Engaging in explanation while studying expository science texts can improve comprehension. The present study varied the timing of explanation activities and restudy opportunities before taking final comprehension tests on a set of 6 topics studied as part of a course in Introduction to Psychology. When students had the opportunity to restudy in…

Reading comprehension is essential for students' ability to build knowledge. Students' comprehension abilities can be enhanced by providing students with deliberate practice and formative feedback on reading comprehension strategies. iSTART is an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) that is designed to provide instruction in reading strategies with…

Self-explanation practice is an effective method to support students in better understanding complex texts. This study focuses on automatically assessing the comprehension strategies employed by readers while understanding STEM texts. Data from 3 datasets (N = 11,833) with self-explanations annotated on different comprehension strategies (i.e.,…

Prompting students to generate constructed responses as they read provides a window into the processes and strategies that they use to make sense of complex text. In this study, Markov models examined the extent to which: (1) patterns of strategies; and (2) strategy combinations could be used to inform computational models of students' text…

Theories of discourse argue that comprehension depends on the coherence of the learner's mental representation. Our aim is to create a reliable automated representation to estimate readers' level of comprehension based on different productions, namely self-explanations and answers to open-ended questions. Previous work relied on Cohesion Network…

As intelligent textbooks become more ubiquitous in classrooms and educational settings, the need arises to automatically provide formative feedback to written responses provided by students in response to readings. This study develops models to automatically provide feedback to student summaries written at the end of intelligent textbook sections.…

Nowadays, Malaysian ESL students struggle to read English texts, particularly narrative texts. Lacking in utilising and applying the suitable reading strategies are among factors that hinder reading comprehension. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy on ESL pupils' narrative reading and…

This article introduces self-regulation features with Partial and Synchronized Caption (PSC) for practicing listening skills and fostering self-paced and autonomous learning. PSC generates a partial caption by focusing on acoustically and lexically difficult words and synchronizes each word's appearance with the speaker's speech. The aim is to…

Engagement during reading can be measured by the amount of time readers invest in the reading process. It is hypothesized that disengagement is marked by a decrease in time investment as compared with the demands made on the reader by the text. In this study, self-paced reading times for screens of text were predicted by a text complexity score…

MOCCA-C is an assessment of adult reading ability designed for early diagnosis of reading problems, for formative assessment in reading intervention planning, for assessment of reading improvement over time, and for assessment of reading intervention outcomes. It uses both narrative and expository reading passages and it currently has four forms.…

The current study explored relations between non-cognitive traits (Grit, Learning Orientation, Performance Orientation), reading skill, and performance across three experiments conducted in the context of two intelligent tutoring systems, iSTART and Writing Pal. Results showed that learning outcomes (comprehension score, holistic essay score) were…

We discuss the real-time scoring logic for a self-administered oral reading assessment on mobile devices (Moby.Read) to measure the three components of children's oral reading fluency skills: words correct per minute, expression and comprehension. Critical techniques that make the assessment real-time on-device are discussed in detail. We propose…

The Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) learning cycle improves understanding of the connection between empirical results and theoretical concepts when students engage in hands-on experimentation. This study explored whether training students to use a POE strategy when learning from social science texts that describe theories and experimental results…

iSTART is a web-based reading comprehension tutor. A recent translation of iSTART from English to Spanish has made the system available to a new audience. In this paper, we outline several challenges that arose during the development process, specifically focusing on the algorithms that drive the feedback. Several iSTART activities encourage…

The current study compared five free Text-To-Speech (TTS) systems, selected based on characteristics such as availability and capabilities. Tasks were completed by 37 English learners to evaluate these systems in terms of their comprehensibility, naturalness, and intelligibility. Our findings indicate that IBM Watson and Google Translate are the…