Electronic Performance Support by Schaik Paul van;Barker Philip; & Paul Van Schaik

Author:Schaik, Paul van;Barker, Philip; & Paul Van Schaik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

EVALUATING THE DYSLEXSIM SYSTEM

Various studies have been conducted in order to assess what potential end-users of DyslexSim thought about it – whether they liked it, found it helpful and could see a real need for the tool. The results obtained from these studies have provided a growing stock of evidence in support of the tool’s effectiveness to facilitate communication (about dyslexia) from the perspective of staff development workshops. The information that has been gathered has also helped to further improve and develop the tool itself. To illustrate the way in which DyslexSim has been evaluated, the remainder of this section presents a summary of the findings obtained from a typical evaluation study2 in which the tool was used as a group communication aid (see Figure 7.2).

The study involved two workshops, each of which involved a small number of teams – as shown in Figure 7.5. Both workshops covered issues related to improving participants’ knowledge and understanding of dyslexia – and the tools available to achieve this. During each workshop, DyslexSim was used to demonstrate the types of visual and perceptual problem that dyslexic learners encounter. At the end of the workshops, each of the participants was asked to complete a DyslexSim evaluation questionnaire; accounts of the perceived effectiveness of the tool were also provided by the two tutors3 who presented the workshops.

Of the 29 participants who took part in the study, the majority (52 per cent) performed a dyslexia support role. Within the remainder, 34 per cent were lecturers, 21 per cent played a disability advisory function and 24 per cent stated that they undertook some other role – such as a special-needs assessor or an examination assistant. There was a broad variation in knowledge of dyslexia among the participants; however, the majority had a good understanding of it (and also worked in this field). Although a few participants possessed some knowledge, hardly any of them felt that they were experts in this area. Most participants (69 per cent) felt that they had some knowledge of visual and perceptual problems – within this group, 17 per cent said they knew a great deal and 14 per cent said they knew a little; none of the participants felt they knew nothing about these problems.

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