2018 Aira Exploratory Study

One important conclusion we can draw from this study is that close to 80% of students (11 out of 14) preferred the ability to write text plus math in the same edit field, as opposed to having to split answer responses between two different fields—one for math and one for text. Although some students initially questioned the value of text plus math capability, this attitude seemed to be at least partially due to the fact that few students tried using more complicated math symbols such as square roots or fractions in their explanations. On closer examination, the small number of students who favored having separate math and text fields had been impacted by secondary issues such as not liking to use uncontracted braille in the text plus math fields (which is only a temporary issue) and not liking the fact that forgetting to insert the end math symbol (or accidentally inserting the open math symbol without meaning to) meant the student had to go back later and make corrections. It was clear that even these few dissenting students could see the value of being able to insert various math symbols and equations together with text within the same entry field, as well as the fact that they could write several lines of math to show their work in the same window, both of which is possible in the text plus math fields.

We also found that students were able to easily use the new cursor routing capabilities and found the process simple and efficient.

On the negative side, the two issues which students found most challenging in this study were the use of dot 8s in the braille display to underline a math expression to show that it had been closed, and the need for students to input uncontracted braille in the text plus math fields. Thankfully, the uncontracted braille issue is temporary in nature, as support for contracted braille in the text plus math fields is planned. In the case of the problematic dot 8 issue, one student suggestion we found promising is to implement a flashing closing symbol which is autogenerated when a start symbol is typed, but then stops flashing once the student manually inputs the closing symbol.