre-learnt information within a memory list encoded into WM affects the benefit it provides to immediate memory. In two experiments we varied the input position of previously learned word-word pairs within a set of four to-be-remembered pairs. We replicated previous findings of superior performance when these LTM pairs were included in the WM task and show that the position in the list in which these LTM pairs were included not seem to matter. These results are most consistent with the idea that having access to information in LTM reduces or removes the need to rely on WM for its storage, implying that people "offload" information in conditions containing LTM pairs.

High-resolution fMRI data reveal an often-neglected contribution of the medial temporal lobe circuitry to item-specific representation in visual working memory, suggesting the mechanism traditionally deemed dedicated to long-term memory can be exploited to support the quality of human working memory.

High-resolution fMRI data reveal an often-neglected contribution of the medial temporal lobe circuitry to item-specific representation in visual working memory, suggesting the mechanism traditionally deemed dedicated to long-term memory can be exploited to support the quality of human working memory.

Working memory provides a medium for building and manipulating new representations that control our thoughts and actions. To fulfil this function, a working memory system needs to meet six requirements: (1) it must have a mechanism for rapidly forming temporary bindings to combine elements into new structures; (2) it needs a focus of attention for selectively accessing individual elements for processing; (3) it must hold both declarative representations of what is the case, and procedural representations of how to act on the current situation; (4) it needs a process for rapid updating, including rapid removal of outdated contents. Moreover, contents of working memory (5) need to be shielded from interference from long-term memory, while (6) working memory should be able to use information in long-term memory when it is useful. This chapter summarizes evidence in support of these mechanisms and processes. It presents three computational models that each implement some of these mechanisms, and explains different subsets of empirical findings about working memory: the SOB-CS model accounts for behaviour in tests of immediate serial recall, including complex-span tasks. The interference model explains data from a common test of visual working memory, the continuous-reproduction task. The set-selection model explains how people learn memory sets and task sets, how these sets are retrieved from long-term memory, and how these mechanisms enable switching between memory sets and task sets.