Assessment of Web Content Accessibility Levels in Spanish Official Online Education Environments

Diversity-based designing, or the goal of ensuring that web-based information is accessible to as many diverse users as possible, has received growing international acceptance in recent years, with many countries introducing legislation to enforce it. This paper analyses web content accessibility levels in Spanish education portals according to the international guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Additionally, it suggests the calculation of an inaccessibility rate as a tool for measuring the degree of non-compliance with WAI Guidelines 2.0 as well as illustrating the significant gap that separates people with disabilities from digital education environments (with a 7.77% average). A total of twenty-one educational web portals with two different web depth levels (42 sampling units) were assessed for this purpose using the automated analysis tool Web Accessibility Test 2.0 (TAW, for its initials in Spanish). The present study reveals a general trend towards non-compliance with the technical accessibility recommendations issued by the W3C-WAI group (97.62% of the websites examined present mistakes in Level A conformance). Furthermore, despite the increasingly high number of legal and regulatory measures about accessibility, their practical application still remains unsatisfactory. A greater level of involvement must be assumed in order to raise awareness and enhance training efforts towards accessibility in the context of collective Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), since this represents not only a necessity but also an ethical, social, political and legal commitment to be assumed by society.

Biogas from MSW landfill: Composition and determination of chlorine content with the AOX (adsorbable organically bound halogens) technique

An exhaustive characterization of the biogas from some waste disposal facilities has been carried out. The analysis includes the main components (methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen) as well as trace components such as hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) including siloxanes and halogenated compounds. VOCs were measured by GC/MS (Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry) using two different procedures: thermal desorption of the Tenax TA and Carbotrap 349 tubes and SPME (Solid Phase Micro-Extraction). A method has been established to measure the total halogen content of the biogas with the AOX (adsorbable organically bound halogens) technique. The equipment used to analyze the samples was a Total Organic Halogen Analyzer (TOX-100). Similar results were obtained when comparing the TOX (Total Organic Halogen) values with those obtained by GC/MS. The halogen content in all the samples was under 22 mg Cl/Nm3 which is below the limit of 150 mg/Nm3 proposed in the Spanish Regulations for any use of the biogas. The low chlorine content in the biogas studied, as well as the low content of other trace compounds, makes it suitable for use as a fuel for electricity generating engines.

Validation of a Spanish version of the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) in Spain

The aim of this study was to examine the validity of the Spanish version of the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (Sp-DELES). This instrument assesses students’ perceptions of virtual learning environments using six scales: Instructor Support, Student Interaction and Collaboration, Personal Relevance, Authentic Learning, Active Learning, and Autonomy. Further, the Sp-DELES includes an additional scale that assesses students’ Satisfaction with their classes. The original DELES has been used in at least 27 independent studies with strong reliability and validity. For this study, we sampled 265 students from the University of Alicante enrolled in various hybrid and distance education courses taught by the Department of Health Psychology. We analysed the Sp-DELES for validity using principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation, and for reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. The Sp-DELES exhibited good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha for the scales ranging from 0.86 to 0.97) and the original six-factor structure was replicated and accounted for 72.9 % of the total variance. Overall the results are consistent with those of the original English-language version of the instrument. The Sp-DELES has proven to be a reliable and valid instrument for assessing psychosocial learning environments in tertiary-level hybrid and distance-education settings.

Evaluation of hybrid and distance education learning environments in Spain

This article describes the adaptation and validation of the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) for use in investigating the qualities found in distance and hybrid education psycho-social learning environments in Spain. As Europe moves toward post-secondary student mobility, equanimity in access to higher education, and more standardised degree programs across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) the need for a high quality method for continually assessing the excellence of distance and hybrid learning environments has arisen. This study outlines how the English language DELES was adapted into the new Spanish-Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (S-DELES) for use with a Bachelor of Psychology and Criminology degree program offering both distance and hybrid education classes. We present the relationships between psycho-social learning environment perceptions and those of student affect. We also present the asynchronous aspects of the environment, scale means, and a comparison between the perceptions of distance education students and their hybrid education counterparts that inform the university about the baseline health of the information and communication technologies (ICT) environment within which the study was conducted.

