Lisa B. Elliot

Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students' Memory of Lectures with Speech-to-Text and Interpreting/Note Taking Services

In one investigation with 48 deaf and hard-of-hearing (hh) high school students and a second investigation with 48 deaf/hh college students, all viewed one lecture with an interpreter and one with the C-Print® speech-to-text support service. High school students retained more lecture information when they viewed speech-to-text support, compared to interpreter support, and when they studied note taker notes or a hard copy of the text after viewing the lecture, compared to no opportunity to study. For college students, however, there was no difference between retention with these two kinds of support or with study of notes, compared to no study. For the college investigation, there was a three-way interaction due to markedly better performance on a multiple-choice than on a sentence-completion test when students viewed an interpreter and did not study notes. This result may have reflected difficulty in comprehending unfamiliar terms. Reading proficiency was also related to retention.

Student Study Habits Using Notes from a Speech-to-Text Support Service:

Thirty-six mainstreamed high school and college students who are deaf and hard of hearing received notes from a speech-to-text support service called C-Print™. The students, 26 classroom teachers, and 10 teachers of the deaf were interviewed about their perceptions of how students use their notes to study. Consistent with research on hearing students, high school students in this study typically would read the notes only, while college students used multiple study strategies with the notes. Teachers tended not to know how their students used their notes for studying, and they were sometimes reluctant to teach students about effective note usage. This study supports the idea that both students and teachers could benefit from further instruction on note usage and study skills.

Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Other Postsecondary Learners' Retention of STEM Content With Tablet Computer-Based Notes

Four groups of postsecondary students, 25 who were deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH), 25 with a learning disability, 25 who were English language learners (ELLs), and 25 without an identified disability studied notes that included text and graphical information based on a physics or a marine biology lecture. The latter 3 groups were normally hearing. All groups had higher scores on post- than on pretests for each lecture, with each group showing generally similar gains in amount of material learned from the pretest to the posttest. For each lecture, the D/HH students scored lower on the pre- and posttests than the other 3 groups of participants. Results indicated that students acquired measurable amounts of information from studying these types of notes for relatively short periods and that the notes have equal potential to support the acquisition of information by each of these groups of students.

Real-time caption challenge: C-print

This poster/demonstration session showcases C-Print, a typing-based transcription system. This form of real-time captioning will be provided for approximately one half day during the ASSETS 2014 Conference and will be part of a real-time caption challenge. The C-Print system requires a trained transcriptionist who uses computerized abbreviations and condensing strategies to produce the text display of spoken information. This spoken information appears as text on a computer or mobile device for viewing by the consumer approximately two seconds later.

Creating a virtual academic community for STEM students

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe synchronous, remote tutoring for the Deaf STEM Community Alliances virtual academic community (VAC). The alliance addresses critical barriers for students who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) in postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-method approach (qualitative content analysis and descriptive statistics) documents project activities. Findings – Google+ Hangouts was used for remote tutoring. Participants completed 57 tutoring sessions. Participants found tutoring beneficial, especially for its convenience. Technical assistance and feedback systems were created to support participants. Grade point averages (GPA) and retention remained stable. Research limitations/implications – Research on this project continues. Small sample size is a limitation of the study. Ongoing research investigates how remote technology and social media impact learning for students who are D/HH. Pract...

User Experiences When Testing a Messaging App for Communication Between Individuals who are Hearing and Deaf or Hard of Hearing

This study investigated user experiences of participants testing a prototype messaging app with automatic speech recognition (ASR). Twelve pairs of participants, where one individual was deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH), and the other one was hearing used the app, with the hearing individual using speech and ASR and the DHH one using typing. Participants completed a standardized decision making task to test the app. Regardless of hearing status of the participants or the type of device used, participants were generally satisfied with the app. These findings indicate that ASR has potential to facilitate communication between DHH and hearing individuals in small groups and that the technology merits further investigation.

Personal Perspectives on Using Automatic Speech Recognition to Facilitate Communication between Deaf Students and Hearing Customers

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and the wide use of smart phones and their apps have allowed huge inroads when preparing deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students to be effective and productive in the hearing workplace. This paper presents both a hearing instructors experiences and a deaf researchers observations when preparing deaf and hard of hearing students as computer technicians for the hearing work place.

Using Automatic Speech Recognition to Facilitate Communication Between an Individual who is Hearing and One who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing

This study investigated use of automatic speech recognition (ASR) in 12 pairs where one individual was deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH), and the other one was hearing, with the hearing individual using speech and ASR and the DHH one using typing. Each of the pairs used prototype software for messaging to communicate while completing a standardized decision making task. Results suggested that ASR produced text at a faster rate than a keyboard. When both participants used keyboards, they exchanged more messages than when one or both of them used a smartphone with a miniature keyboard.

Active Collaborative Learning through Remote Tutoring.

An exploratory case study approach was used to describe remote tutoring in biochemistry and general chemistry with students who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). Data collected for analysis were based on the observations of the participant tutor. The research questions guiding this study included (1) How is active learning accomplished in synchronous, remote tutoring for chemistry and biochemistry with students who are D/HH? and (2) Why might active learning be important to include in synchronous, remote tutoring for this student population? Findings included that (a) students approached remote tutoring with the same questions and materials they brought to in-person tutoring and (b) the degree to which tutoring materials could be imbedded into a remote session influenced the session’s efficiency and the ability of students to actively participate in remote tutoring.