Flexible study pace, mental disabilities and e-Learning : Perceived problems and opportunities

• Flexible study pace distant courses provide opportunities for students with disabilities to attend courses in higher educations as opposed to campus courses with fixed schedules. At least that is what we believe. This study investigates how mentally disabled students perceive taking distant courses with flexible pace and also how their teachers perceive opportunities and challenges. Flexible pace means here distant courses where students can start when they like and keep the pace they prefer. The courses in question are part of a two year program of eService Development at Dalarna University in Sweden. The program was launched in 2006 and admits ca 50-80 students each semester. Many of the students are unable to take campus courses of various reasons such as living far from universities, working daytime, etc. We sent out questionnaires to students with disabilities and to teachers asking them semi structured questions about perceived challenges and opportunities regarding the studies. The students had mental disabilities such as Dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Social Phobia. The answers have been analyzed qualitatively by categorizing the answers firstly in groups of challenges and opportunities and further on in sub categories. Our finding shows that the flexible aspect is especially important to students as it gives them the opportunity to adjust their studying practices to their disabilities. Our conclusions are that the flexible study pace approach (FreeStartFreePace) is suitable for students with nonlinear work. It is also useful for students with mental disabilities who could have a problem adapting to schedules and conforming procedures.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

FreeStartFreePace

flexible learning

free pace learning

distance learning

mentally disabled students

challenges

opportunities

Complex Systems – Microdata Analysis

Komplexa system - mikrodataanalys

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)