Research on software-aided long-form text comprehension

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。来自学院和大学写作中心的最常见的抱怨之一是，学生们甚至不能正确理解相对简单的作业问题。教师们一直要求在话语层面有一个真正的理解解决方案（例如，理解因果关系，论证等）。Quillsoft认为，开发文本理解技术是一个商机，并计划在2022年上市的下一代产品中加入该技术。Quillsoft正在与Seneca合作建立一个可视化工具的概念验证，该工具将为读者提供对长文本中包含的概念之间多层次关系的洞察。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. One of the most common complaints, from writing centres at colleges and universities, is that students cannot properly understand even relatively simple assignment questions. Teachers have consistently requested a true comprehension solution at the discourse level (e.g., understanding cause-and-effect, argumentation, etc.). Quillsoft sees a business opportunity in developing text comprehension technology and the company is planning to include such technology in the next generation of its products, scheduled for market release in 2022. Quillsoft is partnering with Seneca to build a proof-of-concept for a visualization tool that will provide readers with insight into multi-level relationships between concepts contained in long texts. Once fully developed, this new and unique text comprehension solution will enable Quillsoft to increase and diversify its revenue stream and increase market penetration.