Introduction

The use of electronic learning (e-learning) systems is growing across all levels of

education, including secondary and post-secondary education, where students are required to

accomplish more complex learning tasks. For example, the electronic learning management

system Blackboard is used by 75 percent of U.S. colleges and universities and more than 50

percent of U.S. K-12 school districts (Empson, 2014). These e-learning systems are being

employed more often to enable more active learning by students. However, these systems are

also heavily visual in nature, which provides a significant challenge for blind students.

This research will focus on the technologies that are offered to assist blind or visually

impaired students using e-learning systems and to evaluate the efficiency of this technology. This

research is important because the increasing shift to e-learning systems can put blind students at

a further disadvantage relative to sighted students if the adaptive technologies are not efficient.

The motivation for the research is to drive and steer further development of adaptive

technologies for blind students, such that they can learn more effectively in an e-learning

environment.

Research Questions
1. What technologies are available for blind students in terms of using e-learning platform,

for example, blackboard?

2. Are the technologies that were used designed to effectively meet the needs of blind and

students? How?

3. What are the challenges that blind students face in regard to using e-learning technologies

during their studies?

 In assessing the research questions, the task-technology fit model shown in figure 1 will

be used to evaluate how effective the technologies that are available for blind students are at

enabling them to complete their learning tasks and improve their performance.

Figure 1: Task-Technology Fit Model

Literature Review

The literature review summarizes and analyzes the literature related to blind students’ use

of e-learning systems using the context of the task-technology fit model shown in figure 1. In

this model, an information system is developed to help the users accomplish different tasks, and

the tasks have various characteristics that need to be addressed by the information system. There

are also technologies available that have various characteristics associated with them. In an

information system, the available technologies are used to help the users accomplish the tasks at

hand. The quality of the fit between the technologies and the required tasks, is referred to as the

task-technology fit. The higher the quality of the task-technology fit, the greater the utilization of
the system will be and more positive performance impacts will result (Goodhue and Thompson,

1995).

Task Characteristics

The goal of e-learning is to have students achieve personal learning goals by acquiring

knowledge and skills delivered through computers and network-enabled services. Students learn

by carrying out various tasks that convert inputs into outputs.

One of the task characteristics of e-learning is that the tasks are part of a learner-centric

system. Students can use e-learning systems to accomplish tasks at their own pace and spend

more time on areas where they are either having some trouble learning the concept or areas

where they have a high interest. Thus, the individual learning tasks need to have the ability to be

self-paced. Students also need to be able to accomplish the tasks at a distance without a teacher

nearby to help them. Consequently e-learning environments should be user-friendly and easy to

use (Buzzi et al., 2012). Thus, developers of e-learning systems need to make these systems

intuitive and easy to use.

Another task characteristic of e-learning systems is that there are tasks with “learning by

doing” (Buzzi et al., 2012). This includes research-related tasks, whereby the teacher introduces

a topic or concept but does not provide all of the learning materials or readings for it. Instead,

students use the Internet and online libraries to find information on the topic. It also includes

practical activities and simulations.

An additional task characteristic of e-learning is that it involves active participation and

collaborative learning, with tasks that require students to interact and collaborate with each other.

For example, many e-learning courses use online discussion boards where students can add
learning material that is then used by other students in their learning. In other cases, the students

collaborate together to develop documents that summarize a group analysis of a problem.

Ideally, visually impaired students should be able to carry out all of the tasks in an e-

learning system that sighted students can. This allows them to experience the same added

benefits that active learning provides.

Technology Characteristics

In an e-learning context, technologies are the tools used by students in carrying out their

learning tasks (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995). The technology used in e-learning system needs

to be designed and implemented such that students can accomplish their learning tasks. The type

of learning tasks that are required drive the technology development and implementation. The

technology for blind students in an e-learning system can consist of a base technology that all

students use to accomplish the task and an adaptive technology that is specifically designed to

allow blind students to accomplish the task.

One technology characteristic of e-learning systems is that they are web-based and

students navigate a website to access documents, see assignments and access class discussion

boards. Blind students can use a screen reader as an assistive technology that reads the

information on the website and converts it into words so they can navigate the website.

WebAnywhere is a screen reader that can be used with any computer, as it is a self-voicing web

browser inside a web browser (Bigham et al., 2008).

A technology characteristic of e-learning systems is that they have electronic documents

of learning material, such as readings or PowerPoint presentations that are stored on a server and

are accessed by students. The challenge here is that blind students cannot read or view these

documents. A screen reader is also used as an assistive technology to convert text in printed
document in to audible words that blind students can listen to in their learning environment.

