e-Assessment Conference
“Meeting Individual Needs”
Garry Cleere
Head of Certification Programmes
ECDL Foundation
Dublin
ECDL - Computer Skills For Life
What is ECDL?
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.
Test of practical skills and competencies
ECDL is a recognised standard for computer literacy
Single agreed vendor independent / generic syllabus
International Support - computer societies, international bodies,
governments
Computer society ethos - CEPIS
ECDL Foundation
Overview
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 Foundation
The Mission
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”
Τhe ECDL-F Validation Process
Levels of Input
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
The ECDL Programme Map
Levels of Certification
Success & Development
Community Snapshot
140 Countries
42 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 Foundation
Background
CDL Concept – Finland, launched 1994
ECDL Task Force established 1995
Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS)
Pilot studies using the translated Finnish questions in 4
countries in early 1996
The 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 organisationsacademic and business
ECDL Launch – Sweden 1996
ECDL Foundation - 1997 (10 European countries)
ECDL Background
Objectives 1995
 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
ECDL Foundation
ICT Literacy in Europe
• 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”
The Need
Measure and Mandate
• 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
ECDL for people with disabilities
Challenge
• ECDL as computer literacy "for all"
• Is this true ??
What implications :
• Influence on Syllabus definition
• Influence on testing
• Influence on Standards and Procedures
Context
Who does disability affect?
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:
 Vision impairment
 Hearing impairment
 Motor difficulties
 Cognitive impairments and literacy
Many have more than one disability
David Baines – Ability Net
The Future
Scale of the Issue
• 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
The Future
Accessibility
“Accessibility is about
designing so as many people
as possible can access effectively and
easily, independent of who they are or how
they access”
The Need
ECDL PD Project
“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)
(P2)
(P3)
(P4)
(P5)
(P6)
(P7)
(P8)
Austrian Computer Society OCG
University of Linz
MediaLT
Berufsbildungswerk Paulinenpflege
Asphi Onlus
bfi Steiermark
ECDL Foundation
European Disability Forum
WP0: Management, Organisation
WP1: Syllabus and Questions
WP2: Teaching and Learning materials
WP3: Accompanying Materials
WP4: Centre assessment
WP5: Evaluation
WP6: Information, Dissemination campaign
T1 Blind and Visually impaired
T2 Deaf and hard of hearing
T3 Cognitive disabilities
T4 Physical disabilities
Project Partners
ECDL – PD deliverables
Project Deliverables
•
•
•
•
•
Syllabus and Test evaluation
Sample training materials target groups
Information materials, check lists,
Test Centre assessment
Dissemination, awareness raising
Syllabus
Syllabus
For each target group each knowledge item of Syllabus 4 will
be analysed and where is a need an additional information given
Launch of Syllabus Version 4.0
Syllabus Version 4.0
Training Materials
Speech/
Braille
display
TELL-IT
Course Materials
• 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
TELL-IT
Course Materials
• 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.
Accessibility and ATES
Testing
• 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
Questions for ATES providers
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?
Awareness Raising
Academic Papers
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
USA
International Society for Technology in Education
www.iste.org
ECDL-F PD Working Group
•
•
•
•
•
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 ECDLPD Project group
The Future
Future Solutions
• Action to avoid discomfort
• Personal Needs and Computing
• Alternatives to standard keyboard and mouse
• Understanding accessibility options
• Inclusive systems
The Future
Magnification Software
The Future
Screen Readers
The 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 Future
Hand/Arm Adaptive technology
Alternative Pointing Devices
The Future
Alternative Keyboards
Committment
• ATES
• Courseware
• Disability Agencies
• ECDL-F PD Working Group
- Meeting the Challenge of Computer Skills for All
Design for All
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
Contact Details
Garry Cleere
Head of Certification Programmes
ECDL Foundation
garry.cleere@ecdl.com
http://www.ecdl.com