Research Aims and Objective
The proposed research aims to broaden our insights and awareness of the educational needs of wide spectrum of users including individuals with different learning needs, international students and those with different age group and ethnic backgrounds in order to provide inclusive educational strategies and recommendations to cater for these diverse needs.
The proposed research aims to investigate whether universal/inclusive principles are applied at selected face-to-face taught and online courses at the University of Connecticut. Moreover, the research will investigate whether the awareness and training courses about accessibility and universal design provided at UCONN have assisted faculty members in enhancing their teaching and learning methods to respond to the diverse students’ needs including people with disabilities, international students and students from different ethnicities and backgrounds.
In addition, the research will explore whether UCONN professors are capable of accommodating the diverse needs of their students and whether they encounter any educational or management constraints that may hinder or restrict them from accommodating their students’ needs. Furthermore, the research will investigate whether the UCONN professors’ educational teaching materials, tools and assessments used are sufficient to accommodate these diverse needs.
The research will investigate whether UCONN students with different abilities and needs are satisfied with the teaching and learning methods and whether these methods accommodate particular users, or they respond to the wide spectrum of users’ needs.
In addition, the research will investigate whether professors having different needs/ disabilities encounter any educational or physical barriers that may impact their taught courses to respond to the diverse students’ educational needs.
Research Goal and outcome
A series of vignette videos will be produced to promote inclusive learning environment for professors to make their teaching methods and learning inclusive.
The proposed vignette videos will include different learning scenarios that were both problematic for students and professors and strategies to create inclusive teaching and learning environment that respond to the diverse demands and of both students and faculty members.
The vignette videos can be a useful awareness tool /discourse and foundation for universities to base their entire inclusive business philosophy that will be reflected not only in its built environment, but also in its teaching and learning methods that are accessible to potential users regardless of their diverse abilities and backgrounds.
Contact: Dr. Itab Shuayb, [email protected]
Institution: Inclusive Design Specialist, Department of Architecture and Design, American University of Beirut