E-learning 2.0: You Are We-LCoME!
Stefano Ferretti, Silvia Mirri, Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Marco Roccetti, Paola Salomoni · 2008 · Proceedings of the 2008 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A) · doi:10.1145/1368044.1368070
Summary
This paper presents We-LCoME (Wiki e-Learning Compound Multimedia Environment), a collaborative platform for creating and enriching accessible multimedia e-learning resources. Built on top of DokuWiki, the system allows a community of "prosumers" — lecturers, students, learning technologists, and support staff — to collaboratively edit SMIL-based multimedia lectures by adding captions, subtitles, alternative text, annotations, and supplementary resources using a simplified wiki-like syntax. The key innovation is transforming accessible content production from a centralized task managed solely by lecturers and institutions into a distributed, community-driven process aligned with Web 2.0 principles. The system uses the ACCMD (ACCessibility MetaData) standard to classify and track the accessibility characteristics of each media element, automatically updating metadata as contributors add alternatives. An adaptation subsystem then uses these metadata alongside user profiles (expressed via ACCLIP and CC/PP specifications) to dynamically select and present the most appropriate media formats for each user — for example, serving text-based content to screen reader users, visual media to deaf users, or lightweight formats to users on resource-constrained devices. The architecture consists of a wiki-based editing interface with an extended syntax for SMIL documents, a content analyzer that parses and tracks changes, an ACCMD manager, a content repository, and a broker-based adaptation system that connects to external transcoding web services.
Key findings
The paper demonstrates a working prototype tested with a real multimedia lecture for an "Architectures and Operating Systems" course, delivered to 15 learners. The collaborative editing workflow proceeds in defined phases: the lecturer uploads a video lecture as a SMIL document; mandatory accessibility elements (captions, alt text) are added by support staff and the lecturer; learners then voluntarily enrich the content by adding translations, annotations, and supplementary resources; finally, the lecturer validates all community contributions. The system automatically generates and updates ACCMD metadata with each contribution, eliminating the need for users to manually manage complex accessibility specifications. The wiki syntax simplifies what would otherwise require direct SMIL coding — for instance, a caption is added simply by placing text under a media element reference with timing markers. The authors emphasize that even voluntary contributions improve accessibility as a side effect: a student adding Italian subtitles to English captions simultaneously creates an alternative text track usable by deaf learners. The adaptation system operates asynchronously from the editing phase, meaning richer community contributions automatically expand the range of accessible presentation options without additional configuration.
Relevance
We-LCoME addresses a problem that remains central to accessible education: the burden of creating accessible multimedia content typically falls entirely on individual instructors or institutional support teams, creating an unsustainable bottleneck. The collaborative approach — where students and community members contribute alternatives that simultaneously improve both quality and accessibility — offers a model that aligns with modern thinking about shared responsibility for accessibility. The system's compliance with ATAG (ensuring the authoring tool itself is accessible) reflects an understanding that inclusive content creation requires inclusive tools. While SMIL as a technology has largely faded from use, the underlying principles — structured multimedia with metadata-driven adaptation, collaborative enrichment of learning materials, and automatic content adaptation based on user profiles — remain highly relevant to current accessible e-learning platforms and video captioning workflows. The concept of accessibility improvements emerging naturally from community engagement rather than being mandated top-down continues to inform participatory approaches to digital accessibility.
Tags: e-learning · multimedia accessibility · collaborative authoring · Web 2.0 · SMIL · content adaptation · captions · learning objects · wiki · ATAG
Standards referenced: WCAG · ATAG · SMIL · ACCMD · ACCLIP · CC/PP