Eye Movement & Reading Awareness lab The EMRA lab Eye Movement & Reading Awareness lab

Purpose To generate awareness of reading interaction with a text to inform students, instructors and researchers.

What’s in it? Potential Eye tracking camera Influence A computer Inertia Guidance Information Ideas Awareness Eye tracking camera A computer Illustration cards & posters Feedback and information forms Manuals and checklists

What is an eye-tracking camera? The eye tracking camera is a GP3 eye tracking gaze camera from Gazepoint. It captures the eye gaze (where a person is looking) of a reader who is looking at a computer screen. The captured gazetrail can then be viewed as a video or made into an illustration and printed out.

Eye tracking camera The camera uses light reflected off of the cornea and pupil to estimate where a person is looking The eye tracking camera sits under the monitor As the reader reads, the eye movements are captured by the camera and can be seen on the control computer

Set-up of the lab

What can it do? FIXATION MAPS HEAT MAPS The eye tracker can display the results as a heat map, a fixation map, and as a video of the reading record.

Sample fixation map from EMRA lab where student looks is represented by circles camera tracks viewer’s eye movements

Video clip of a reader reading directions

Video clip of a reader scanning for information

Where is it? LRC room 127 (ESL Center)

Instructors from ESL and Reading Who uses it? Who uses it? Instructors from ESL and Reading Students who need some feedback and guidance about their reading practices

How do we use it? Instructors and students can schedule a time and use the lab. Instructors will be given a quick training on the computer and software. There will be a manual to help and a video to refresh.

…. Why do we use it? Instructors can learn about their students’ reading behaviors and inform their teaching practices Students can actually SEE their reading practices; they can gain confidence; they can learn strategies

Who else has one of these? No one. We seem to be pioneers in using an eye tracker as a pedagogical tool with reading students.