Experiences of disabled students in online education: a systematic review

Knowledge about disabled students in higher education is fragmented. It is therefore difficult to assess whether policy goals actually promote better conditions for disabled students. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at the experiences of disabled students in Norway and, in light of policy goals, to identify obstacles in the higher education system. This study is based on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with disabled students in higher education. The findings indicate that an educational reform in Norwegian higher education seems to have helped to strengthen disabled tertiary students’ potential for learning, but there are a number of critical periods during their studies when it is imperative for disabled students to get the adjustment needed.

There are limited comparisons between the experience of disabled students in higher education and their non-disabled peers, particularly on practice placements. This article presents the results of such a comparison, across six professional disciplines in one UK university. The results revealed that both disabled and non-disabled students reported positive placement experiences and also similar difficulties. Such difficulties were exacerbated for some disabled students, however, including as a consequence of the attitudes of others to disability. Recommendations for practice are identified that aim to enhance the placement experience of all students and to remove barriers to access.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted traditional pedagogies and modalities for facilitating instruction to all students, including those enrolled in higher education courses. Given the disruptions to in-person learning and the growing interest in distance education, higher education institutions are increasing the number of asynchronous online and blended courses in educational programs. This increase also coincides with the growing numbers of diverse students, including those from multilingual backgrounds, across college campuses in the United States. Student diversity calls for more inclusive instructional delivery modes. This article describes Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework designed to enhance teaching and learning for all students. It also explains how university faculty can implement UDL in online courses in higher education and in preservice teacher preparation courses. Finally, the article discusses the implications of UDL implementation for multilingual students enrolled in higher education courses.

This is a conceptual article which seeks to consider the use of contemporary social theory to help understand the experience of disabled students in higher education. The use of social theoretical insights has been criticised by many as demonstrating a lack of engagement with the everyday experiences of disabled people. Work which strives to embed theoretical insights into the study of disability has also been criticised for lacking engagement with the ‘reality’ of impairment. In this article I intend to address some of these criticisms by suggesting some ways in which the use of contemporary social theory may provide an explanatory tool which disentangles confusion regarding the journey undertaken by the disabled student. I will discuss how the writings of several social theorists may be helpful in making sense of disabled student journeys. I will begin by discussing why the work of Jacques Derrida can be useful in this regard. These writings will be considered alongside a debate which draws on the writings of Michel Foucault on the use of power in contemporary higher education institutions. I will critically discuss the theoretical insights of Deleuze and Guattari and their offerings on the notion of ‘becoming’. I will then critically interrogate the work of Rosi Braidotti and apply these to a re-imagining of the disabled student journey. The writings of these important theorists have been used before to explore the experiences of disabled people. However, this article is unique in that it proposes that these writings can be used to demystify the experiences of disabled students in higher education. I suggest some ways the work of Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari and Braidotti enable a greater understanding of my personal student journey. I suggest that they could be used to make sense of a far wider range of student journeys. I conclude the article by offering a model which utilises some important aspects of these theoretical insights.

As both universities and students demonstrate an increasing interest in offering and taking online courses, a better understanding of the causes of student outcomes, such as student achievement has become increasingly important. This study investigated an additional variable, the role of the teacher, which has been hidden within and in many instances even left out of previous studies. A multivariate linear regression indicated that the instructor qualities of years of experience, level of education and practical experience predicted 5.6% of student achievement, while an instructor’s level of training predicted 2.1% of student achievement in online courses of higher education. Although the amount at which these teacher qualities make up the overall formula for student success is small, this study has added to our understanding of additional factors impacting student success in higher education online courses.

The rise of online courses in higher education has necessitated the development of effective assessment strategies to ensure quality learning outcomes. This chapter explores the importance of effective assessment strategies in online courses and provides insights into designing such strategies. It highlights the importance of assessment strategies in online courses, emphasizing their role in evaluating student learning and providing feedback. Various types of assessment strategies are discussed, including their advantages, and disadvantages and the challenges also are examined. The chapter provides guidelines for designing effective assessment strategies in online courses to address the highlighted challenges. By incorporating these guidelines, educators and instructional designers can create assessment strategies that cater to the unique features and challenges of the online learning environment, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of online courses in higher education.

Computer‐assisted teaching and assessment has become a regular feature across many areas of the curriculum in higher education courses around the world in recent years. This development has resulted in the ‘digital divide’ between disabled students and their nondisabled peers regarding their participation in computer‐assisted courses. However, there has been a long‐standing practice to ensure that disabled students could participate in these courses with a set of disability adjustments that are in line with their learning modalities under the headings of presentation format, response format, timing, and setting adjustments. Additionally, there has been a set of supporting antidiscriminatory disability laws around the world to avoid such divide between disabled students and their nondisabled peers. However, following a successful pre cedent in Davis v. Southeastern Community College (1979), the opponents of disability rights have consistently argued that making disability adjustments for disabled students to participate in computer‐assisted courses would undermine academic and professional standards and these laws have resulted in a ‘culture of fear’ among the staff. This paper challenges such myths and argues, based on a systematic review of four major antidiscriminatory laws, that universities have full academic freedom to set the academic standards of their computer‐assisted courses despite the introduction of such laws and that there has been no grounds for the perceived culture of fear about the consequences of the participation of disabled students in computer‐assisted courses.

