Garry CleereHead of Certification ProgrammesECDL FoundationDublin

“Meeting Individual Needs”

e-Assessment Conference

ECDL - Computer Skills For ECDL - Computer Skills For LifeLife

The ECDL certifies that the holder has knowledge of the essential concepts of IT and is able to use a personal computer and common computer applications at a recognised level of competence.

What is ECDL?

Test of practical skills and competenciesECDL is a recognised standard for computer literacySingle agreed vendor independent / generic syllabusInternational Support - computer societies, international bodies, governmentsComputer society ethos - CEPIS

 

A not-for-profit global governing body of the world’s leading

computer skills certification programme 

Members - computer societies in Europe 

Established in January 1997 by CEPIS (Council of European Professional Informatics Societies)

 

ECDL FoundationECDL Foundation

Overview

Help raise the general level of computer skills in society

Establish a global benchmark for core computer skills competency and ICT knowledge

Raise the level of ICT skills in the workplace

Provide an essential qualification that allows all people to participate in the Information Society

Be an inclusive programme, “Open to everyone”

The Mission

ECDL FoundationECDL Foundation

ΤΤhe ECDL-F Validation Processhe ECDL-F Validation Process

CEPIS (250,000 IT Professionals)

National Computing Societies

Practicing Computing Professionals

National Licensees

Test Centres / Courseware & Test Providers

Subject Matter Experts (SME’s)

Specialist Expert Groups

ECDL Candidates

Levels of Input

The ECDL Programme MapThe ECDL Programme Map

Levels of Certification

Community Snapshot

Success & DevelopmentSuccess & Development

140 Countries42 Languages> 5,500,000 Candidates> 20,000,000 Tests

> 20,000 Test Centres Multiple Products– Entry Level– Core V4.0– Advanced– Specialised

1% of EUROPEAN CITIZENS ARE ECDL CANDIDATES (Eurobarometer)

ECDL FoundationECDL Foundation

CDL Concept – Finland, launched 1994ECDL Task Force established 1995

Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS) Pilot studies using the translated Finnish questions in 4 countries in early 1996The outcome of these pilots was to create an internationally agreed syllabus - version zero An international Working Group was set up to develop the syllabus, based on expert opinion and input from organisations- academic and business  

ECDL Launch – Sweden 1996ECDL Foundation - 1997 (10 European countries)

Background

ECDL BackgroundECDL Background

To raise the level of competence in computing for all European citizens

To increase the productivity of all employees who need to use the computer in their work and to enable better returns from investments in Information Technology

To ensure all computer users understand the “Best Practices” and advantages of using a computer

Objectives 1995

ECDL FoundationECDL Foundation

• eEurope Action Plan ‘02 highlighted the need for Digital Literacy

• ESDIS Committee Oct ’02 recommended that ECDL: “be accepted as a Europe-wide basic IT accreditation scheme”

• High Level Task Force on Skills and Mobility objective:“that by ‘06 all 16 year olds in Member States will have acquire ICT skills”

• European eLearning Summit May ‘02“the EC should build on successful current initiatives (including ECDL) in

order to develop and update core digital literacy competence (including higher order skills) for Europe”

ICT Literacy in Europe

The NeedThe Need

• ICT Literacy is necessary for full participation in the Information Society

• ICT Literacy is necessary as a foundation to participate in eLearning

• ICT Literacy is the corner stone of Life Long Learning

Measure and Mandate

ECDL for people with ECDL for people with disabilitiesdisabilities

• ECDL as computer literacy "for all" • Is this true ??

What implications :

• Influence on Syllabus definition

• Influence on testing

• Influence on Standards and Procedures

Challenge

ContextContext

Who does disability affect?

Vision impairment

Hearing impairment

Motor difficulties

Cognitive impairments and literacy

Many have more than one disability

9.8 million people in the UK have a disability under the DDA. The groups that have specific Issues with web and intranet accessibility are:

David Baines – Ability Net

The FutureThe Future

• At least one in four adults is either disabled or close to someone who

is. – Source: extrapolated from 2000 UK Population Estimates,

Office for National Statistics.• There are over 6.9 million disabled people of working age in Great

Britain. They account for a fifth of the working population. Of these,

just 3.3 million are in work (approximately12% of the workforce). – Source: Labour Force Survey – using DDA definition of

disability and

• Fewer than 8% of disabled people use wheelchairs. – Source: Extrapolation from ONS Report 1995 quoted in NHS

Executive

Scale of the Issue

The FutureThe Future

“Accessibility is about designing so as many peopleas possible can access effectively and easily, independent of who they are or how they access”

Accessibility

The NeedThe Need

“The basic philosophy of ECDL-PD is to keep the level of the certificate untouched. The focus is on better tools for training, teaching and learning and optimising the work environment”

