Project Objectives
The Autism-IncluDi main mission is the accessibility and inclusion of the autistic students in distance learning (DL) form of education.
The DL implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic period has revealed many issues related to higher education (HE) capabilities and capacity for effective use of DL technologies for accessible and inclusive education, the relative competencies of their teaching and administrative staff, and the weakness of their studies programs in special education (initial and lifelong learning) to adequately train the teachers and caregivers for accessible and inclusive use of DL for autism.
Based on the above-described situation and contemporary needs, the Autism-IncluDi project aims at achieving the following:
A – Tackle the barriers that HE autistic students face while participating in DL, by:
1. increasing the capacity of HE institutions towards DL, the development of DL digital pedagogy and expertise and the purposeful use of digital technologies.
– develop Educational model and Competences Framework for teaching autistic students through DL
– develop the content and the tools to deliver courses
– exploit socially assistive technologies to support students
– develop Policy recommendation report addressed to HE Institutions and Stakeholders
1. increasing the capacity of HE institutions towards DL, the development of DL digital pedagogy and expertise and the purposeful use of digital technologies.
– develop Educational model and Competences Framework for teaching autistic students through DL
– develop the content and the tools to deliver courses
– exploit socially assistive technologies to support students
– develop Policy recommendation report addressed to HE Institutions and Stakeholders
2. increasing awareness of HE staff about the barriers autistic students face in DL and develop the HE staff competencies for accessible and inclusive DL implementation.
B – Improve special education teachers’/caregivers’ training and competencies regarding accessible and inclusive DL by:
1. modernizing the HE studies programs of special education teachers, with an emphasis on DL implementation skills and related labor market needs.
2. promoting the corresponding lifelong learning dimension of higher education with short courses for professionals on autism that lead to micro-credentials, in DL pedagogies and technologies able to include autistic students.
C – Assess the results of the implementation
Assess the produced results, gain feedback, and refurbish any needed aspect of the training framework and content (lean evaluation scheme) with :
— HE staff educators that will undergo the training course
— HE students at special education degree programs
— Special education teachers and caregivers that will undergo the lifelong learning training course.