The Use of Distance Learning and E-learning in Students with Learning Disabilities: A Review on the Effects and some Hint of Analysis on the Use during COVID-19 Outbreak.

Donatella Rita Petretto,Stefano Mariano Carta,Ilaria Masala,Maria Pietronilla Penna,Stefania Cataudella,Paola Piras,Ilenia Pistis,Maria Lidia Mascia,Carmelo Masala

doi:10.2174/1745017902117010092

Donatella Rita Petretto, Stefano Mariano Carta + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017902117010092

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Abstract

Even if the use of distance learning and E-learning has a long tradition all over the world and both have been used to keep in contact with students and to provide lessons, support and learning materials, there is an open debate on the balance between advantages and disadvantages in the use of distance learning. This debate is even more central in their use to support students with Learning Disabilities (LDs), an overarching group of neurodevelopmental disorders that affect more than 5% of students. The current COVID-19 outbreak caused school closures and the massive use of E-learning all over the world and it put higher attention on the debate of the effects of E-learning. This paper aims to review papers that investigated the positive and negative effects of the use of Distance Learning and E-learning in students with LDs. We conducted a literature review on the relationship between Distance Learning, E-learning and Learning Disabilities, via Scopus, Eric and Google Scholar electronic database, according to Prisma Guidelines. The findings are summarized using a narrative, but systematic, approach. According to the data resulting from the papers, we also discuss issues to be analyzed in future research and in the use of E-learning during the current pandemic of COVID-19.

Highlights

The use of distance learning and distance education has a long tradition all over the world and both have been used since the first decades of the previous century to keep in contact with students and to provide lessons, support and learning materials [1 - 3]
-E-learning and distance learning are strictly related to the so-called “e-teaching”, the knowledge and the competencies of the teachers in the use and the development of learning materials and learning processes using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); E-learning and the distance learning are strictly related to the development and the use of ICT and e-environments by teachers and within pedagogical and psychological based approaches, and a huge attention on the training and the empowerment of teachers in eteaching is needed, aiming to prevent that they have a secondary role in the learning process and become merely “users” of unknown tools and learning environments and learning material;
With the awareness that our paper has some limitations, one specific limitation is related to the fact that the papers included in the review considered the use of E-learning and distance learning before its massive use during COVID-19 outbreak and further research is needed to compare more directly previous and current use of E-learning in students with Learning Disabilities (LDs)

Summary

Introduction

The use of distance learning and distance education has a long tradition all over the world and both have been used since the first decades of the previous century to keep in contact with students and to provide lessons, support and learning materials [1 - 3]. The first use of distance education appeared in 1920 and it was based on the use of Postal Service and Radio. With the development of television, distance learning started to use this new media [2, 3]. In 1990, as internet became accessible and with the spread in the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), distance learning became mainly based on E-learning and ICT [4]. An open debate is still ongoing on the definition of Elearning [5 - 7] but there is an agreement on the view that Elearning as a concept covers a wide range of applications, learning methods, processes, and tools.

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