Dr. John Langone and his research team at the University of Georgia are investigating the use of digitized speech (“audio text”), glossary definitions, and illustrative videos to improve word knowledge and auditory comprehension of life skills and leisure reading materials by secondary students with moderate to severe cognitive disabilities.
Collaborating Research Sites
The NCSeT Research team has worked with teachers and students in three area school districts during the 2007-2008 academic year. Collaborating research sites are:
Oglethorpe Middle School – Lexington, GA
Malcom Bridge Middle School – Bogart, GA
North Oconee High School – Bogart, GA
Madison County High School – Danielsville, GA
Progress Report: October 31, 2008
Our previous work attempted to determine whether or not e-supports in the form of video, graphics, photos, and highlighting were effective strategies for assisting students with moderate cognitive disabilities to gain more meaning from e-text presentations. Embedded within this body of work, we also tested the effectiveness of e-text alone in terms of improving comprehension of students with more significant cognitive disabilities. The result of this early work indicates that various e-supports do provide some meaning to the text that is being read to students (i.e., e-text), however, the effectiveness was not consistent across learners. The use of video and photos in addition to the sound did not seem to provide the learners with sufficient organizational structure for gaining meaning from the text that was presented. We did implement strategies such as repeated readings and text highlighting finding that these strategies were not as effective as we hoped. Therefore, we decided to experiment with the use of various organizational systems designed to assist learners with gaining meaning from the e-text, specifically in terms of how the text could assist them in completing functional tasks. We completed studies during 2008 that targeted the use of an organizational system (e.g., graphic organizer) for helping students gain meaning from e-text presentations. Our goal is to replicate the most promising interventions during the upcoming months. Our initial results from the graphic organizer plus e-text do appear to help our target students gain increased meaning from what is being read.
Earlier work involved the completion of 14 “episodes” or short passages from the first Harry Potter book that were designed to be delivered to students using PowerPoint. These episodes were evaluated for readability in order to maintain a consistent grade level across all of the passages and for fidelity of the story line offered in the original book. All text was recorded and short digital videos were produced to support the story line.
Our first study (Study 1) was conducted in a high school class for students with moderate intellectual disabilities. Four students participated in a study designed to compare the effects of text alone, electronic text, and electronic text with video supports on auditory comprehension (e.g., comprehension questions related to facts, characters, and events). An alternating treatment single subject design was used to help establish which, if any, treatment effects existed. As an intra-subject design, this procedure was replicated across four participants.
In short, the visual analysis of the participant data indicates that the electronic text with video supports appeared to have the most effect on improving the auditory comprehension of the four participants. The gains made by the participants, although visually evident, were not as strong as we originally postulated. We have identified a number of reasons why this situation exists, however, the most evident reason appears to be related to possible participant fatigue. A combination of procedures required by the use of the alternating treatments design and time constraints linked to our research site, required that we alternate the treatments daily over the course of a 14 day time period. Being exposed to three treatment phases per day resulted in approximately 45-70 minutes of interaction time (per participant). Informal observations by the teacher and post-study interviews with the students indicate that fatigue/boredom may affect effort and attention thus effecting outcomes.
In addition, we suspect that other supports may be necessary and these supports will be tested for effectiveness in future research efforts. For example, we noted that student were having difficulty following along with the story as it was being read to them due to the inability of PowerPoint to highlight the words as they are being read. We also suspect that additional supports are necessary to improve comprehension such as increased emphasis on key vocabulary in the form of visual and auditory anchors.
This initial study (which will be written and submitted for journal review by summer 2007) has prompted us to develop a new protocol for upcoming replications. Within the next week we will begin replication of this basic study in three different classrooms for students with moderate intellectual disabilities (i.e., two middle school classrooms and one high school class). The revised research protocol is attached at the end of this report.
During spring of 2007 we also conducted one research study that investigated the effects of video supports on text alone (Study 2). This study provided us with some insight of how video supports might be used to improve literacy related to more traditional academic skills. In this study, students were exposed to worksheets that targeted functional mathematics, specifically balancing checkbooks. Video models provided students (high school students with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities) with strategies for completing the instructional sequence related to managing a checkbook and also provided explanations of key vocabulary. A multiple probe across subjects single subject research design was used to control for competing variables. Currently, we are analyzing pre-post data related to possible improvement in the ability to read and understand key vocabulary. These data are currently being analyzed and the knowledge we gain from this study should inform our future efforts in assessing electronic text and supports related to functional academic skills.