Web designers use visual cues such as layout and typography to make pages easier to navigate and understand. Yet, screen readers generally ignore these features and present page information in a linear audio stream. We investigate whether transcoding the visual semantics of grid-based layouts to tables supports better navigation. In a controlled experiment, participants navigated re-written pages significantly faster when doing data synthesis tasks and more accurately when looking up information meeting multiple criteria. Participants rated their table navigation experience better in terms of effort, memorization, ease of navigation, understanding of page information, and confidence in submitted answers. Participants attributed these gains to the table structure’s support for (1) predictable audio presentation, (2) adopting an appropriate search strategy, and (3) making sense of page content. Contrary to the established belief that tables are inaccessible, our results show that tables can facilitate navigation when users need to synthesize across page content.
It seemed like a good plan. The teacher would give the students points for each book they read using the Accelerated Reader program. Then she would take the ones who scored enough points to a pizza party at the end of the semester.Lots of reading was going on. Many points were being scored. All looked good until the teacher realized that four boys had fi gured out a plan. Each boy read one book, then using the other boys' passwords, took the quiz on that book for all four students. They were racking up points, but they weren't reading much, and, worse, they weren't learning anything except how to scam a system.Most teachers at one point or another have tried some rewards system. Charts on the wall with stars. Checkmarks in the grade book. Ribbons. Candy. Luncheons. Most parents have tried similar tricks. Extended curfews. Presents. Money. While there may be an initial increase in desired behavior, in most cases, these attempts to buy performance won't last long. Eventually they may do serious damage to students' intrinsic motivation.
Stop the pay, stop the playOffering rewards seems like it should yield good results, but the opposite is often more likely the case.
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