Gender portrayals in food commercials: a content analysis of Spanish television advertisements

Content analysis of media messages from a gender perspective has a long tradition. In the particular field of advertising, most of the researches have been focused on generic samples of advertisements or on the advertising traditionally associated to a masculine or a feminine audience. However, few authors have analyzed gender contents in food advertising, in spite of the close relationship between gender structures and the social processes of food purchase and preparation. Thus, gender representations in food advertising broadcast in Spanish television are analyzed in this article. The main results obtained show clear gender differences. For example, there is a clear predominance of masculine voices over and a more balanced situation regarding protagonists. Besides, feminine protagonists are more frequently located indoors, portrayed as attractive women and connected to advertising claims related to beauty or to the healthy qualities of the product.

Evaluation of the Implementation of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) Methodology in the Didactics of the English Language in Preschool Education Course Taught in the Preschool Education Teacher Undergraduate Program at the University of Alicante

Although it is known that the Spanish current Educative System promotes using the Communicate Approach to teach foreign languages in schools, other recently designed approaches are also used to help students improve their skills when communicating in a foreign language. One of these approaches is Content and Language Integrated Learning, also known as CLIL, which is used to teach content courses using the English language as the language of instruction. This approach improves the students’ skills in English as the same time as they learn content from other areas. The goal of this thesis is to present a research project carried out at the University of Alicante during the academic year 2011-2012. With this research we obtained results that provide quantitative and qualitative data which explains how the use of the CLIL methodology affects the English level of students in the “Didactics of the English Language in Preschool Education” course in Preschool Education Teacher Undergraduate Program as students acquire the contents of the course.

Influence of characteristics of irrigation channels on the breeding bird community of a wetland zone in southeast of Spain

The “El Hondo Nature Park” is mainly composed of a series of irrigation channels and water reservoirs, subjected to various regimes of management as well as reed and vegetation control, thus creating a great variety of habitats and situations. To determine the influence of these habitats and management regimes on the local bird community, a set of characteristics of these channels and their surrounding area were analysed with a Correspondence Analysis (CA). The degree of reed development in channels and the presence in the surroundings of orchards and other reed formations were the most decisive factors to explain the probability of occurrence of reed birds and waterbirds, as well as bird species richness and abundance. Other bird species were not directly influenced by channel variables, but only by those of surrounding land uses.

Platinum–tin/carbon catalysts for ethanol oxidation: Influence of Sn content on the electroactivity and structural characteristics

Carbon-supported Pt–Sn catalysts commonly contain Pt–Sn alloy and/or Pt–Sn bimetallic systems (Sn oxides). Nevertheless, the origin of the promotion effect due to the presence of Sn in the Pt–Sn/C catalyst towards ethanol oxidation in acid media is still under debate and some contradictions. Herein, a series of Ptx–Sny/C catalysts with different atomic ratios are synthesized by a deposition process using formic acid as the reducing agent. Catalysts structure and chemical compositions are investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and their relationship with catalytic behavior towards ethanol electro-oxidation was established. Geometric structural changes are producing by highest Sn content (Pt1–Sn1/C) promoted the interaction of Pt and Sn forming a solid solution of Pt–Sn alloy phase, whereas, the intermediate and lowest Sn content (Pt2–Sn1/C and Pt3–Sn1/C, respectively) promoted the electronic structure modifications of Pt by Sn addition without the formation of a solid solution. The amount of Sn added affects the physical and chemical characteristics of the bimetallic catalysts as well as reducing the amount of Pt in the catalyst composition and maintaining the electrocatalytic activities at the anode. However, the influence of the Sn oxidation state in Pt–Sn/C catalysts surfaces and the alloy formation between Pt and Sn as well as with the atomic ratio on their catalytic activity towards ethanol oxidation appears minimal. Similar methodologies applied for synthesis of Ptx–Sny/C catalysts with a small change show differences with the results obtained, thus highlighting the importance of the conditions of the preparation method.