Mendoza-González Ricardo, Timbi-Sisalima Cristian, Sánchez-Gordón Mary, Otón-Tortosa Salvador
Department of Systems and Computing, Tecnológico Nacional de México, Campus Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, Mexico.
GI-IATa, Cátedra UNESCO Tecnologías de apoyo para la Inclusión Educativa, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Cuenca 010102, Ecuador.
Heliyon. 2024 Jul 11;10(14):e34273. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34273. eCollection 2024 Jul 30.
The SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) forced educational institutions to move their programmes to the virtual world. Several tech-based solutions -including virtual training and tutoring, discussion forums, access to content and information, collaborative platforms, and Open Educational Resources (OER)- were implemented to address this shift and continue to be used in the post-pandemic era due to the advantages they offer, especially for hybrid and blended learning. However, the implementation of these tech-based solutions also revealed several accessibility issues that need to be addressed to fully leverage the technological benefits. This study aims to provide a framework to facilitate the adoption of good practices related to technological accessibility in virtual Higher Education. The implementation of the framework is divided into four basic actions, each of which should be tailored to the constraints and needs for improving accessibility in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The framework's instantiation in four HEIs serves as a proof-of-concept in real-world scenarios. The preliminary results suggest that the proposal is promising, as it was adaptable to the specific needs of each HEI fostering accessibility and inclusion through technological alternatives that align with their organisational structures and current levels of attention to accessibility.
严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2型（SARS-CoV-2）大流行（新冠肺炎）迫使教育机构将其课程转移到虚拟世界。为应对这一转变，实施了多种基于技术的解决方案，包括虚拟培训和辅导、讨论论坛、内容和信息获取、协作平台以及开放教育资源（OER），并且由于它们所提供的优势，尤其是在混合式和融合式学习方面的优势，这些解决方案在大流行后的时代仍在继续使用。然而，这些基于技术的解决方案的实施也揭示了一些可及性问题，要充分利用技术带来的好处，就需要解决这些问题。本研究旨在提供一个框架，以促进在虚拟高等教育中采用与技术可及性相关的良好做法。该框架的实施分为四个基本行动，每个行动都应根据高等教育机构（HEIs）改善可及性的限制因素和需求进行调整。该框架在四所高等教育机构中的实例化作为实际场景中的概念验证。初步结果表明该提议很有前景，因为它能够适应每所高等教育机构的特定需求，通过与它们的组织结构和当前对可及性的关注程度相一致的技术替代方案来促进可及性和包容性。
