Legibility of Textbooks: A Literature Review

AbstractThe purpose of the study was to analyse findings in the field of the textbooks’ legibility, readability and visual word recognition. The paper focuses on the most significant findings for comprehending the texts’ spatial characteristics during reading, word and letter recognition. The aim of the study was to analyse the factors which have induced inconsistencies between the findings acquired by scientists, as well as to compare findings which continually lead to progression in this field

Using tablets for e-assessment of project-based learning

Technology is confirmed to be an effective tool for assessment and feedback, in particular for computer-assisted assessment (Irons, 2008; Challis, 2005), producing feedback (Heinrich et al., 2009) and publishing feedback (Bloxham and Boyd, 2007; Denton, 2003; Denton et al., 2008). The arrival of affordable mobile devices has introduced a new means for enhancing the above practices (Fabian and MacLean, 2014; Plimmer and Mason, 2006; Salem, 2013). Student preferences to smart phones and tablet devices steer the technological innovation towards ubiquitous mobile connectivity. Inspired by the benefits of such life and study style, educators have started exploring the use of these technologies. Tablet computers prove to become their preferred choice as they resolve some of the limitations associated with the design, readability and comprehensiveness of the feedback for mobile devices with smaller screens (Strain-Seymour, 2013, Rootman-le Grange and Lutz, 2013). This paper reports how tablets and the Form Connext mobile app have been used for engaging a sample of 300 Business Studies students in in-class online assessment and designing and providing timely comprehensive feedback. The study has followed an action research strategy that is grounded on a continuous and dynamic process of reflection (Carr and Kemmis, 2003) on the effectiveness of assessment of student projects documented electronically through wikis and electronic portfolios. It refines the use of tablets for summative and formative assessment of the project-based learning tasks through three review cycles, each of which incorporated a Reflection and Improvements stage. The experience resulted in enhancement of assessment strategies and contribution to the development of contemporary models of learning through effective assessment and feedback (Carr and Kemmis, 2003). The results of the work confirm that tablet computers are an effective tool in assessing e-materials in larger classes for two primary reasons. Firstly, design of e-forms facilitates rigorous process of reflection and understanding assessment criteria that in turn benefit students when preparing for the assessment. Hence, legible and detailed feedback is produced anytime anywhere with synchronous updates within the marking team. Secondly, students benefit from immediate comprehensive feedback allowing them to reflect on and improve their understanding of subject matters, as well as to engage in discussing specific details of the work that are captured through the form. An unexpected outcome was the enhanced reputation and respect to the tutors amongst students, the triggering of student curiosity and enthusiasm in applying similar approach to their own work. The diffusion for the practice amongst other units and identifying other purposes for which the mobile app could be used are also seen as achievements exceeding the expectations of the project team

The Economy Of Typography (the Arrangement or Mode of Operation of Typography)

The thesis will show that the current research into legibility and readability regarding certain aspects or characters of type is incomplete, and will demonstrate what further research is necessary to complete the analysis of these aspects or characters in the economy of typography in continuous text. Chapter 1 will show that the development of reading depends on the legibility of the typography and characters ‘recognizing patterns, planning strategy, and feeling’ in other words reading and writing are interdependent all depend in some part on the construction of the characters and their relationship to each other. It will also show that readable writing is desirable and important for the reader’s sake. Chapter 2 will deal with the practical presentation of the characters of what the reading public read, and the role played by legibility and readability of typography in conveying their message. Printers and designers will also have a working knowledge and experience of legibility and readability which is incorporated into typograhy presentations, and this also is taken into account in chapter 2. Chapter 3 reviews the criteria and methods used in typography readability and legibility research. The research will show that readability is the ease with which the eye can absorb the message and move along the line, and legibility is based on the ease with which one letter can be identified from another. Chapter 4 entitled Analysis and Recommendations concludes the thesis with a summary of chapters 1, 2 and 3 before presenting a comparative analysis of current research into legibility, with particular emphasis on misreading or misrecognition of characters, and provides illustrations of the conclusions reached by way of bar chart and tables. Appendix One of the thesis contains a comprehensive list of the research into legibility and readability. Appendix Two contains the graphics of Benjamin Sherbow showing typography layout supportive of type spacing matters discussed in chapter 2. The thesis has an extensive bibliography of the works referred to throughout the thesis

