HCC: Large: Collaborative Research: Delivery of Personalized Reading Strategies for People with Cognitive Impairments in Post-Secondary Settings

对于数量不成比例的大专学生来说，阅读理解障碍非常普遍。这些学生有认知障碍，影响高水平的文本处理技能，导致不同的阅读模式，技能方面的困难，如辨别相关和无关的信息，推断，将背景知识与新的学习联系起来，以及在以后保留和应用所学的知识。通常，这种缺陷是通过教授学习技能策略的使用来管理的。虽然这些做法有很强的表面有效性，但缺乏以证据为基础的做法，而且几乎没有关于候选人资格或哪种类型的赤字对什么类型的战略和支持做出最好反应的信息。在技术方面，电子阅读平板电脑的流行提供了一个平台，为提高大学生的阅读理解和记忆能力提供了支持。该项目试图弥合这一差距，方法是开发一种技术，以一种高度适用于高水平阅读障碍的大学生的形式支持一系列不同的阅读策略，通过进行必要的科学研究来定义一个可以评估每个学生的过程，并通过制定一套最终将以硬件-软件组合形式提供的策略。通过使用迭代设计过程和参与式行动研究模式，这项研究将做出以下贡献：将阅读概况/障碍与策略支持相匹配的动态评估过程；阅读障碍与阅读策略的映射；将阅读策略转化为电子阅读平板电脑上的阅读策略；演示使用我们的软件工程模型进行个性化和改编的可能性；以及使用开源软件和硬件提供研究工具的传播包，可供设计商业化阅读平板电脑的公司使用。为了实现这些目标，PI将与三个在高等教育环境中拥有大量困难读者的机构合作：两个支持和培训重返教育环境的退伍军人的退伍军人设施，以及一所大型城市州立大学的学生残疾服务计划。这些小组对阻碍教育成功的无处不在的高水平阅读挑战有经验，并提供自然的背景来评估PI的模型并形成本研究产生的工具。将通过试点研究、实验室实验和纵向研究来开发和评估动态阅读评估和支持工具的技术。广泛的影响：越来越多的人无法满足大学和社区大学课程的阅读需求，这是从伊拉克和阿富汗返回寻求教育和培训好处的大量退伍军人。据估计，这些退伍军人中有15%-20%的人遭受了足以影响学习能力的轻微脑损伤。另一大群面临阅读理解困难的大专学生是那些患有成人注意力缺陷和多动障碍(ADHD)和注意力缺陷障碍(ADD)等发育状况的学生。据估计，在大学注册的学生中，有2%至8%的学生报告了临床上明显的ADHD或增加了症状；大约25%的接受残疾支助服务的学生正在接受ADHD的服务。PI期待这项工作产生两个重要成果：文献中缺少的将阅读障碍与阅读策略联系起来的科学；以及建立在科学基础上的支持评估过程和交付机制的演示工具。考虑到后一种结果，PI打算将项目第5年的大部分时间用于使他的工具对拥有向目标人群交付产品的基础设施的公司具有极大的吸引力。

Reading comprehension deficits are pervasive for a disproportionate number of post-secondary students. These students have cognitive impairments that impact high level text processing skills and result in diverse reading profiles with difficulties in skills such as discerning between relevant and irrelevant information, drawing inferences, connecting background knowledge to new learning, and retaining and applying what was learned at a later date. Typically such deficits are managed by teaching the use of study-skills strategies. While there is strong face validity for these practices there is a lack of evidence-based practice, and virtually no information on candidacy or what types of deficits respond best to what types of strategies and supports. On the technology side, the popularity of electronic reading tablets offers a platform to deliver supports to improve reading comprehension and retention that could be adopted by college students. This project seeks to bridge the gap by developing the technology to support a diverse set of reading strategies in a highly adoptable form for college students with high-level reading impairments, by doing the science necessary to define a process that can assess each individual student, and by prescribing a set of strategies that eventually will be delivered in a hardware-software package. By using an iterative design process and a participatory action research model, this research will make the following contributions: a dynamic assessment process that matches reading profiles/impairments to strategy supports; a mapping of reading impairments to reading strategies; translation of reading strategies to delivery on electronic reading tablets; a demonstration that personalization and adaptation are possible using our software engineering models; and a dissemination package that uses open source software and hardware to deliver a research tool that could be used by companies designing commercialized reading tablets. To achieve these goals, the PI will partner with three institutions that have large populations of struggling readers in post-secondary educational settings: two VA facilities that support and train veterans returning to educational settings, and a student disability services program at a large urban state university. These groups have experience with the pervasive, high level reading challenges preventing educational success, and provide the natural contexts to evaluate the PI's models and shape the tools generated from this research. Pilot studies, laboratory experiments and longitudinal studies will be employed to develop and evaluate the technology for a dynamic reading assessment and support tool.Broader Impacts: A growing population not able to meet the reading demands of college and community college courses is the large number of veterans returning form Iraq and Afghanistan seeking education and training benefits. It is estimated that 15-20% of these veterans have suffered mild brain injury sufficient to affect academic ability. Another large group of post-secondary students that is challenged by difficulties with reading comprehension are those with developmental conditions including adult attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD). Estimates regarding the number of students enrolled in colleges who report clinically significant ADHD or ADD symptoms vary between 2% to 8%; approximately 25% of students receiving disability support services are receiving those for ADHD. The PI expects two important outcomes from this work: the science missing from the literature that links reading impairments with reading strategies; and a demonstration tool, built on the science, that supports an assessment process and a delivery mechanism. With this latter outcome in mind, the PI intends to devote a large part of Year 5 of the project to making his tool highly attractive to companies who have the infrastructure to deliver products to the target populations.