Four target Groups Blind and visually impaired Deaf and hard of hearing Cognitive disabilities/ learning difficulties Mobility/physical disabilities

ECDL PD Project

(P1) Austrian Computer Society OCG (P2) University of Linz(P3) MediaLT(P4) Berufsbildungswerk Paulinenpflege(P5) Asphi Onlus(P6) bfi Steiermark(P7) ECDL Foundation(P8) European Disability Forum

WP0: Management, OrganisationWP1: Syllabus and QuestionsWP2: Teaching and Learning materialsWP3: Accompanying MaterialsWP4: Centre assessmentWP5: EvaluationWP6: Information, Dissemination campaign

T1 Blind and Visually impairedT2 Deaf and hard of hearingT3 Cognitive disabilitiesT4 Physical disabilities

ECDL PD Project

Project Partners

ECDL – PD deliverablesECDL – PD deliverables

• Syllabus and Test evaluation

• Sample training materials target groups

• Information materials, check lists,

• Test Centre assessment

• Dissemination, awareness raising

Project Deliverables

SyllabusSyllabus

For each target group each knowledge item of Syllabus 4 will be analysed and where is a need an additional information given

Syllabus

Launch of Syllabus Version Launch of Syllabus Version 4.04.0

Syllabus Version 4.0

Speech/Brailledisplay

Training Materials

TELL-ITTELL-IT

• Multimedia, flexible and continuing training program for on-the-job training

• People with mobility and/or visual impairment• Employment in the service provision sector and

in helpdesk operations

Course Materials

TELL-ITTELL-IT

• For the Individual– Enhancement of work opportunities, employability and

professional satisfaction.• For the training organisations

– Enhancement of quality of training, opportunity for new training services, customer satisfaction and a closer link to the relevant business sector needs.

• For the service providers– Enhancement of their social profile by employing properly skilled

and productive PSN.• For society

– Enhancement of equal opportunities for the disadvantaged citizens and, through it, reduction in the required social funds for their support and rehabilitation.

Course Materials

Accessibility and ATESAccessibility and ATES

• A special ATES is not desirable• True “in application” systems could use the

accessibility modes of the underlying software• Questions must allow for all answers to be

accepted• The software must allow for pauses - stop and

start the test• The software must allow changing the time for

tests, by the test supervisor

Testing

Questions for ATES providersQuestions for ATES providers

• Does the ATES work with assistive technologies? (and if so - which ones ?)

• Where graphical / image components are part of the question items are alt labels applied in the item so that screen readers will work ?

• Are all the common short cut keys programmed in the ATES?

• Does tabbing functionality work in the ATES? • Has an appropriate font style and sufficiently large

size been used for question item stems in the tests? • Is the language easy to understand?      

ATES Providers

Awareness RaisingAwareness Raising

Papers• Crete – HCI - International Conference on Human - Computer

Interaction • Dublin – AAATE - Assistive Technology – shaping the future • Linz – ICCHP - International Conference on Computers Helping

People with Special Needs• Glasgow - International Conference on Information and IT Literacy • Belfast – CAL - CAL03: 21st Century Learning

USAInternational Society for Technology in Educationwww.iste.org

Academic Papers

• Co-ordinate the activities to ensure that ECDL/ICDL can accommodate people with disabilities

• Work with the Syllabus and QTB groups• Ensure Characterisation Test Template (CTT)

addresses issues for all methods of testing• Ensure the Quality Assurance is maintained while

accommodating the requirements• Work with specific projects, for example the ECDL-

PD Project group

ECDL-F PD Working Group

The FutureThe Future

Future Solutions

• Action to avoid discomfort• Personal Needs and Computing • Alternatives to standard keyboard and

mouse• Understanding accessibility options • Inclusive systems

The FutureThe Future

Magnification Software

The FutureThe Future

Screen Readers

The FutureThe Future

Motor Disability Tools

People with motor difficulties face challenges when navigating and interacting with web pages.

Dexterity, fine motor and coordination difficulties can make using a standard keyboard or mouse difficult.

Keyboard and mouse alternatives or voice recognition can be used to navigate and interact with web pages

The FutureThe Future

Alternative Pointing Devices

Hand/Arm Adaptive technology

The FutureThe Future

Alternative Keyboards

• ATES• Courseware• Disability Agencies• ECDL-F PD Working Group

- Meeting the Challenge of Computer Skills for All

Committment

Design for All is more than design for disability. It recognises the rights of all people to barrier-free environments, products, services and systems. People who actively work with Design for All know that the future will prove the wisdom of the decisions they are taking today.

Extracted from: http://www.design-for-all.ie/designforall.htm

and http://www.design-for-all.info

Design for All

Garry Cleere

Head of Certification ProgrammesECDL Foundation

garry.cleere@ecdl.com

http://www.ecdl.com

Contact Details