alma mater studiorum universita’ di bologna university of bologna net4voice – new technologies...

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM

UNIVERSITA’ DI BOLOGNA

University of Bologna

Net4Voice – New technologies for Voice-converting in

barrier-free learning environments Bologna, 23rd October 2008

Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna

© ▪ Materiale riservato e strettamente confidenziale2

Net4Voice – New technologies for Voice-converting in barrier-free learning environments Summary

The project

Aims, objectives and expected outcomes

Description of beneficiaries (medium/short and long term groups)

Main activities

Activities in detail

Unibo experiment results

Partners



Net4Voice – New technologies for Voice-converting in barrier-free learning environments The project

Traditional face to face (F2F) education is the most pervasive way to support learning

but… Physical, temporal and cultural barriers reduce the accessibility and the effectiveness of

learning

Net4Voice consists in testing voice recognition techniques and methods within learning contexts.

ICT based learning methodology: can be complementary to traditional F2F classroom learning, to make education more

effective; enables to overcome constraints and barriers in learning processes;

Speech recognition technology in Net4Voice: is a means to support teaching/learning processes; enables students to have an additional learning support during and after lessons; provide a more flexible, accessible, innovative and comprehensive learning environments



Net4Voice – New technologies for Voice-converting in barrier-free learning environments Aims and objectives

Final aim To increase quality and learning opportunities by promoting the adoption of barrier

free learning environments and the dissemination of innovative learning methodologies.

Concrete aims To develop a new learning methodology that experiments and evaluates the

impact of SR technologies in at least three educational settings: School, Higher and Adult Education;

To focus on different target user needs: people with disabilities, second languages learners, ...

To evaluate the scalability of the SR based learning methodology and to define a strategy for transferring to other EU countries;

To raise awareness and deep knowledge about the impact of SR technologies in different educational settings.



Net4Voice – New technologies for Voice-converting in barrier-free learning environments

Expected outcomes

Short term expected outcomes: To experience SR technology in a wide range of subjects, testing all the

opportunities offered by this technology and the adoption of multi-channel learning methodologies;

to produce a tested and validated learning methodology that can be shared with other educational Institutions in order to create a stable and broader network;

Medium/long term expected outcomes: To support the development and dissemination of innovative and well-balanced

ICT educational tools and the design of new standardised pedagogical documentation for the lifelong learning in a European educational setting.




Description of beneficiaries

Short term target groups: Students with learning and physical disabilities who are unable to take notes by

their own and need for an intermediary support; Second language learners; Students of various educational settings; Teachers/Professors;

Medium/long term target groups: Other educational institutions than the partners and their networks; Traditional stakeholders of the educational community (i.e. student families, the

local community and government); The national and international bodies that deal with education (i.e. ministries,

agencies, DG Education of the EU).




Main activities

Net4Voice main activities:

Developing a joint speech-recognition technology based learning methodology, to increase the accessibility and the effectiveness of learning at all of its stages

Training professors of the educational settings identified by partners on the developed methodology

Testing the speech-recognition technology based methodology within the educational settings identified by partners

Sharing and validating the results of the experimentation Evaluating the scalability of the testing results and planning dissemination and

exploitation activities Disseminating project results.



Net4Voice – New technologies for Voice-converting in barrier-free learning environments Activities in detail

Creation of the project web site

Identification of one or more professors who will be in charge of contributing to the learning methodology

Recruiting of professors who will test the methodology in the identified educational settings

Delivering of a document identified as the partner contribution to the learning methodology and developing of the joint learning methodology

Identification of the most appropriate software for the experimentation goals

Transfer of know how related to the defined methodology and to technologies

Identification of tutors who will help teachers in training of the software and in correction of mistakes

Decision of training of the software timetable (before or during the lessons), according to teachers availabilities

Beginning of the experimentation in classes: testing of the new learning methodology in various educational settings

Developing of questionnaires to be delivered to professors and students at the end of the experimentation

Delivering of questionnaires after the experimentation in order to evaluate the impact on students

Design of the qualitative evaluation methods of the methodology impact on the different educational settings

Evaluation of the methodology impact on the different educational settings

Sharing of experiences concerning evaluation, methodology refinement and adaptation in order to completely satisfy the various educational setting requirements.



Net4Voice – New technologies for Voice-converting in barrier-free learning environments Unibo experiment results

Accuracy results

Speech transcription has been edited after each lecture to update the speech profile of the speaker. The accuracy has been shown to be strongly dependent on:

the kind of speakerIt has been noticed how slow speaking and well articulated words can significantly influence the quality of results.

influence of the environment

One of the main external factors which is expected to influence the accuracy of the process is represented by the situation of the room where the lesson takes place. An experiment was set up to evaluate the influence of background noise, by obtaining some registrations in a small room without people with minimal environmental noise. First results shows that the improvement in speech recognition by the software can be quite evidently improved.



Net4Voice – New technologies for Voice-converting in barrier-free learning environments Unibo experiment results

Number of recorded lessons 6

Number of recorded lesson hours 11,92

Number of corrected hours 3,35

% corrected hours over the total 28%

Initial accuracy (% correct words) 40,91%

Final accuracy (% correct words) 80,05%

Improvement of accuracy 95,67%

Student’s viewpoints

Student are not real user during this trial. In any case the reaction was extremely positive and they showed interest also in the possibility to use the speech transcription as lecture notes. This product can be useful also in the case, as at present, where the speech recognition is around 80% . It can help as a quite complete complement to student’s notes.

RESULTSAnalysis of quantitative results obtained from the first experimentation realized with two teachers

Number of recorded lessons 2

Number of recorded lesson hours 2,2

Number of corrected hours 0,81

% corrected hours over the total 37%

Initial accuracy (% correct words) 26,13%

Final accuracy (% correct words) 34,99%

Improvement of accuracy 33,91%



Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Italy

University of Southampton, Great Britain

Universität Ulm, Germany

Istituto Professionale di Stato per i Servizi Sociali "Iris Versari", Italy

Totton College, Great Britain

Net4Voice – New technologies for Voice-converting in barrier-free learning environments Partners



Università di Bologna

New technologies for Voice-converting in barrier-free learning environments

Thank you

Raffaella Primiani

University of Bologna – http://www.eng.unibo.it/PortaleEn/default.htm

email: [email protected]

Net4Voice web site

alma mater studiorum universita’ di bologna university of bologna net4voice – new technologies...

Documents

learning opportunities

lifelong learning

learning contexts

new learning methodology

validated learning methodology

additional learning

2008net4voice new technologies

impact of sr technologies