Personalized self-assessment for deaf and hard–of–hearing students

Abstract

This paper describes teaching and learning services provided to Deaf (D) and Hard-of- Hearing (HH) students in Higher Education, using pilot Personalized Learning Environments (PELEs). Utilization scenarios are used for the presentation of such services. One type of service offered to D-HH student is personalized self-assessment, which is implemented using W-PARES, a Web-based assessment system. Before self- assessment testing, D-HH students need to understand in depth the questions of self- assessment tests. For this reason, D-HH students can either attend a mainstream class using PDAs or PCs to adapt presentations according to their needs, or they can attend a parallel “assistive" class, where there is a Sign Language interpreter. The self-assessment process includes two phases: a phase of ordinary self-assessment, where a set of questions is randomly selected from a Question Base and an adaptive self-assessment phase, where questions are personalized to each student. The tests explanations provided to D-HH students before the assessment process, as well as the self-assessment tests results, are recorded and a preliminary follow up is conducted. Moreover, self-assessment tests results of D-HH students are compared with corresponding results of hearing students.