Virtual Lab Model for Making Online Courses More Inclusive for Students with Special Educational Needs

Abstract

This study is devoted to the peculiarities of online education, namely, the use of virtual laboratories. The emphasis is being placed on the development of a laboratory model that can take advantage of the available online courses and adapt them for students with special educational needs. The research describes the learning process in a virtual laboratory, options for integrating online courses, and the ways of presenting them to students with certain educational needs. As a result, a virtual laboratory model was developed; it has been primarily designed for people with hearing and vision impairment, and musculoskeletal disorders. Thus, each user category was submitted several options for the educational process implementation within the virtual laboratory. The theoretical model allows creating a virtual laboratory to teach students with special educational needs. Based on the student experience of using the laboratory, research aimed at searching for new ways of presenting information and improving existing ones could be conducted.