Computer-assisted Strategies for Long-form Text Reading

位于多伦多的Quillsoft有限公司是帮助人们读写的辅助技术软件的领导者。由Fraser Shein博士于2000年与Holland Bloorview儿童康复医院合作创立，Quillsoft的产品，包括WordQ，被超过250万终端用户使用，主要是在教育领域。虽然WordQ和其他竞争解决方案主要关注写作，但Quillsoft一直从教育工作者那里听到学生在文本理解方面遇到困难。学院和大学观察到，即使是相对简单的作业问题，学生也不能正确理解。因此，教师一再要求在语篇层面找到一个真正的理解解决方案（如理解因果关系、论证等）。Quillsoft看到了开发文本理解技术的商机，该技术可以满足这一市场需求。这个解决方案的关键特点是，它的广泛的工具，支持各种积极的阅读策略，使它真正独特。他们有能力提取、分组/集群、组织和可视化关键概念，这不仅有助于学生可能理解或不理解的文本的复制、释义（通常只是粘贴）和引用。在之前与Seneca合作的基础上，Quillsoft再次与Asma Paracha教授和她的团队合作，将技术推进到可以将软件部署（alpha版本）给选定数量的外部用户进行早期测试和反馈的程度。一旦完全开发，这个新的和独特的文本理解解决方案将使Quillsoft增加和多样化其收入来源，并增加市场渗透率。

Located in Toronto, Quillsoft Ltd. is a leader in assistive technology software that helps people read and write. Founded by Dr. Fraser Shein in 2000, in partnership with Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Quillsoft's products, including WordQ, are used by over 2.5 million end-users, primarily in the education field.While WordQ, and other competing solutions primarily focus on writing, Quillsoft consistently hears from educators that students struggle with text comprehension. Colleges and universities observe that students cannot properly understand even relatively simple assignment questions. As a result, teachers have repeatedly requested a true comprehension solution at the discourse level (e.g., understanding cause-and-effect, argumentation, etc.). Quillsoft sees a business opportunity in developing a text comprehension technology that would address this market need. The key characteristic of this solution i.e., its broad range of tools that support various active reading strategies, makes it truly unique. With their abilities to extract, group/cluster, organize, and visualize key concepts this goes beyond facilitating copying, paraphrasing (often just pasting) and referencing text that the student may or may not understand. Building on the previous collaboration with Seneca, Quillsoft is partnering again with Professor Asma Paracha and her team to advance the technology to the point where the software can be deployed (Alpha-release) to a select number of outside users for early testing and feedback. Once fully developed, this new and unique text comprehension solution will enable Quillsoft to increase and diversify its revenue stream and increase market penetration.