When assigned to develop higher education courses for the online learning format, faculty members and instructional designers (IDs) are often assigned to work together as a course development team. Sometimes, faculty members may be unaware of the field of instructional design and the valuable knowledge IDs can bring to a course development project. As a result, they may not realize that the advice and assistance IDs offer can help bring their courses to the next level. IDs possess specific knowledge of learning theories and instructional design models that are the keys to improving the quality of instruction within online higher education courses. When such specialized knowledge is not utilized, the result can be low-level courses in which students are unsuccessful. Therefore, it is important for individuals within academia to begin to understand the key role IDs play in improving the quality of online higher education courses. IDs often are responsible for helping faculty members write course objectives, create engaging assignments for the online format, and develop methods for presenting course information to learners. This paper outlines research and information gathered from 12 research study participants that details the important role IDs play in course production and seeks to bring new knowledge about instructional design to the forefront of the field. IDs are a valuable resource within higher education, and the expectation is that others within the field of academia will gain a clearer understanding about the need for IDs to be involved. Such an understanding can lead to a smoother course development process and a higher quality online course result. In addition to discussing the role of IDs in higher education, the 12 research study participants shared their strategies for successfully working with faculty members to develop high-quality courses within higher education.

In higher education learning environments, there is a dual need for educators to use supportive strategies to motivate students throughout the course, while also aiming to increase the capacity of students to self-regulate their learning. Using instantaneous tools to deliver formative or summative feedback through digital technology has been shown to lead to higher achievement and retention rates. This chapter shows how digital badges can provide instantaneous feedback to support students to feel belonging in the online community and develop self-regulation skills. Instantaneous feedback tools can be used to provide teacher presence throughout higher education courses to increase student engagement, retention, and achievement.

According to Sheffield Hallam University’s Access and Participation Plan (20/21-24/25), there has been an increased number of disabled students entering Higher Education (HE), with 14.6% of students declaring a disability in the sector. Therefore, this review of the literature explored potential barriers into Higher Education for students with disabilities. Within Higher Education institutions, disabled students may be categorised into having ‘mental health’, ‘cognitive and learning’, ‘sensory, medical and physical’ or ‘multiple impairment’ related disabilities. This review was commissioned in collaboration with the Higher Education Progression Partnership (South Yorkshire), with the aim of identifying barriers into Higher Education institutions for disabled students. Evidence provided from this literature review is intended to assist in developing a rationale for an intervention design and delivery that alleviates the barriers into Higher Education for disabled students. From examining the literature, a prominent barrier that emerged was a lack of accessibility at university. For instance, an inconsistent willingness from tutors to make reasonable adjustments to assessments, a lack of understanding of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) characteristics and spread-out university campus buildings that were inaccessible for students with Cerebral Palsy/walking disabilities. The research findings also revealed that there was a lack of accessible spaces on campus for disabled students, especially for students with ASD to interact. Furthermore, disabled students’ perceptions of stigmatisation and discrimination of disclosing their disability was another key barrier into Higher Education. For instance, during the application process to university, students believed that it would jeopardise their opportunity to be accepted into their chosen Higher Education institution if they were to disclose their disability.

Captioned Recorded Lectures as a Mainstream Learning Tool

Given the complex challenges organizations face and the importance of emotional intelligence to effective leadership, management education has begun to help adult learners develop emotional intelligence competencies. These include emotional self-control, conflict management, teamwork, cultural awareness, and inspirational leadership, among other qualities. Leaders and managers must navigate a landscape of challenges which demand effective teamwork, fresh perspectives, and an empathic understanding of others with whom they work to inform sound decision making. This article discusses aspects of Mayer and Salovey’s model of emotional intelligence. It proposes specific course design and instructional strategies which may foster emotional intelligence in adult learners, especially those in the online learning environment, based on this model. The article points to directions for future research which would empirically examine the effectiveness of these strategies on the development of emotional intelligence in adult learners in online higher education courses.

Has micro-designing of online courses in higher education become more important than macro-designing the online course? Has chunking of content surpassed the need to be holistic enabling deep learning and comprehension? This discussive position paper offers an insight into macro and micro designing of online courses in contemporary higher education, with able support from two case studies and Reigeluth's elaboration theory.

There is little systematic evidence on the experience of disabled students in higher education. In this study, equal numbers of disabled and nondisabled students taking courses with the UK Open University were surveyed with regard to their approaches to studying and perceptions of the academic quality of their courses. Students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties, students with mental health difficulties and students with fatigue were more likely to exhibit a surface approach, and less likely to exhibit organised studying, than were nondisabled students. In the first two groups, this was associated with lower ratings of the quality of their courses. Nevertheless, the differences were not large, either in absolute terms or in the proportion of variance in the students’ scores that they explained. The impact of disability on students’ perceptions of the academic quality of their courses and on their approaches to studying appears to be relatively slight.

Game accessibility has evolved significantly during the last 10 years, both within the industry and in research. Further inclusion in both games and the game industry requires educational resources useful within game curricula, which has been developed by the industry, to raise awareness about design and development regarding game accessibility and related issues. The purpose of this paper is to explain how inclusive game design and game accessibility can be taught to students in higher education, for curricular design, in-between generic curricula and practice. A tentative curriculum framework (TCF) was developed by the author and a co-author, based on feedback from peers. The problem is that there is still a gap between the basic structure of the TCF and how to apply it in higher education courses. The goal with this paper is to exemplify how this can be done with a set of generalized modules with course activities based on teaching by the author for two decades, that can be implemented in higher education courses, either modified or as-is, related to the TCF. A set of example modules consisting of activities is presented that can be adapted and applied by peer educators. Future work involves transforming the modules themselves into open educational resources, organized based on the TCF. Hopefully, this can motivate peer educators to also contribute with further open educational resources in a common repository, to aid each other as a community of educators developing best practices for teaching about game accessibility in higher education.