ALdia: removing barriers to education through accessible learning

On March 1^st and 2^nd, thee kick off meeting of the project ALdia – Accessible Learning design, implementation and accreditation was held in Alicante, Spain. The meeting was hosted by the University of Alicante, coordinator of the project, with the participation of the project partners: University of Piraeus Research Center (Greece), CESIE (Italy), Fondo Formacion Euskadi (Spain), Four Elements (Greece).

ALdia is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme – Key Action 3: Support for policy reform, Prospective Initiatives Forward-Looking Cooperation Projects, and it addresses Priority 1 – Reducing disparities in learning outcomes affecting learners from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The main objective of the ALdia project is therefore to remove barriers preventing disabled students from successfully participating in courses and programmes of study, by mainstreaming equal access principles and practices into education in Europe and beyond.

The project will therefore analyse disabled students’ needs in Higher Education and VET sectors and, based on this, an innovative Massive Open Online Course for Higher Education (HE) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) professionals will be developed and pilot-tested. The MOOC, which will be structured into 8 modules, will correspond to level 4 of the European Qualification Framework (EQF), and it will be based on ECVET principles, in order to provide a common framework for its delivery across Europe and for the certification and recognition of the knowledge and skills acquired through the course.

The ALdia project has a strong potential for innovation since it will:

• Develop and field-test an innovative training and accreditation framework based on ECVET system addressing the need of incorporating accessible learning into mainstream Higher Education and Vocational Training;
• provide an effective methodology based on collaborative teaching and learning techniques, for the development of accessible lectures by HE and VET educators;
• design a tailor-made Virtual Learning Environment offering a flexible Massive Open Online Course which could be easily mainstreamed;
• promote innovative policy-making in education and training sectors that will be based upon an in-depth knowledge of both the disabled students learning needs and the causes that hinder equal access of disabled students in HE and VET learning.

Through its innovative approach, the project will positively affect education and training systems and education policies across Europe by producing tangible and sustainable improvements in the fields of inclusive education and professional qualifications. Indeed, ALdia will provide an evidence-base for policy-initiatives that promote inclusive education and the reduction of disparities in learning environments affecting learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, in accordance to Article 10 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 and the Education and Training 2020 programme.

To this aim, the collaborative teaching and learning methodology adopted within ALdia will be used in two respects:

• ALdia training methodology and practice, employing existing collaborative learning techniques for distance learning in the ALdia Virtual Learning Environment and providing a practice area in the ALdia MOOC where participants will be able to share their accessible learning designs.
• Accessible learning design addressed within the ALdia training, promoting tolerance and combating discrimination in a diversified teaching environment.

The first phase of the project implementation will be dedicated to a needs analysis on supporting students with disability in HE and VET. Indeed, due to the limited amount of research data available about the needs and potential of disabled students in Higher Education and Vocational Training, the ALdia project intends to develop new knowledge and resources in this field, directly involving stakeholders (education professional and disabled students) through surveys and design meetings, while unleashing the potential of assistive technology.

Based on the data collected through the research, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about accessible learning will be designed and field-tested, with a view to provide Higher Education and VET professionals with the core knowledge and skills needed for designing and exploiting innovative teaching practices to reduce disparities in learning outcomes affecting learners with special needs. The MOOC will be based on Open Educational resources (OER), and will allow participants who successfully complete it to be awarded an ALdia certificate based on the ECVET framework.

At the moment, the consortium is working on the preparation of the survey to be launched in spring: two different questionnaires are being developed, addressed to disabled students and academic/VET staff. The data collected through the questionnaires will reveal the obstacles to an equal access to HE and VET learning and the assistive technology tools that are most popular in the two education settings.

For further information about the first steps of the ALdia project please write an e-mail to: francesca.vacanti@cesie.org