Has anybody here got experience of using Moodle with students with learning difficulties - eg people with low literacy skills and possibly short term memory problems in terms of how to navigate around?
Has anyone reconfigured the interface to be more symbol/icon based rather than text based? OR has anyone porduced simpler installs with fewer options for learners? Any advice welcomed.
Alistair
That is certainly an element of what I'm interested in.
I work for a government funded advisory service for using technology with disabled learners (TechDis) and am currently trying to help a specialist college that wants to use Moodle with learning disabled students. It's a question of working out the extent to which Moodle can be simplified and "icon-ified" for the learners that need it. Your reply is certainly a helpful signpost and I'll put some sort of summary up here of what I find from the various lists I've enquired on! Many thanks
Alistair
I am presently completing a MSc in Multimedia and e learning. I teach chemistry and my AS course is now 30 weeks long and lots of scrolling down in Moodle is required by AS level chemistry students. You may not believe it but there are quite a few dyslexic students who would cope better with icons. I am currently building a virtual study in flash to convert all of the text hyperlinks to icons in the study. I am then intending to insert the movie as a label. If you're interested here's a demo of a prototype. http://www.science-aquinas.co.uk/zindependentlearners/yourvirtualstudy2.htm
Hi Wendy
I'm not clear from your posting whether the Flash will be replacing traditional Moodle navigation or whether it takes over a level or two below within a stand alone Moodle course?
On a separate note I had a look at your course and there are some nice ideas here. I used to work with Becta and ran some elearning subject training days for A level sciences. Have you come across the resources on Becta's Ferl site (http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?page=419) ? These include a range of low tech interactivities eg using Excel creatively for enthalpy experiments or PowerPoint animations for Bornhaber cycle. Thought there may be something of interest there. See also Mike Docker's site
http://www.mp-docker.demon.co.uk/home.html (if you've not coma across it before.
Alistair
This is helpful, thanks, I've not looked at themes yet!
What reading age do you reckon your learners go down to? This would help to determine a "useable" cutoff point beyond which it might be necessary to move to more pictorial or symbol based navigation (which I suspect is a whole new area of intrigue..).
Alistair