Evaluating the Readability of Scientific Web Pages Using Intelligent Analysis Tools

The World Wide Web (WWW) is a primary resource of information. With the growth of the WWW, it is not only enough to have a web presence, but also to have a highly readable website. Scientific web pages include text content, tables, graphs, charts, images, mathematical formulae that are difficult to represent in a legible manner. This study involved creating a sample scientific website. Users had to browse a sample website and answer a survey questionnaire. The survey responses were analyzed using data mining techniques from SAS Enterprise Miner to determine the main factors affecting readability of the website

Striving for Modernity: Layout and Abstracts in the Biomedical Literature

Most academic journals have a fairly consistent look: they are structured similarly, their text is divided into similar sections; for example, they have an abstract at the beginning of the manuscript, and their text is usually organized in two columns. There may be different reasons for this similarity, ranging from the need to contain publication costs by using less page space to conforming to an internationally well-accepted format that may be perceived as the hallmark of academic articles. We surveyed 35 medical journals founded before 1960 and looked for their change in format over time and how this was experienced by and explained to readers. We then discussed what recent research has shown about the effects of layout on reading, looking for further explanations as to why this format was so successful

Educational use cases from a shared exploration of e-books and iPads

E-books and e-book readers are becoming increasingly widely available, particularly for the general reader, and there have been many studies on their adoption. However, less is known about their use for educational and academic purposes. We report here on work carried out on e-books and e-book applications using iPads by academic and teaching staff. After considering pedagogical issues and reporting survey results, we identify a spiral of six key use case areas for e-books. This spiral of use cases moves from basic e-book use, through situational reading, e-books and learning, using multiple learning resources, collaborative/group learning, to e-book production. We discuss each of these use case areas and provide guidelines that will be of interest to practitioners and researchers alike

Attention is All They Need: Exploring the Media Archaeology of the Computer Vision Research Paper

The success of deep learning has led to the rapid transformation and growth of many areas of computer science, including computer vision. In this work, we examine the effects of this growth through the computer vision research paper itself by analyzing the figures and tables in research papers from a media archaeology perspective. We ground our investigation both through interviews with veteran researchers spanning computer vision, graphics and visualization, and computational analysis of a decade of vision conference papers. Our analysis focuses on elements with roles in advertising, measuring and disseminating an increasingly commodified "contribution." We argue that each of these elements has shaped and been shaped by the climate of computer vision, ultimately contributing to that commodification. Through this work, we seek to motivate future discussion surrounding the design of the research paper and the broader socio-technical publishing system

The Use of Multiple Slate Devices to Support Active Reading Activities

Reading activities in the classroom and workplace occur predominantly on paper. Since existing electronic devices do not support these reading activities as well as paper, users have difficulty taking full advantage of the affordances of electronic documents. This dissertation makes three main contributions toward supporting active reading electronically. The first contribution is a comprehensive set of active reading requirements, drawn from three decades of research into reading processes. These requirements explain why existing devices are inadequate for supporting active reading activities. The second contribution is a multi-slate reading system that more completely supports the active reading requirements above. Researchers believe the suitability of paper for active reading is largely due to the fact it distributes content across different sheets of paper, which are capable of displaying information as well as capturing input. The multi-slate approach draws inspiration from the independent reading and writing surfaces that paper provides, to blend the beneficial features of e-book readers, tablets, PCs, and tabletop computers. The development of the multi-slate system began with the Dual-Display E-book, which used two screens to provide richer navigation capabilities than a single-screen device. Following the success of the Dual-Display E-book, the United Slates, a general-purpose reading system consisting of an extensible number of slates, was created. The United Slates consisted of custom slate hardware, specialized interactions that enabled the slates to be used cooperatively, and a cloud-based infrastructure that robustly integrated the slates with users' existing computing devices and workflow. The third contribution is a series of evaluations that characterized reading with multiple slates. A laboratory study with 12 participants compared the relative merits of paper and electronic reading surfaces. One month long in-situ deployments of the United Slates with graduate students in the humanities found the multi-slate configuration to be highly effective for reading. The United Slates system delivered desirable paper-like qualities that included enhanced reading engagement, ease of navigation, and peace-of-mind while also providing superior electronic functionality. The positive feedback suggests that the multi-slate configuration is a desirable method for supporting active reading activities