**Considerations on Barriers to Effective E-learning toward Accessible Virtual Campuses**

Salvador Otón, Héctor R. Amado-Salvatierra, José Ramón Hilera, Eva García and Antonio García

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/60605

#### **Abstract**

Nowadays, the implementation of virtual campuses is a reality, both in academic set‐ tings and in the workplace. However, there are several challenges associated with the implementation of effective learning outcomes via e-learning. In this chapter in partic‐ ular, the use of e-learning to reach students with disabilities and the barriers that they may have will be presented. In this sense, e-learning solutions adopted by several in‐ stitutions are encouraged to validate and promote accessibility in a virtual campus. A large myriad of research related to accessibility in distance education systems is avail‐ able in literature, and the most relevant studies and standards are presented in this chapter as a starting point for education institutions looking at improving the accessi‐ bility in their own virtual campuses. This work is intended to be relevant both to teachers and lecturers who use e-learning for their courses, and to those involved in the design, setup, and maintenance of e-learning systems, whether from a pedagogi‐ cal or technical perspective to take into account the accessibility for students with dis‐ abilities. This work will explore on the accessibility of the basic stone of the e-learning process, the learning objects. An analysis of the IMS AfA v3.0 specification will be presented as a starting point to develop an accessible and adaptable online course, based on the student's preferences, within an accessible virtual campus.

**Keywords:** accessibility, learning objects, adaptability, disability, e-inclusion

### **1. Introduction**

A virtual campus is an environment based on a web technology that provides facilities for the development, management, and publication of content that contributes to the process of teaching and learning. The process of teaching and learning enhanced by technology is

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commonly known as e-learning. The virtual campus is the fundamental element on which a virtual education project is based. If it is an accessible virtual campus, it must be ensured that all functionality can be used by any user, including users with disabilities.

There are several challenges associated with the implementation of effective learning outcomes via e-learning within a virtual campus. In this chapter in particular, the considerations on the use of e-learning to reach students with disabilities and the barriers [1–5] that they may have will be analyzed, providing the basic knowledge to prepare an accessible virtual campus.

This chapter is structured as follows: A state of the art on accessibility related to virtual campuses, highlighting studies related to the application of accessibility standards to improve the e-learning systems is presented in the first section. The first section explores on the main accessibility requirements for an e-learning campus. Then a review on the basic knowledge that the stakeholders involved in e-learning education should have in order to preserve and promote accessibility is presented. In particular, the authors propose an evaluation guideline on accessibility for virtual campus administrators. Finally, the considerations on the accessi‐ bility requirements of learning objects (LOs) are presented using the IMS Access for all v3.0 specification, the main objective of which is to simplify the definition of the accessibility metadata for learning objects and the preferences and needs of the users of these objects tracing them to students' related disabilities.
