VoiceEx: Voice Submission System for Interventions in Education

Abstract

Generating self-explanations has been identified as a successful strategy in helping learners engage with course content and organize what they learn in a structured format. While typing an explanation may allow more structure and formality, explaining by voice can be more natural and help free cognitive resources to focus on learning goals and understanding concepts. As we investigated the effects and students' perceptions of using voice or text to self-explain new course concepts, we failed to find a tool that would meet our needs. We present our work in designing and developing VoiceEx, a submission courseware that allows text and voice input to collect data in both mediums. VoiceEx was created to support a self-explanations intervention for computer science students; however, given its features and the advantages of being able to collect spoken responses, it can be used in a variety of environments. Future refinement of this tool includes artificial intelligence features to better guide students' submissions.