Utility of Course Web Resources for Students with Learning Disabilities1
Charles M. Slem
Psychology and Human Development Department
cslem@calpoly.edu
Steven T. Kane
Disability Resource Center
skane@calpoly.edu
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Abstract
One way to cope with the unprecedented influx of college students with learning
disabilities is to develop individual course management tools that are designed for
all students but would be especially helpful for students with learning disabilities.
An example of this approach capitalizes on the common medium of the internet to provide
24 hour access to web resources which support an introductory psychology class.
In addition to wide use and high evaluations by students in general, these resources
were more heavily used by students with learning disabilities. Compared to students
who did not report a learning disability, these students rated the usefulness of
the resources more highly, and believed that the resources gave them more control
over their course work.
Paper Presented at the 109th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. August, 27, 2001, San Francisco, California.
According
to a 1999 study by the American Council on Education, students with learning disorders
are attending college in unprecedented numbers (Henderson, 1999). In fact, as many
as four percent of college students and 10 percent of adults nationwide suffer from
a learning disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Although recent research
has explored the usefulness of assistive technologies for learning disabled students
(e.g. speech recognition software, computerized text readers, etc.) few studies have
investigated the utility of web-based course support materials (Raskind and Higgens,
1998). Given the nature of college—level instruction, a significant
challenge to universities is to develop and provide effective resources to assist
these students in achieving their academic goals. Traditionally,
"extra-course" assistance, e.g. note takers, books on tape, tutors, etc.
have been used to help students master course content. Another strategy is to develop
general course management tools that are designed to help all students master the
course material, but would be especially useful for students with learning disabilities.
The emerging use of the World Wide Web offers a common medium providing students
with 24 hour access to such resources. One example of this approach as it pertains
to students with learning disabilities can be seen in the implementation of supporting
web resources for a large introductory psychology course. The
course web resources were designed to integrate the lecture component of the introductory
course with the accompanying textbook resources. Special design considerations were
made for simplicity, functionality, and a student oriented perspective that linked
course resources with student goals. The lecture component of the course web resources
contained lecture outlines, links to library resources, related campus resources,
sample exams, instructor based resources, and relevant World Wide Web links. The
text book component included chapter outlines, concept synopses, graphs and figures,
definitions of key terms, links to related concepts in other chapters, sample test
questions, World Wide Web sites, access points to web based tutorials, and additional
commentary. Students could seamlessly navigate from the instructor developed lecture
resources to the supporting textbook resources. A particular topic covered in the
lecture portion of the course was linked to the web resources developed to support
the textbook's treatment of the same topic. supporting resources, e.g. sample test
questions, links to library components, etc. were also conveniently linked to the
text and lecture components. (An earlier APA presentation
describes the web resources in more detail.)While
not designed specifically for students with learning disabilities, it is possible
that the highly integrated structure and content of these web resources could provide
students with learning disabilities an additional tool to master course concepts.
It was predicted that compared to students who did not report any known or suspected
learning disabilities, students with learning disabilities would report more frequent
use of the web resources and more highly rate the utility of the web resources. In
addition, these students were predicted to more likely believe that the web resources
gave them more personal control over the course, increased their learning, and enhanced
their educational experience.Method
Routine
surveys evaluating the web resources surveys were administered to 240 students during
Fall Quarter, 1999, and Winter Quarter, 2000. In addition to the standard evaluation
questions, students were asked if they knew or suspected they had some sort of learning
disability. On a six point scale, the degree of severity ranged from "very minor
and does not affect my college performance" to "a significant disruption
that may force me to leave the university." Other questions included a rating
of increased personal control, increased learning, and the belief that web pages
would enhance their educational experience ("strongly agree" to "strongly
disagree").
Results
Of
the 227 students responding to the survey question, 54 (25.8%) reported a suspected
or known learning disability (Table 1).
 |
|
Table
2 summarizes use patterns of the students enrolled in the introductory course. The
web resources were used to some degree by over 95% of the students.  |
|
While
approximately 67% of the students who did not report learning disabilities were heavy
or moderate users, 83% of the students reporting learning disabilities reported heavy
or moderate use. Table 3 Summarizes the differences between the two groups on rating
items. |
|
The
students reporting learning disabilities significantly used the web resources more
heavily than the other students (z = -2.9 [corrected for ties] p=.004, Mann-Whitney
nonparametric test). On a seven point scale rating usefulness (Figure 1), students
in general rated the web resources as being useful, mean = 2.06. Figure 1
Overall Usefulness Rating
 |
In
comparing the students who identified themselves as having a known or suspected learning
disability versus those who did not, the learning disabled students rated the usefulness
of the web resources significantly higher, t=3.26, df=190, p<.001.
Most
students generally agreed that the web resources increased their sense of control,
increased their learning of course material, and enhanced their education. The group
identified as possessing some learning disability reported significantly stronger
agreement with a sense of increased control, t=2.59, df 204, p<.01. There were
no significant relationships between perceived severity and any other variable.
Discussion
The
course web resources were widely used and rated highly by students. This supports
the notion that well designed and task relevant web resources will be perceived as
helpful by students in general. As predicted, students reporting known or suspected
learning disabilities found the web resources even more helpful and used them more
heavily.
There
may be a concern that because of their information processing deficits, learning-disabled
students would be less likely to use computer and web-based course support systems.
This is not likely the case in general, as research by Suthakaran and Sedlacek (1999)
found that learning disabled students were just as efficacious in their computer
use as their non-disabled peers.
It
is speculated that in addition to the underlying model which drove the overall logic
and design of the web resource platform, there may be specific characteristics that
are key to their perceived success by students with learning disabilities: