Designing for Diverse Learners.
FLOE provides the resources to personalize how we each learn and to address barriers to learning. Learners learn differently, and today’s society needs diverse, self-aware, life-long learners. FLOE supports learners, educators and curriculum producers in achieving one-size-fits-one learning design for the full diversity of learners, leveraging the variants made possible by Open Education Resources (OER).
FLOE is led by the Inclusive Design Research Centre and applies Inclusive Design to open learning.
Watching a video in a loud room, reading in Braille, writing using an alternative keyboard or learning a new language?
Being able to transform, augment, and select alternative educational resources to fit individual needs is essential for an inclusive learning experience. Open Educational Resources (OERs) are free and open for use and reuse in teaching, learning and research. The OER ecosystem can provide an ever-increasing pool of alternative ways to learn. FLOE helps to build knowledge about what works best for each learner.
Want to select, refine and apply your preferences?
Preference editing tools help learners personalize their learning experience. Learner Options allow selection and fine-tuning of preferences.
Not sure how you learn best?
The First Discovery Tool helps newcomers learn about what kinds of personalizations are possible, and what might work for them.
The Preference Exploration Tool offers a set of starter preferences to try - from reading content aloud so it's easier to follow along, to enhancing keyboard interactions so it's easier to use.
The My Lifelong Learning Lab helps learners keep track of their progress, and personalize their learning goals and learning experience through self-reflection.
The Preference Management Tools support portable preferences - you can apply preferences across devices, resources and learning applications using the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure. The GPII security architecture gives you complete control over who has access to your preferences.
Looking for help making rich content more inclusive?
The HTML5 Video Player offers full keyboard access, captions, transcripts, descriptions and responds to personal user preferences. Learners can request missing captions, descriptions and transcripts, or create them.
Floe is also developing a sonification framework that will help OER developers more easily create sound-based representations of interactive data that can increase comprehension and reinforce learning.
The Chart Authoring tool demonstrates how audio can enhance comprehension of data.
Need guidance in designing accessible resources?
The Inclusive Learning Design Handbook is an expanding source of guidance, tools and tips for producing inclusively designed learning resources, including guidelines for creating inclusive EPUB 3 resources, accessible standardized tests, and inclusive web games and simulations.
Floe has created The Inclusive Design Guide - an engaging and evolving resource for learning about and applying Inclusive Design principles, practices, and tools to the design process.
The Metadata Editor makes it simple to provide useful labels regarding the learner preferences the resource can meet, and supports authors in adding accessibility features. The Feedback Tool allows users to help in the refinement of content and its metadata.
Floe has added a text-to-speech component to the Infusion JavaScript framework. The component uses browser-based speech synthesis to provide self-voicing capabilities to web resources.
See Also
Floe WikiResource for Floe design, development & project planning
Floe on GithubRepository of all Floe source code