This paper presentation will present preliminary results from a project setting out to explore the research question of how digitally scaffolded inclusive learning materials design impacts on participation in foreign language teaching. The study applies in a mixed-methods research design. Underlying hypotheses are conformant with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines and inclusive teaching practices holding that assistive (scaffolding) technologies offer help to all learners irrespective of their abilities and aptitudes (Meyer, Rose, & Gordon, 2014).The project zooms in on the UDL guideline of “providing multiple means of representation” cf. (Rose & al, 2012) and (Hall, Meyer, & Rose, 2012), which is conformant with recent learning materials studies’ criterial categories “accessibility” and “differentiation”  (Bundsgaard & Hansen, 2011; Hansen & Skovmand, 2011)).  Run-of-the-mill (Danish) EFL learning materials, digital and non-digital alike base their means on one input channel, viz. the input channel of reading (cf. Meyer, Rose, & Gordon, 2014). The project thus wants to explore what happens to learner-learning material interaction when providing multiple means of representation and multiple input-channel scaffolds (Bundsgaard and Hansen 2011) for a traditional reading input channel-based EFL learning material. According to the most recent review of empirical studies in UDL guidelines-based interventions, there is a dearth in learners’ interaction with UDL-based  features cf. (Ok, Rao, Bryant, & McDougall, 2016).

This project aims at exploring such learner interaction in a quasi-experimental study with digitally scaffolded learning materials using quantitative data representation from recorded screencasts and camera corpus data from 2 times 6 subjects from 2 different year-seven EFL classrooms (n1= 6, n2 =6) will be subjected to Fisher Exact analysis to explore if differences from means are statistically significant in the use of assistive functions in the samples. The subjects are 13-14-year-old learners in a Danish lower-secondary EFL classroom, and based on students’ individual performance in a Danish national year-seven national EFL proficiency test, they are stratified into 3 aptitude subsample strata of 2 subjects from each sample (n1 and n2): below average (n1ba = 2; n2ba =2), average (n1a=2; n2a =2), and above average (n1aa =2; n2aa =2) for breadth of representation. The qualitative data subjected to hermeneutical and phenomenological analysis [(Kvale 1983); (Brinkman & Kvale, 2015)] are first foremost semi-structured interviews of each subject. In addition, sound and discourse data from the camera corpus recordings will be also be transcribed for qualitative hermeneutical and phenomenological analysis [(Kvale, 1983); (Brinkman & Kvale, 2015)] to have a representation of participants' lived experiences" in HCI and a learner / user perspective.

The project sets out to closely inquire into how Universal Design for Learning-guided digital learning material design is interacted with by learners in depth, and hence would tackle a dearth in empirical studies of UDL-guided interventions as suggested (cf. above) by cf. (Ok, Rao, Bryant, & McDougall, 2016)..

Bibliography Brinkman, T., & Kvale, S. (2015). Interviews. Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. (3 ed.). London: Sage Bundsgaard, J., & Hansen, T. I. (2011). Evaluation of learning materials: A holististic framework Journal of Learning Design, 4(4), 31-44. Hall, T. E., Meyer, A., & Rose, D. H. e. (2012). Universal Design for Learning in the classroom: Practical applications. Wakefield MA: Guilford. Hansen, T. I., & Skovmand, K. (2011). Fælles mål og midler - Læremidler og læreplaner i teori og praksis: Klim. Kvale, S. (1983). The qualitative research interview: A phenomenological and a hermeneutical mode of understanding. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 14(2), 171-196. Meyer, A. D., Rose, H., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal Design for Learning: Theory and practice. Wakefield MA: CAST. Ok, M. W., Rao, K., Bryant, B. R., & McDougall, D. (2016). Universal Design for Learning in Pre-K to Grade 12 classrooms: A systematic review of research. Exceptionality, 25(2), 116-138. Rose, D. H., & al, e. (2012). A practical reader in Universal Design for Learning (D. H. Rose & A. Meyer Eds.). Boston, Mass.: Harvard Education Press.