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Educational Automatic Question Generation Improves Reading Comprehension in Non-native Speakers: A Learner-Centric Case Study

Steuer, Tim ; Filighera, Anna ; Tregel, Thomas ; Miede, André (2022)
Educational Automatic Question Generation Improves Reading Comprehension in Non-native Speakers: A Learner-Centric Case Study.
In: Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 5
doi: 10.3389/frai.2022.900304
Article, Bibliographie

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Abstract

Background: Asking learners manually authored questions about their readings improves their text comprehension. Yet, not all reading materials comprise sufficiently many questions and many informal reading materials do not contain any. Therefore, automatic question generation has great potential in education as it may alleviate the lack of questions. However, currently, there is insufficient evidence on whether or not those automatically generated questions are beneficial for learners' understanding in reading comprehension scenarios.

Objectives: We investigate the positive and negative effects of automatically generated short-answer questions on learning outcomes in a reading comprehension scenario.

Methods: A learner-centric, in between-groups, quasi-experimental reading comprehension case study with 48 college students is conducted. We test two hypotheses concerning positive and negative effects on learning outcomes during the text comprehension of science texts and descriptively explore how the generated questions influenced learners.

Results: The results show a positive effect of the generated questions on the participants learning outcomes. However, we cannot entirely exclude question-induced adverse side effects on learning of non-questioned information. Interestingly, questions identified as computer-generated by learners nevertheless seemed to benefit their understanding.

Take Away: Automatic question generation positively impacts reading comprehension in the given scenario. In the reported case study, even questions recognized as computer-generated supported reading comprehension.

Item Type: Article
Erschienen: 2022
Creators: Steuer, Tim ; Filighera, Anna ; Tregel, Thomas ; Miede, André
Type of entry: Bibliographie
Title: Educational Automatic Question Generation Improves Reading Comprehension in Non-native Speakers: A Learner-Centric Case Study
Language: English
Date: 2022
Publisher: Frontiers
Journal or Publication Title: Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence
Volume of the journal: 5
Collation: 14 Seiten
DOI: 10.3389/frai.2022.900304
Corresponding Links:
Abstract:

Background: Asking learners manually authored questions about their readings improves their text comprehension. Yet, not all reading materials comprise sufficiently many questions and many informal reading materials do not contain any. Therefore, automatic question generation has great potential in education as it may alleviate the lack of questions. However, currently, there is insufficient evidence on whether or not those automatically generated questions are beneficial for learners' understanding in reading comprehension scenarios.

Objectives: We investigate the positive and negative effects of automatically generated short-answer questions on learning outcomes in a reading comprehension scenario.

Methods: A learner-centric, in between-groups, quasi-experimental reading comprehension case study with 48 college students is conducted. We test two hypotheses concerning positive and negative effects on learning outcomes during the text comprehension of science texts and descriptively explore how the generated questions influenced learners.

Results: The results show a positive effect of the generated questions on the participants learning outcomes. However, we cannot entirely exclude question-induced adverse side effects on learning of non-questioned information. Interestingly, questions identified as computer-generated by learners nevertheless seemed to benefit their understanding.

Take Away: Automatic question generation positively impacts reading comprehension in the given scenario. In the reported case study, even questions recognized as computer-generated supported reading comprehension.

Additional Information:

Keywords: automatic question generation, self-assessment, natural language processing, reading comprehension, education

Classification DDC: 000 Generalities, computers, information > 004 Computer science
Divisions: 18 Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
18 Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology > Institute of Computer Engineering
18 Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology > Institute of Computer Engineering > Multimedia Communications
Date Deposited: 02 Aug 2024 12:41
Last Modified: 02 Aug 2024 12:41
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