Aim of the workshop

National reports for both India [1, 2] and Bangladesh [3, 4] highlight the exclusion of economically disadvantaged and differently-abled students [5], females [6, 7] and people from remote areas. Such students may be disadvantaged due to their gender, because they are from impoverished or remote backgrounds, etc.

In Disability Rights Group vs. UOI and Rajive Raturi vs UOI, the Supreme Court of India directed all higher education institutions to reserve 5% of places for persons with disabilities and make the institutions accessible, as mandated by the RWPD Act [8]. It has been observed that even the premier educational institutions have failed so far to implement the provisions of the RPWD Act [9].

In response, the EU-funded CBHE DiversAsia project [10] which aims to ensure that students with a range of disabilities (including those with specific learning difficulties, and sensory and physical impairments) can enjoy the same access to HE as their peers and have access to digital training materials – including open educational resources (OERs) and massive open online courses (MOOCs), and this is especially relevant to students who cannot physically access the HE Institutions due to existing architectural barriers. Investigating the potential of disruptive technologies to provide inclusive, highly immersive and personalisable learning experiences is also a core aim of this project [11].

The NMC Horizon Report - Higher Education Edition [12] highlights six important developments in assistive technology for Higher Education (HE) with indicative time frames to adoption – including Bring Your Own Device and Learning Analytics & Adaptive Learning (1 year or less), Augmented and Virtual Reality and Makerspaces (2 to 3 years), and Affective Computing and Robotics (4 to 5 years). In addition, very recent reviews examining the potential role of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Digital Twins and the Metaverse in providing Inclusive Education for students with specific learning difficulties highlight the challenges and opportunities these exciting technologies afford.

The UK Government’s report on support for disabled students in HE highlights that specific learning disabilities are the most common type of reported disabilities (34%). This includes dyslexia, dyspraxia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder AD(H)D, with the next most commonly reported being mental health conditions [13].

Accordingly, this workshop will promote dialogue and exchange of ideas, methods, tools and guidelines between academics, researchers, students, practitioners and policymakers to guide the inclusive design of digital training materials and highly immersive and personalisable educational technologies to support the inclusion of all students with specific learning difficulties in HEIs and strive to implement the provisions of recent disability-related legislation in those contexts. Existing leading-edge practices for inclusive learning design [14] and educational technology case studies targeted at students with learning difficulties, disabilities and autism concerning the use of social robotics [15], digital game making [16], adaptive learning systems based on multimodal affect recognition [17] and virtual reality [18] will be used to help frame the discussion and flow and exchange of idea.

Expected workshop outcome

• Promotion of further dialogue and exchange of leading-edge ideas, methods, tools and guidelines between academics, researchers, students, practitioners and policymakers to ensure the inclusive design of digital training materials and highly immersive and personalisable educational technologies to support the inclusion of all students with specific learning difficulties in HE.
• A report on the challenges and future directions of inclusively designed educational technologies so that lessons can be quickly transferred to help implement the provisions of recent disability legislation in the Indian Subcontinent.
• Extension of a Community of Practice of those interested in how highly immersive and personalisable educational technologies can support the inclusion of all students with specific learning difficulties in HE.

Workshop topics

• Evidence based Assistive Technologies to assist students with specific learning difficulties in HE.
• Recent technologies advances (e.g., XR, IoT, digital twins, and the metaverse) to assist students with specific learning difficulties in HE.
• The use of AI and machine learning to support personalisation in learning
• New pedagogies to guide the use of new tools to support students with specific learning disabilities in HE.
• Artificial Intelligence Tools in Higher Education (AIHED).

Workshop agenda

Workshop deadlines

Useful links and References

1. Ahmad, W.: Higher education for persons with disabilities in India: challenges and concerns. JDMR 2(1), 1–4 (2016). https://doi.org/10.29120/jdmr.2016.v2.i1.14
2. Basant, R., Sen, G.D.: Access to higher education in India: an exploration of its antecedents. SSRN J. (2014). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2535644
3. Sarkar, S.H., Hossain, S.Z.: Higher education systems and institutions, Bangladesh. In: Teixeira, P., Shin, J. (eds.) Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions, pp. 1–10. Springer, Dordrecht (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_499-1
4. World Bank: Bangladesh tertiary education sector review: skills and innovation for growth. Technical report AUS0000659, The World Bank, Dhaka, March 2019
5. Malak, S., Begum, H.A., Habib, A., Shaila, M., Moninoor, M.: Inclusive Education in Bangladesh: Policy and Practice, p. 15 (2013)
6. Jadon, D.A., Shrivastava, S.: Women education in India: an analysis. Res. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 8(13), 4 (2018)
7. Shilpi, M.M., Hasnayen, S., Ilahi, T., Parven, M., Sultana, K.: Education Scenario in Bangladesh: Gender Perspective, February 2017
8. https://indiankanoon.org/doc/149818296/
9. https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/affirmative-action-without-accessibility-indias-higher-education-system-fails-disabled-students/
10. https://diversasia-accessible-he.eu/
11. Shopland, N. et al. (2022). Improving Accessibility and Personalisation for HE Students with Disabilities in Two Countries in the Indian Subcontinent - Initial Findings. In: Antona, M., Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. User and Context Diversity. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13309. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05039-8_8
12. Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Estrada, V., Freeman, A., and Hall, C. (2016). NMC Horizon Report: 2016 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
13. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8716/#:~:text=In%202019%2F20%20332%2C300%20UK,reporting%20a%20mental%20health%20condition.
14. https://handbook.floeproject.org/
15. Hughes-Roberts, T., Brown, D., Standen, P., Desideri, L., Negrini, M., Rouame, A., Malavasi, M., Wager, G. and Hasson, C. (2019), Examining engagement and achievement in learners with individual needs through robotic-based teaching sessions. Br J Educ Technol, 50: 2736-2750. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12722
16. Hughes-Roberts, T., Brown, D., Standen, P., Desideri, L., Negrini, M., Rouame, A., Malavasi, M., Wager, G. and Hasson, C. (2019), Examining engagement and achievement in learners with individual needs through robotic-based teaching sessions. Br J Educ Technol, 50: 2736-2750. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12722
17. Standen, P.J., Brown, D.J., Taheri, M., Galvez Trigo, M.J., Boulton, H., Burton, A., Hallewell, M.J., Lathe, J.G., Shopland, N., Blanco Gonzalez, M.A., Kwiatkowska, G.M., Milli, E., Cobello, S., Mazzucato, A., Traversi, M. and Hortal, E. (2020), An evaluation of an adaptive learning system based on multimodal affect recognition for learners with intellectual disabilities. Br J Educ Technol, 51: 1748-1765. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13010
18. Hughes-Roberts, T., Cui, V., Mahmud, M., Brown, D.J. (2022). Leveraging Virtual Reality and Machine Learning as Mediated Learning Tools for Social Skill Development in Learners with Autism Spectrum Condition. In: Antona, M., Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. User and Context Diversity. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13309. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05039-8_16