# The Effectiveness of an Authentic E-Learning Environment for Deaf Learners
## 3 Materials and Methods
### Ethical Approval and Data Collection Procedures  
The procedure for collecting data started when the study was approved by the ethics committee of the university, and the consent of participants was gathered via an online form that included QR codes in both TSL and GSL videos. This study lasted three months in the spring of 2024. The quantitative data was collected by taking a test before and after treatment. The multiple-choice test was adopted from [[https://bsslignbank.ucl.ac.uk/quiz/](https://bsslignbank.ucl.ac.uk/quiz/)]([https://bsslignbank.ucl.ac.uk/quiz/](https://bsslignbank.ucl.ac.uk/quiz/)) (accessed on 16 January 2025) and [[https://www.signlang-assessment.info/tests-of-11-development.html](https://www.signlang-assessment.info/tests-of-11-development.html)]([https://www.signlang-assessment.info/tests-of-11-development.html](https://www.signlang-assessment.info/tests-of-11-development.html)) (accessed on 20 January 2025), and the test was developed according to the North Carolina Testing Program (NCTP). The test's validity and reliability were confirmed by a pilot study, and [PERSON]'s alpha yelling a value of (0.814) in both pre- and post-test, representing acceptable and suitable internal consistency that is higher than 0.7. However, some essential changes happened according to the pilot study test and the suggestions from a deaf BSL teacher. Thirty-five multiplicate-choice BSL questions were processed both before and after treatment to collect the quantitative data.  
To gather qualitative data, semi-structured interviews, observations, and video recordings were used. To maintain the validity of the data from the qualitative part, data source triangulations such as observation, video recordings, and interviews were followed [33]. In addition, the twenty questions were reviewed by deaf BSL teachers and one more expert in the deaf education field. The qualitative part focused on increasing motivation and engagement in a collaborative learning setting with real-world applications. In addition, the effect of the integration of technology into design tasks in a sign language-based learning setting is considered. Therefore, the following criteria were applied for designing interview questions:  
1. The participants' view about the e-learning environment is based on nine principles of authentic learning ([PERSON] et al. [9]).  
2. The difficulties during learning FL through e-learning.  
3. Adopting the tasks in sign language is helpful to increase the learner's motivation.  
4. Providing an online platform for communication purposes increases learner's interest and collaboration.  
5. The impact of an e-learning environment for deaf learners. (positive and negative effect)  
6. What should be included or eliminated factors to be considered for e-learning for deaf learners?  
At the end of the teaching process, the first author and BSL teacher scheduled a day for the interview and determined approximately twenty minutes for each participant. The results from this part were recorded by a video recorder in sign language and then interpreted into written English. This section was analyzed using the coding procedures recommended by [PERSON] et al. [43], which involved classifying the data according to the main areas of study and exploring the participants' perspectives in depth.