| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 學習科學研究所 === 105 === Because Chinese belongs to logographic writing system, congenital visually impaired students in Taiwan tend to have cognitive bias against Chinese character recognition, which not only leads to frequent typos in Chinese input but seriously influences learning and future career development in Chinese speaking society. Previous studies indicate this issue not merely because of lack of accurate understanding of Chinese character recognition, but because of inappropriate input method. Moreover, although E-learning has been globally regarded as a common learning mode, the visually impaired cannot enjoy equal access to online learning even with the support of screen reader such as NVDA because most websites in Taiwan are without careful consideration of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0).
This thesis is composed of four iterative studies in two years. Study I conducted a Chinese input method efficiency test with follow up questionnaire and found Boshiamy input method, a root shapes based input system, is more ideal input method for visually impaired learners. Study II designed a Boshiamy based experimental instruction on a congenital visually impaired 2nd grader. After six-month treatment, the results indicted initial benefits of learning Boshiamy input system. However, our study showed teaching Boshiamy input system bear heavy load for student, parents, and teachers due to time, space and other constraints. To solve this problem, study III conducted needs analysis and in depth interviews with stakeholders and thereby developed an online learning system, Visually Impaired People E-learning Platform (VIP), under WCAG 2.0. To improve learning and teaching effectiveness of Boshiamy input system, our study also designed an e-Boshiamy curriculum onto VIP. After robustness Web Accessibility Testing and expert evaluation, the results showed VIP is a user friendly, WCAG 2.0 oriented online learning platform for Taiwanese visually impaired.
To evaluate system feasibility, study IV conducted an experiment on a congenital visually impaired 5th grader and her parents for five weeks. Through observation, in depth interviews, and log analysis, the results showed as follows: (1) The congenital visually impaired student develops initial concept of Chinese character recognition and input skills using VIP and e-Boshiamy curriculum. Although the learner relies heavily on her parents in the beginning of online learning, she can gradually develop self directed online learning independently; (2) Although the parents have to put great efforts to support visually impaired student to learn online, as long as visually impaired student develops enough self directed learning competency, parents therefore lower their workload. The role of parents shifts from instructors to coaches as well; (3) The teacher of visually impaired highly affirmed the benefits of VIP online learning system and indicated their changing role to learning facilitators.
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