Another technology that is used is text-to-Braille; however blind students predominantly rely of

text-to-speech technology (Babu et al., 2010).

In an e-learning system students also use word processor technology and other software

programs such as PowerPoint to create electronic documents that are uploaded on the e-learning

system. Blind students can use adaptive technologies, such as voice recognition systems and

Braille keyboards to create documents (Manduchi & Kurniawan, 2013).

Another technology characteristic of e-learning system is that they have the ability for the

students to watch imbedded videos. This is designed to move students up the “cone of learning”,

where they tend to remember 50% of what they hear and see compared to only 10% of what they

read (Dale, 1969). Unfortunately, the use of imbedded videos does not help visually impaired

students, as they can only hear the audio.

An additional characteristic of e-learning systems is that they need to have the ability to

engage in discussions about learning materials, so the system generally has some type of online

discussion board. This is also designed to move the students up the cone of learning, where

students will remember 70% of what they say compared to 10% of what they read (Dale, 1969).

The discussion boards on e-learning websites are generally text fields, so blind students can use

screen readers to read the posts and contribute their own posts, allowing them to participate in

this type of active learning.

One technology that is being explored to help visually impaired students is a Braille

grid/adapter. Based on what type of information is shown on the e-learning system’s screen, the

Braille adapter would have raised pins to help the student understand the layout of a web page

and its contents (Bornschein, 2014). This tactile interface would supplement the audio interface
that is typically provided by screen readers. The adapter could also be used to navigate the

website.

Task-Technology Fit

Task-technology fit is the degree in which a technology assists an individual in

performing his or her portfolio of tasks (Goodhue & Thompson, 1995). For example, if the

student’s task is to watch a short video and then write a summary about it, the online video

player technology, word processor technology and computer technology all assist the individual

in accomplishing this task.

In e-learning systems, students often read electronic documents and webpages. The base

technology for this is an electronic document that is stored on a server, often as a MS-Word

document or a pdf document. For a simple text document, the task-technology fit for blind

students is good because a screen reader technology can be used to read the document aloud to

the blind student. For example, a screen reader software program called JAWS is frequently

used. However, for a document with lots of images, such as a PowerPoint document or a website

with many imbedded links, the task-technology fit is poor because screen readers cannot convert

the images to words and often have trouble navigating links (Rana et. al, 2014).

In e-learning systems, students also compose electronic documents as a task or part of a

learning task. For blind students, voice recognition systems can be used to translate audio inputs

into text for electronic documents. Alternatively, blind students can use Braille keyboards to

create documents (Manduchi & Kurniawan, 2013). In both cases, the task-technology fit is good

for creating text, but faces difficulties when trying to create complex diagrams and other non-text

elements that could be included in documents.

 In e-learning systems, students often have to navigate websites, such as a university’s

Blackboard website, to access electronic documents, assignments and the class discussion board.

Sighted students use web browser technology and a mouse or touchpad to navigate the website

and complete the required tasks, so the task-technology fit is good. However, blind students have

to use a screen reader in addition to a web browser to navigate the system. Screen reader

programs such as JAWS and NVDA can be used by blind students to navigate websites. In many

cases, the task-technology fit is poor. For example, in a review of the Blackboard login web page

at Edith Cowan University in Australia, the web page was reviewed for 19 items and failed eight

of them (Conway, 2010). The overall evaluation of the Edith Cowan University’s Blackboard

system was that it did not meet the level 1.0 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that

have been developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (Conway, 2010). WCAG is the

standard used to assess web accessibility and usability for users with disabilities.

In e-learning systems, students also often have to navigate the Web for research. Since

blind students cannot see the website, they have to rely on screen reader technology to help them

navigate. The task-technology fit here is often poor because web pages often have a complex

layout and the screen reader’s feedback is ambiguous (Babu et al., 2010). Additionally, the

sequential nature of the Web interaction means that blind users only perceive a snippet of the

content without adequate contextual information (Lazar et al., 2007). Chen (2013) also studied

the ability of blind students to engage in web-based research. The problems that the students

encountered frequently included the inability to get information from graphics and tables,

inappropriate labeling of links and poor website and menu structure, which led to navigation

problems.
 Babu et al. (2010) conducted research with blind students to evaluate the task-technology

fit between taking an assessment on Blackboard that consisted of multiple choice and short

answer questions and the technologies of the Blackboard user interface and a screen reader. The

observations of blind students taking the assessment is that there were problems related to

skipping questions, mapping intended multiple-choice answers to resultant answers and

inadvertently losing the assignment (Babu et al., 2010).

