Computer-assisted Strategies for Long-form Text Reading

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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.