IEEE Access (Jan 2023)
E-Learning Ecosystems for People With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review
Abstract
E-Learning Ecosystems (ELE) offer excellent opportunities to manage teaching activities by incorporating state-of-the-art technologies, practices, and professional support, as well as learning and assessment resources that can be adaptive. Therefore, it can help people with disabilities or conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to develop skills. However, some technological factors prevent this population’s implementation of support scenarios and hinder the proper learning process. This paper systematically reviews relevant studies on E-Learning Ecosystems for people with ASD, identifying the influence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on forming ELE and the technological barriers that affect their development and appropriate use on people with ASD. This work conducted a systematic review using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology, including a search of five scientific literature databases from 2017 to 2022. The main aspects identified were 1) a shortage in design guides for the implementation of e-learning ecosystems adapted for people with ASD, 2) technological barriers that prevent the development of ELE, and 3) recommendations that help to mitigate the limitations of this field. In addition, the authors identified that the skills with the most significant focus of interest were social, communicative, and cognitive. The most implemented technologies include virtual and augmented reality or mobile applications. Most studies involved children with ASD between 8 and 15 years, followed by works with children between 5 to 8 years. Very few researches linked adults with ASD. Very few studies mention the ASD level of the participants, but most highlight the positive results of implementing ICT in training processes.
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