Project number: 224348 Project acronym: AEGIS Project title: Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards Starting date: 1 September 2008 Duration: 48 Months AEGIS is an Integrated Project (IP) within the ICT programme of FP7

1. A Case Study in the Design of
Educational Widgets to Support
the Concept of an Adaptable
Personal Learning Environment
Dr Voula Gkatzidou, Dr Elaine Pearson
Accessibility Research Centre
Teesside University, UK

2. Adaptable Personal Learning
Environment

3. The WIDE Project
Aims:
 To identify appropriate learning designs (digital and non-digital)
derived from practice that can be re-purposed as widgets
 To extend the functionality and flexibility of VLEs to enable
institutions to meet the needs of learners with disabilities

4. The WIDE Project
Agile Development Methodology
 Lightweight approach suitable for collaborative project
 Based on iterative and incremental development
 Requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration
 Involved community of practice
 Staff involved directly in teaching or support of disabled students
 Informal team approach:
 Designs formulated
 Specification outlined
 Prototypes developed
 Feedback ilicited
 Amendments made
 Widget Released for evaluation, use & adaptation

5. The WIDE Project
Workshops:
(Leeder, D. 2009)

6. The WIDE Project
Technical implementation:
 Apache Wookie
– Java server application to upload and deploy widgets
 Based on the W3C Widget specification
 Opera widgets
 Windows applications

7. The WIDE Project
Output:
 A suite of bespoke learning tools specifically adapted to the
needs of disable students
 A number of templates that can be re-used and adapted to
create new widgets.
 A set of services and APIs to allow advanced features
 A large Community of Practice drawn from the participants and
evaluators

8. The WIDE Project
Classification:
 Type: tools, applications and learning objects
 Purpose:
 Task management, time management, learning aids, independence tools,
assistive technology, social network tools, content free applications
 Features:
 Self-contained, Access to DB, Access to web services, Media content, GPS,
Access to Operating System,…
 Development platform:
 Wookie, Opera, Windows apps

9. Toward Mash-up PLEs
 An open set of learning tools
 Need for interaction between widgets
 Framework for collaboration with the institutional system

10. Conclusion
 Widgets can easily be adapted or re-purposed to meet specific
needs and preferences
 Widgets offer the level of granularity required to support
personalisation
http://arc.tees.ac.uk/widgat/

11. A Case Study in the Design of
Educational Widgets to Support
the Concept of an Adaptable
Personal Learning Environment
Dr Voula Gkatzidou, Dr Elaine Pearson
Accessibility Research Centre
Teesside University, UK