CAPITAL
Comprehension and Pronunciation Instructional Tools for Adult Learners
In 2012, a large-scale international study known as the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) was developed to evaluate and compare the general skills of adults around the world, of which literacy was a major focus.1 Literacy proficiency was measured using a 5-level scoring metric, where a Level 3 proficiency was determined to be the minimum skill level required for a person to adequately cope with the demands of day-to-day life.
A U.S. household study conducted by the PIAAC in 2014 found that 51% of Americans over 18 years old failed to reach this minimum benchmark.2 What’s more, nearly 13 million of these adults were found to be "functionally illiterate" and unable to perform even the simplest of literacy tasks, a number which encompasses roughly 4% of the entire U.S. adult population.
By current U.S. population numbers, this statistic represents nearly 13 million Americans who lack even the most basic of reading skills, and nearly 165 million Americans who struggle to read at an adequate enough level to get by day-to-day.
To address this problem, we’ve developed CAPITAL: Comprehension and Pronunciation Instructional Tools for Adult Learners.
The CAPITAL Project provides algorithmically-generated literacy exercises to adults in basic education programs. CAPITAL allows adult literacy instructors to guide the creation of learning materials to align with their desired curriculum, and delivers these materials to students through a mobile application specifically designed for users with minimal reading ability. A unique suite of algorithms allows exercises to be created completely automatically, substantially reducing the amount of time and effort needed for instructors to create high-quality practice materials for their students.
Instructors specify what types of exercises they want to receive, and their desired skill progression
Our algorithms generate all possible exercises that meet the specified parameters
Instructors organize the returned materials into courses and assign them to students
Students receive their assigned exercises in the mobile app, following the skill progression specified by the instructor
The app intelligently assigns materials to students according to their demonstrated skill level and weaknesses
Students level up their skills over time by practicing often, at a rate optimized for long-term retention and learning
Our unique suite of algorithms generates learning materials automatically, saving instructors significant time and effort.
Materials can be generated from virtually any curriculum, and can be customized to the exact needs of the instructor.
Our exercises cover virtually all phonological and phonemic awareness skills, accurately and thoroughly.
Our application is designed to maximize long-term learning, providing a customized experience for each user based on their performance.
Exercises are presented in the form of games, where users are motivated to earn points and level up their skills.
Extensive user testing shows that our application is usable, intuitive, and learnable for adults with below-average literacy.
The CAPITAL Project was Jennifer's doctoral thesis. She defended her dissertation, Algorithmic Generation and Mobile Distribution of Phonetic, Orthographic, and Inference-Based Literacy Exercises for Adult Learners, in December 2017.