Creating access to education with progression pathways via blended learning of Deaf Studies at third level in Ireland: Open innovation with digital assets

Irish Sign Language (ISL) is an indigenous language of Ireland and is recognized by the EU as a natural; language. It is a language separate from the other languages used in Ireland, including Irish, English; and, in Northern Ireland, British Sign Language. Some 6,500 Deaf people use ISL on the island of; Ireland. Deaf people are the most under-represented of all disadvantaged groups at third level, posing; two challenges: (1) getting Deaf people into third level and (2) presenting education in an accessible; form. Two higher education institutions, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and the Institute of Technology,; Blanchardstown, Dublin (ITB) have partnered to create a unique elearning environment based on; MOODLE as the learning management system, in the delivery of Deaf Studies programmes at TCD. We; intend to create access to education plus the provision of progression pathways into and through third; level in the Irish National Quality Framework within the European Bologna model. We deliver third; level programmes to students online to resolves problems of time, geography and access, maximizing; multi-functional uses of digital assets across our programmes. Signed languages are visual-gestural; languages and online content is required to be multi-modal in nature and utilize rich-media learning; objects. This presents many important challenges, including (1) Universal design in an online curriculum; for Deaf students, (2) Assessing signed language interpreting skill in an online context, (3) Using the; Signs of Ireland corpus in blended learning contexts in a MOODLE environment and (4) Issues of; assessment in an elearning context. In this paper, we introduce the Irish Deaf community and their; language; the educational context that leads to disadvantage and negative outcomes in employment and; our work to date in developing accessible elearning with progression pathways for Deaf Studies; programmes at TCD.