Traditional teaching, learning and public talks are case examples in which materials presented can easily be marred with ambiguity, misunderstanding or total lack of understanding. These could be caused by diverse reasons or scenarios, such as English being a secondary language of the professor or student, moments of distraction or poor/advanced vocabulary. Many students also find it difficult to take notes during classes or meetings while trying to simultaneously absorb the information being presented to them.
In this project, we present an educational productivity tool (Vopio app) that creates digital copies of shared materials. It explores avenues to solve the aforementioned problems and is designed to boost understanding of materials taught in class as well as improve the quality of teaching and learning. Vopio is an interactive, voice-to-text application that provides clickable keywords hyperlinked to online dictionary APIs (application programming interface). The benefits of Vopio include software features that bring machine learning to generate a curated Personal Dictionary tailored to the student’s individual learning journey. This feature facilitates in-class learning and teaching even for users with hearing needs.
Keywords: Live captions; natural speech recognition; hyperlinked keywords; synchronous lectures; app; accessibility; learning; hearing; comprehension; teaching; academic success
International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2021 / IATED Digital Library)
Publication date: 11-09-2021
Reference: O.D. Anyaiwe, R. Mesquita (2021) VOICE TO TEXT APP: QUALITY TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH HIGH TECH (WWW.VOPIO. INFO), ICERI2021 Proceedings, pp. 1180-1185.
v stands for voice;
opio stands for learning, from the Finnish word oppia.
Team Members: Rod Mesquita, Jorge Chagas, and Suvro Sudip.
Award description: "In recognition of your completion of the spring 2014 Michigan I- Corps@LTU Program. Lawrence Technological University encourages you, as a member of the first group of innovators and entrepreneurs to participate in the Michigan I-Corps@LTU Program, to continue your entrepreneurial journey in confidence, armed with the practical knowledge of this world-class business model methodology."
Project name: Vopio Language App
Project name: Vopio App - Interactive live subtitles for deaf students and language learners.
Award date: 09-20-2020