To make a MOOC accessible to Deaf and hard of hearing students, you would need to to offer picture in picture capability of a pre-recorded interpretation (by a qualified/certified interpreter) of the video content in the sign language of choice. For example, in the US it would be American Sign Language. For hard of hearing or oral students with hearing loss, captioning in English would also be needed. The reason machine type translation and augmentive communication won't work is because sign language is not just a collection of signs. It has a rich grammatical structure that incorporates facial expressions, mouth morphemes, classifiers and spatial use, in addition to actual sign choices. The reason captioning in English is not a solution for ASL users is because English is a second language, only in our educational system is not taught as a second language. You would also want to ensure that any quizzes or assignments have a video sign component for full accessibility.

Dear Raji,

I know nothing about deaf education but the idea with MOOCs is that they can embrace and bring together anything that can be done with ICT. I guess you can design and build a MOOC with any tools that are already used for deaf education.

Best wishes,

Rubén

Thank you for the response.

Is there any possibility to have a MOOC course that uses sign language?

We don't have such MOOC courses but it will be very useful for the deaf community if available.

Just now I've signed up for course 'Intro to OOP' in udacity. I'm planning to watch it along with my deaf students and see how it works. Of course, the course has subtitles but there is difficulty in following subtitles along with video. Another issue is their poor language skills .

I assume, Raji, that any MOOC could be translated into sign language. I often see TV programs with a small screen where someone speaks sign language. Let see if anyone else has ideas or comments.

Best wishes,

Rubén

Of course, they can be translated. but no such courses are available till now. (as far as I know). I would like to know whether there is any such attempts.

try using Augmentative communication. Search on google ARASAAC. They made a software called araword that gives you a image from a word. I think that it can help in a basic level. But it depends of your creativity.

I tried Araword, but the documentation is not in English. So it is difficult to follow.

I am dealing with computer science students.Again it is difficult to find the animations and signs for technological words.Is there any possibility to have signed videos along with the online course. As Mr Rubén Chacón Beltrán suggested, it will nice, if the videos have subtitles and small window in which the signed version is available.

To make a MOOC accessible to Deaf and hard of hearing students, you would need to to offer picture in picture capability of a pre-recorded interpretation (by a qualified/certified interpreter) of the video content in the sign language of choice. For example, in the US it would be American Sign Language. For hard of hearing or oral students with hearing loss, captioning in English would also be needed. The reason machine type translation and augmentive communication won't work is because sign language is not just a collection of signs. It has a rich grammatical structure that incorporates facial expressions, mouth morphemes, classifiers and spatial use, in addition to actual sign choices. The reason captioning in English is not a solution for ASL users is because English is a second language, only in our educational system is not taught as a second language. You would also want to ensure that any quizzes or assignments have a video sign component for full accessibility.

Perfect Suzanne. The problem is well illustrated by you.

I too feel the only solution is a signing video along with all Mooc course or it can be made available on request. If available, it will be a great help in deaf education.

La usabilidad de los materiales educativos pasa por su posibilidad de ser accesible para todos los discapacitados. Creo que la cultura en este sentido se irá imponiendo y en la evaluación de los cursos entre este requisito como indicador. Hoy día, la dinámica con que se hacen estos materiales atenta contra su integralidad pedagógica o de diseño. Me imagino que a partir de esta nueva forma de curso se habiliten servicios de subtitulaje o algo similar. Este es un filón que la tecnología educativa deberia atender más de cerca.

The usability of educational materials is their ability to be accessible to all disabled. I think the culture in this regard will be imposed and the evaluation of the courses from this requirement as an indicator. Today, the dynamics with which these materials carefully against their pedagogical integrity or design are made. I imagine that from this new form of course captioning services or similar is enabled. This is a reef that educational technology should attend more closely.

Captioning in English should be mandatory to make it more accessible and universal. Same principle for TV captioning. Signing video is ideal but unfortunately it won't work for Deaf users living outside USA or Canada, thus the importance of focusing on captioning access.

I didn't get why signing videos are not useful for deaf outside US.

If you saying about the difference between ASL and ISL, i usually find it is not a very big issue for the deaf. They easily follow up any sign language after a couple of minutes watching it. Again the only problem with subtitling is it is difficult for them to concentrate both on subtitle and video simultaneously.

hello,

I join in here too, just to let you know that I recently finished a (m)OOC experiment with Deaf learners from France and the US (so there has been at least one signing (m)OOC out there already ;-)). you can read more about it here: http://signescale.org.

we were focussing on foreign language practice, so we of course also dealt with the last point you mentioned. this intercomprehensive faculty of Deaf people is actually a clue to what I'm working on.

the question is: do we want to wait for existing (m)OOCs to be interpreted into a sign language, or can't we just start our own ones, in SL directly?

as for the choice of the SL, that is another point. but as you stated it: clear signing along with subtitles in several languages (as well as visual teaching methods, accessible materials and tools, etc.) are a great combination. and I bet SLP (Sign Language People) are the best ones to produce such MOOCs!

Sigilinde Pape, Thank you for the eye opener. We are now planning to start a MOOC  for deaf. Can you please help us in suggesting the ways to follow in the initial phase.

I assume you used wordpress and moodle for developing the site.What else technical knowledge we require for this?

I'm not familiar with MOOCs but I am familiar with developing tests and curricula that are accessible for all.  For information that is captioned or presented in text, consideration must be given to all linguistic aspects. Deaf and hard of hearing individuals have had a range of experiences with the written language of their countries, and a different experience than most hearing native speakers of the language. And when translating from a written/spoken language to ASL or another indigenous signed language, there are complex translation issues to consider.

Here at the college where I work,  online courses are becoming more prevalent and popular.  We were using sign language interpreters as the need came up, and most preferred a live class over an online course, but we did provide a live interpreter for online courses (at specific arranged times) if a deaf student requested one, but now many courses are going online only, giving no choice but for deaf students to take them.  

We have some courses where we have had interpreters on video tape (picture in picture), but are now moving to require all courses be captioned if there is any video components to them.  As many are heavily writing-based (discussion boards and written assignments and papers), we still provide individual "tutoring" (for lack of a better word) for courses as requested by students, and always make interpreters available as proctors for tests and quizzes.  

Cathy