AN E-LEARNING APPLICATION FOR A SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOOL

As part of my BSc Computing (Hons) course at Portsmouth University I had to carry out a final year project during my final year. The initial idea for this project came from having assisted at a particular special educational needs (SEN) school in the past. Whilst observing students as they undertook classes, I noticed a number of ways as to how their current approaches could be improved. With developing their key skills being one of the main focal points for SEN schools, I came up with the idea of creating a piece of software to assist in the teaching of this part of the curriculum.

The school in question is situated in West Sussex, England. Classed as a Local Education Authority (LEA) school, they cater for 2‐19 year old pupils with severe learning difficulties (SLD), and have just over 110 pupils.

A student using the Shop For It application.

The main aim of this project was to produce an e‐learning application which would aid in the teaching of key skills in the area of food shopping. In addition to this the software gave the students a stepping stone when learning the value of real world money.

One of the major factors that affected the design of the software were the accessibility needs which came with creating software for SEN students. When I undertook this project in 2007, touch screen computing was not as popular as it is nowadays. Due to this a lot of time was spent carrying out usability tests with students.

The money section of the Shop For It application.

When this software was implemented in the school, it was the first package they had which was solely focused on the smart / touch screen monitors they had installed. The school integrated the software with its lesson plans to assist in the teaching of these key skills. It was personally very rewarding seeing the difference this e-learning application made to their education.