Norun Sanderson

Dyslexic students in higher education and virtual learning environments: an exploratory study

This paper presents the results of an interview-based study of the use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) among dyslexic students. Interviews were carried out with 12 informants who had been formally diagnosed as dyslexic. The informants were either enrolled in a university or college programme, or had graduated less than a year before the interview. The findings reveal that dyslexic students experience a number of challenges associated with VLE use, including information overload, imperfect word processing tools, inadequate search functions, and having to relate to more than one system at a time.

Metadata management for ad-hoc infoware – a rescue and emergency use case for mobile ad-hoc scenarios

In this paper we present a multi-tier data dictionary approach to metadata management in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). Our work is part of the Ad-Hoc InfoWare project, aiming to find middleware solutions to information sharing in MANETs used in rescue and emergency scenarios. Such scenarios are characterised by highly dynamic and time critical issues, and pose new challenges to solutions for information sharing and integration. We present the rescue and emergency scenario, the results of the requirements analysis, and some use cases resulting from this analysis. We describe the design of a knowledge manager component and how it may provide solutions, the main focus being on metadata management and the use of global and local data dictionaries. We present the status of our work, including detailed design and ongoing implementation of a data dictionary manager.

Supporting multiple subscription languages by a single event notification overlay in sparse MANETs

The subscription language is an important design decision for distributed event notification services (DENS). In order to minimize resource consumption and enable applications to use rich and complex subscription languages only when they are really needed, we have developed a DENS that separates the concerns of delivering subscriptions and notifications from the subscription specification and event filtering, i.e., the subscription language. To resolve the conflict between subscription language independence in DENS and a strict decoupling of publishers and subscribers through the DENS, we request that for each new subscription language three language specific plug-ins are provided. In this paper, we present the technical details of this solution and describe our proof-of-concept implementation that supports a simple attribute-value based subscription language and a fuzzy concept-based language.

Middleware Services for Information Sharing in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Information sharing is a mission critical key element in rescue and emergency operations. Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) could provide a useful infrastructure to support information sharing, but appropriate applications are needed. To facilitate efficient application development for this type of infrastructure, middleware support is needed. In the Ad-Hoc InfoWare project, we are currently developing corresponding middleware services. In this paper, we discuss the application requirements that are imposed onto the middleware services, and we outline our technical approach to address the corresponding challenges. The architecture we propose comprises five main building blocks, namely knowledge management, a local and a distributed event notification service, resource management, and security and privacy management. We indicate design alternatives for these building blocks, identify open problems and relate our approach to the state-of-the-art.

Ontology Based Dynamic Updates in Sparse Mobile Ad-hoc Networks for Rescue Scenarios

In this paper we discuss how dynamic updates in a sparse mobile ad-hoc network can be handled in a rescue scenario. As rescue operations have an organisational and operational structure, updates can take advantage of rescue operation roles and lines of reporting, together with update priorities. To illustrate this, we give a short description of our rescue scenario, together with an outline of our multi-tier data dictionary solution that makes use of semantic linked distributed data dictionaries and ontology enhanced metadata descriptions. We present an example ontology of profiles for user, device, rescue scenario, and information items, tailored for ontology based dynamic updates.

Public Media on the Web for Everyone – An Evaluation of the Norwegian Broadcasting Cooperation’s Website

Media plays a key role in ensuring freedom of expression which is an essential foundation for democracy. The emerging e-society poses pressing challenges for accessibility to public media on the Web. In this project we focus on The Norwegian Broadcasting Cooperation’s Website, NRK.no and study the possible accessibility issues and solutions using heuristic evaluation and focus group interviews with users.

The Accessibility of MOOCs for Blind Learners

The development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has provided unique learning opportunities for many people. In the meantime, the lack of accessibility in some MOOCs has also created barriers for diverse learners. In this paper, we present the preliminary results from a study on the accessibility a selected set of MOOCs on the Coursera platform for blind learners who use screen readers and Braille to interact with computers and mobile devices.

The Accessibility of MOOC Platforms from Instructors’ Perspective

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) provides remarkable learning opportunities for a great diversity of people. MOOCs have been studied from several perspectives, including accessibility. However, little attention has so far been paid to investigating whether MOOC platforms themselves are accessible for instructors who are the authors of MOOCs. To ensure universal and equal access to the MOOC platforms, a systematic study of the accessibility of the MOOC platforms from instructors’ perspective is essential. This paper presents results from a heuristic evaluation of the Canvas platform, focusing on its accessibility to instructors creating course contents in MOOCs. We have based the evaluation on Part A of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The preliminary results show that although Canvas provides much support for instructors to create accessible MOOCs, it does not comply fully with ATAG 2.0.

The Accessibility of Web-Based Media Services – An Evaluation

Online digital media is becoming the most important arena for general information sharing and public debate. Making this arena accessible to all is essential for equal participation in today’s society. However, the accessibility of web-based media services has not been given much attention despite their importance for the democracy of our society. The overall objective for this research is to gain knowledge on universal design of websites containing complex multimedia, in order to ensure equal access for diverse groups operating different devices in various situations. To achieve this objective, we have conducted heuristic evaluations of the news web pages at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), the authoring tools for journalists, and focus group interviews on the accessibility of NRK.no. The preliminary results show that although participants expressed general positive attitude towards the design of NRK.no, many accessibility challenges remain to be addressed.