Abstract
Research indicates a diversity of factors that influence the use of online learning resources. Barriers, related to access and accessibility issues are often considered in the literature as inhibiting factors for people with disabilities. Following the established social cognitive theory and the model of digital inclusion, that both highlight interaction between environmental and personal factors, we conceptualise two different types of barriers, named environmental and contextual barriers. This article examines differences between students with SEN and their peers in perceived barriers for OLR use. Our results confirmed as expected that there are no significant differences in perceived contextual obstacles between students with SEN and their peers. However, contrary to our expectations, environmental barriers were not perceived as significantly more or less important in either of the two groups. We discuss possible reasons for such results.
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Acknowledgements
The study was financed by young researcher for acquiring a PhD scheme of Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) as a part of PhD study. Andreja Istenic Starcic was nominated as mentor of young researcher in 2011 (6316-3/2011-784). Maja Lebenicnik was selected as a young researcher in 2012. A survey among students of the University of Ljubljana was conducted without additional financing within a project: «The integration of information and communication technology in the higher education pedagogical process» led by University of Ljubljana in June and early July 2017. The project «The integration of information and communication technology in the higher education pedagogical process» is co-financed by the European Union from the European Social Fund and the Republic of Slovenia. Authors would like to thank participating students and vice-rector of the University of Ljubljana, prof. Goran Turk for promoting a survey among students.
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Lebenicnik, M., Istenic Starcic, A. (2018). Factors Related to the Use of Online Learning Resources: The Perception of Environmental and Contextual Barriers of Students with Special Educational Needs and Their Peers. In: Wu, TT., Huang, YM., Shadiev, R., Lin, L., Starčič, A. (eds) Innovative Technologies and Learning. ICITL 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11003. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99737-7_35
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99737-7_35
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