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Ensuring quality support meets the science and maths students technology needs

Abi James, With Y. Li, M. Wald & E.A. Draffan, ECS Partners, University of SouthamptonYou and maths.How maths confident are you? Up to Level 2 / GCSEHow maths confident are you?Up to A Level / HigherWhy are we concerned about maths and STEM?University experience of mathsPrint disabilities and mathematical notationUp to 10% of student population may have a print impairment that could affect their ability to read or comprehend maths. Problems may include:Reading the notationRecalling names of notation and meaningsProof reading notationRecalling the steps of a process to solve a maths problemDifficulty with comprehending symbols instead of wordsAccess to text to speech with highlighting may improve access to maths notation.7When they get to universitydo students expect maths?BiologyBusinessEconomicsBiologyBusinessStats and Economics

8Exam paper which subject?

Screen short from a management paper9Some students might anticipate maths content

ChemistryEngineeringOceanograhpy / ChemistyEngineering

10Students that want to do maths.

Proportion of disabled students in UK HEIs by subject area, 2012/1312Proportion of disabled students in UK HEIs by subject area, 2012/1341.7% of all students; 40.6% of disabled students studying STEM subjects13Typical students requiring math supportProofreading- Tim: dyslexic engineering student. problems with proofreading and often make mistakes in calculations uses text to speech to proof read my assignments but it can't read the maths.struggle to remember all the names of the symbols making it hard to take notesUnderstand maths - Sarah: studying psychologyStruggled with maths at schools, particularly with concentration due to ADHD (indications of dyscalculia)Finds listening and seeing words at the same time makes them easier to understand.But keeps forgetting what words and symbols mean.

14The mathematical language barrier

Activity 1: mathematical meaning

Complete the mathematical definitions of the terms on the worksheetConsider how you could explain this definition to a visual learnerThe difference between maths & textTalking Maths: The difference between maths & textSymbols in maths can mean different things: [AB]-1 Could mean:left bracket, boldface capital a, boldface capital b, right bracket, superscript minus oneORinverse of the matrix product, boldface capital a, boldface capital b

Typical Maths LectureFrom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiaPIleRhgQ

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiaPIleRhgQ 19Capturing Maths Notes LiveScribe Pen - Capturing audio while writingJISC case study of engineering studentTablets can also be useful, particularly OneNote

20Hand writing recognition & mathsHand-written maths relies on real-time analysis of strokes as symbols are formedMuch more dependent on accuracy & spatial layout than text recognitionFormation of symbols is not consistentAcross countriesAcross individualsMath input panel in Windows (and MathType)

21Apps for capturing mathsStarting to appear on tablet apps e.g. MathBrush but not necessarily about producing accessible outputNotes & MathsMyScript CalculatorMathBrush for recongitzing hand-writingBut can also type TeX into a notes app & import to word / editor later

22Reading Maths - Where does maths occur?WebsitesPublications (PDF) and e-booksDocuments, presentations and spreadsheetsLearning materialsVideosAccessibility RequirementsSome users may want toZoom / re-sizeSearch / index mathsBraille renderingRead aloud maths with or without highlightingReading aloud maths is particularly demanding on working memory. It may not be possible to vocalise diagrams.

Accessibility barriers to maths notationThe difference between maths & text: non-linear representation and ambiguity (1)

26The difference between maths & text: non-linear representation and ambiguity (2)

Accurate reading of maths:Using the numbers provided work out as many ways as possible to replicate in symbols:Three plus two minus four squaredHint: there are at least 3 answers to this sumBIDMAS: A way of remembering the order in which operations are carried out. It stands for Brackets - Indices - Division - Multiplication - Addition - Subtraction.3+2-4^2 =-113+(2-4)^2 = 7(3+(2-4))^2 = 1(3+2)-4^2 = -11(3+2-4)^2 = 129Accurate reading of maths:Mathematical semantics

Visualising maths notationConcepts maps & tree diagrams are often used to assist mathematical teaching [3].Tree diagrams are used to describe semantics Specialist maths tutors have described how concept maps can be used to help dyslexic students visualise problems [6, 8].STEMReader projectProject to develop proof of concept from Feb 2014 July 2014 funded by BIS, Technology Strategy Board, managed by Techdis.Goals:Improve solutions for reading aloud maths notation for students studying GCSE to degree level maths and scienceApply concept of semantic web to allow for navigation and visualisation of maths notationChallenge to develop usable, sustainable tool for print-impaired students to use alongside their current support strategies.Current proof of concept tool allows MathML equations to be read aloud, navigated by keyboard & display as a semantic tree.Will be able to be used with Office documents by selecting equations.

STEMReader examples - fractions

Activity 3: Tree diagramsCan you create a tree forThree plus two minus four squared

STEMReader advanced exampleNavigate through an equation using the treeHighlight location of variables within the equationProvide users with different options for speaking equationsInvestigating different ways of displaying tree viewContact a.james@soton.ac.uk for further information

Activity 4: Reflecting on our learningWhat do you need to support students with their STEM content?How do we incorporate ADSHE 7 principles when supporting STEM students?Metacognition Multi-sensory Relevance Motivation Overlearning Little and Often Modelling

Further InformationAbi Jamesa.james@soton.ac.uk07941 465985https://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/projects/current/ References[1] Bahram, S., Soiffer, N., & Frankel L. (2014) Understanding Mathematical Expressions through Interactive Navigation. In 29th Annual International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities,Northridge, California, USA. [2] Bates, E., & Fitzpatrick, D. (2010). Spoken mathematics using prosody, earcons and spearcons. Computers Helping People with Special Needs, 407414. [3] Brown, T. (2013).Meeting the Standards in Primary Mathematics: A Guide to the ITT NC. Routledge.[4] Gellenbeck, E., & Stefik, A. (2009). Evaluating Prosodic Cues as a Means to Disambiguate Algebraic Expressions: An Empirical Study, 139146.[5] Holden, W., Sunnes, M., & Graffe, S. (2014) The Next Generation Text to Speech Program. In 29th Annual International Conference on Technology and Persons with [6] Perkin, G. (2004). The dyslexic engineerissues for mathematics education. International Conference on Engineering Education, (October 2003), 111. [7] Sorge, V., Chen, C., Raman, T. V., & Tseng, D. (2014, April). Towards making mathematics a first class citizen in general screen readers. InProceedings of the 11th Web for All Conference(p. 40). ACM.[8] Trott, C. (2003). Mathematics support for dyslexic students.MSOR Connections,3(4), 17-20.