Babu and Singh (2010) conducted further research with a different group of blind

students to evaluate the task-technology fit between taking an exam on another e-learning system

and found that the blind students frequently had trouble navigating the website and completing

the required tasks. In many cases, the screen reader technology would leave blind users in the

dark (providing no useful information to understand the navigation), as they did not know once

they had clicked on a link whether the next page had fully loaded and they could proceed to the

next task. The screen reader also had difficulty locating the text box where the students were

supposed to enter their answer. Babu and Singh (2010) recommended that web developers and

designers work with both blind students and WCAG guidelines in order to improve the task-

technology fit of e-learning systems, which would improve the accessibility and usability of

these systems for blind students.

A learning technology that is used in some e-learning systems is a practical lab, where

users are asked to complete various tasks in a sequential manner. An example of this technology

is Pearson’s myITlab, where for example, students are guided on how to create a spreadsheet in

Microsoft Excel. Sahasrabudhe and Lockley (2014) evaluated this system using both the JAWS

screen reader and the Voiceover screen reader. With the use of either screen reader, they found

several problems with this system including unpredictable/confusing navigation behavior,

missing or ambiguous instructions, the possibility of accidentally skipping instructions,

inappropriate reading order and inadequate keyboard operability. Thus, this IT lab system, while

providing a good “learning by doing” experience for sighted students, would be very difficult for

visually impaired students to use.

Utilization

Utilization is the behavior of employing technology in completing tasks (Goodhue &

Thompson, 1995). Utilization is impacted by the quality of the task-technology fit, as a high

quality fit will result in the student using the technology more often to accomplish the required

tasks.

The linkage between task-technology fit and utilization for e-leaning systems for sighted

students was demonstrated by Lin’s (2012) analysis. Lin (2012) found that continued intention to

use e-learning systems was positively related to the perceived task-technology fit with an R2

value of 60%.

Based on the poor task-technology fit between web-based research and screen reader

technology, the utilization is expected to be low for visually impaired students. Babu et al.

(2010) noted that 80 percent of websites do not meet basic accessibility requirements for blind

users.

De Carvalho et al. (2014) evaluated the accessibility of an online health education course

in Brazil. They found that the e-learning website that was used with a NVDA screen reader

technology did not even work well enough for the blind users to register for the class. Even after

a sighted helped the blinds students completed their registration and start the course, 21

additional errors were found that were not encountered by sighted students. Therefore, the

utilization of this e-learning system for blind users would be very low based on the task-
technology fit problems encountered, especially the inability to register for the course and start

the course would be very frustrating for blind students.

Calvo et al. (2012) evaluated the accessibility of the e-learning system Moodle for

visually impaired users. They tested the Moodle system using the screen readers JAWS and

NVDA independently. Using either screen reader technology, they encountered some type of

error with every task they tried to complete. In most cases, they were able to complete the task

but with difficulty. The most common type of error is that not all text and combo boxes had

associated descriptive texts, so they were not communicated to the user. Thus, based on the poor

task-technology fit with this e-learning system, with some type of error encountered for almost

every task, the utilization of it by visually impaired users would be low.

Performance Impacts

Performance impacts relate to the accomplishment of a portfolio of tasks by an individual

with higher performance consisting of some combination of improved efficiency, effectiveness

or higher quality (Goodhue & Thompson, 1995). Performance impacts are also impacted by the

task-technology fit, as a high quality fit will result in the student accomplishing the tasks at

higher levels of performance.

The linkage between task-technology fit and performance impacts for e-leaning systems

for sighted students was supported by Lin’s (2012) analysis. Lin (2012) found that perceived

positive impacts on learning was positively related to the perceived task-technology fit with an

R2 value of 53%.

Evans and Douglas (2008) carried out a comparison study where they compared the

learning experience between sighted and blind students on an e-learning task. The task required

the students to read an online document on sport injuries and then take a quiz. The sighted
students performed significantly better on the quiz. This indicates that the task-technology fit of

the screen reader (JAWS was used) needs to be improved, specifically it failed to highlight an

important link to further information that was on one of the screens that the students navigated to

when completing the task. The authors also discussed that the poorer performance by the group

of blind students could be due to an excess cognitive load placed on the blind students, as they

not only had to process the learning content, but needed to interact with the screen reader

software (Evans & Douglas, 2008).

Summary

In summary, the literature on e-learning system matches the task-technology fit model

well. The technologies that are used to support the operation of e-learning systems for sighted

students fit the required tasks well, so there is good utilization and performance by sighted

students. In general, the technologies that are used to support the operation of e-learning systems

for blind students do not fit the required tasks as well, so there is poorer utilization and

performance by blind students than sighted students.

References

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