Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Navigable, Customizable TTS for Algebra Lois Frankel Educational Testing Service (ETS) Neil Soiffer Design Science, Inc. CSUN March 1, 2013

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Presentation Overview Project Motivation, Goals, and Background Development to date: discussion and demonstration Research Studies Next Steps 2

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Project Motivation Text-to-speech (TTS) vs. Math-to-speech – Limited choice of syntax/semantics – Limited screen-reader support – Limited or no within-expression navigation – Difficult to author – Works in limited environments ETS Experience 3 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Project Goals Focus on instruction, not assessment High school algebra Classroom-like synthesized speech “style”: ClearSpeak Customization features Interactive navigation Author in Word Playback in Word and IE 4 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Not Part of Project Braille Support for other formats Authoring by people with visual impairment Solving math problems Tutoring/Curriculum Integration with standardized testing 5 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Behind the Scene: MathML The language of math on the web – HTML5, eBooks – Browser support & MathJax Designed for Accessibility – Daisy players – IE + MathPlayer + AT 6 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. What is MathML? x 3 7 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Project Software for Math MathML Tools: – Authoring: MathType+Word – Audio rendering: MathPlayer Screen reader – Window-Eyes (Word & IE) 8

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Many ways to Speak Math How do you say… 9 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Many ways to Speak Math How do you say… 10 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Many ways to Speak Math How do you say… 11 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Many ways to Speak Math How do you say… 12 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Many ways to Speak Math How do you say… 13 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Many ways to Speak Math How do you say… 14 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. How Math Speech Works Rules Preferences Exact Speech 15 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. ClearSpeak Many ways to speak math ClearSpeak design philosophy Other design philosophies – MathSpeak – SimpleSpeech 16 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Demonstration Authoring – Using MathType in Word to enter math and use preferences – Entering exact speech in Word Playback – Word with Window-Eyes 17 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Project Goals Recap ClearSpeak Author in Word – Allow setting preference and exact speech Playback in Word and IE Interactive navigation 18 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Creating Expressions and Questions for Studies Level Degree of complexity Relevance of speech variations Provide useful data – Test comprehension, not computation – Guide decisions about speech rules, preferences 18

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Feedback Study #1 Compared ClearSpeak, MathSpeak, SimpleSpeech Fractions, exponents, parentheses Focus: was expression understood? Research/Statistical consultation 16 HS students: blind or low vision 20 Handous are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Results Summary ClearSpeak more understandable than Simple Speech or MathSpeak Students overall preferred ClearSpeak Students got more answers correct with ClearSpeak than with Simple Speech or MathSpeak 21 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. One Expression’s Results 22 Handouts are available at: P+ Very Familiar Somewhat Familiar Somewhat Unfamiliar Very Unfamiliar Simple Speech30817 MathSpeak31546 ClearSpeak*66810

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. 23 ClearSpeakSimpleSpeakMathSpeak Very familiar48%24% Somewhat familiar50% 31% Not very familiar2%9%23% Very unfamiliar0%16%22% Very easy to understand52%17%16% Somewhat easy to understand33%37%38% Somewhat hard to understand13%24%23% Very hard to understand3%22% Very sure understood71%42%39% Somewhat sure understood24%37%33% Not sure understood5%7%11% Definitely did not understand0%14%17% Familiarity and Understanding

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Feedback Study #2 Can Prosody help understanding? – Pauses – Pitch – Rate Changes – Volume Changes Rejected pitch and volume changes non-speech sounds not an option Focus on pauses, rate-change vs. start/end 24 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Feedback #2 Example vs. – With Pauses / rate change Expression 1 Expression 2 – With “end root” Expression 1 Expression 2 25 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Feedback #2 Another Example Nested Parentheses: – Uniform Pauses – Non-uniform pauses – Non-uniform pauses and “First Paren” 26 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Navigation Simple char by char mode for beginners Powerful navigation features for experts – Read – Describe Multiple ways of moving – Tree – Character, Placemarker, Semantic After tree move: read or describe 10 Placemarkers, 2 Cursors, Where am I? 27 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Expression Tree 28 Handouts are available at: Fraction Sum n Power n + k Times

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Participation Opportunities Blind or Visually Impaired Students Teachers 29 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Contact Information Lois Frankel: Neil Soiffer: Beth Brownstein: MathPlayer: The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R324A to the Educational Testing Service. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. 30 Handouts are available at:

Copyright © 2012 Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Thank you for attending this session 31 Handouts are available at: