An Online Software to Support Lifelong Learning Strengthening
Reading and Logical Mathematical Skills
Rosa Flores-Macias
1
, Araceli Otero
2
and Alvar Saenz-Otero
3
1
Psychology Department, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
2
Juntos Construímos, Mexico City, Mexico
3
Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
Keywords: Lifelong Learning, Educational Software, Online.
Abstract: The process of lifelong learning requires adults to have the basic skills for cognitive growth, including
reading comprehension and mathematical/logical reasoning. Teaching tools for adult education will not be
successful unless the learners have these skills, regardless of the tool design. This paper presents the results
from the pilot implementation of the “Lectura Inteligente: Agilmente” software which was completed by
100 administrative workers from a Mexican government agency. The data shows statistical improvements
between the pre-evaluation and the post-evaluation in four of the five variables measured: speed,
comprehension, efficiency, logical and mathematical reasoning. The social validation surveys indicate that
the learners had an overall positive review of the software, but did indicate it requires effort and dedication
for success.
1 INTRODUCTION
Lifelong learning is the active participation by adults
in learning experiences which maintain them current
in their skills and knowledge required for their
professional activities and daily life, being adults
the central pillar in the learning process (Fisher,
2000; Coles & Werquin, 2007; Head, Van Hoeck &
Garson, 2015). However, further research indicates
that for lifelong learning to be successful, there is a
need for adults to have better learning skills so they
can regulate the process themselves.
A qualitative analysis of illiterate individuals in
Turkey concluded that the fear of not being able to
learn (as well as age, language/culture, and gender)
kept the illiterate adults from enrolling in face-to-
face programs (Yildiz, 2008). At two regional
training centers in the Netherlands, participants in
adult education programs reported that the
improvement in their reading, writing, and Internet
skills gave them a greater sense of satisfaction
(Greef, Verté, & Segers, 2012). To help students
acquire higher-order reading skills, a face to face
course used a variety of approaches to address
information processing, metacognition, and critical
thinking. Students become stronger readers and
learners through the direct application of learned
skills into relevant courses (Shaffer, Eshbach, &
Santiago-Blay, 2015).
Digital technologies create an alternative method
of face to face courses. Online teaching tools not
only can develop basic learning skills, they can also
provide a better learning environment since they
adapt to working hours and learning pace. Online
teaching tools are improved by the availability of an
online mentor who can supervise and provide
individual feedback to the adult learners. Further,
online tools can provide content to a large range of
learners: from the fearful ones, who question their
basic skills, to the (over) confident ones who
challenge the need to further advance their skills
(such as reading).
In order to accommodate the specific needs of
adult learners with full-time jobs which expect
constant advancement, the team created an
educational online software system based on the
“Lectura Inteligente” (LI) (Smart Reading) online
system previously used only in formal educational
environments (elementary through university). LI
courses combined an online teaching system with in-
class face-to-face teacher guidance and supervision
The success of these courses was previously
704
Flores-Macias, R., Otero, A. and Saenz-Otero, A.
An Online Software to Support Lifelong Learning Strengthening Reading and Logical Mathematical Skills.
DOI: 10.5220/0006354607040709
In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2017) - Volume 1, pages 704-709
ISBN: 978-989-758-239-4
Copyright © 2017 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

documented in (Flores-Macias, Otero, y Lavallee,
2010; Flores-Macías, Otero, 2013).
Educational software has several advantages,
including (Warschauer & Healey, 1998; Kamil,
Intrator, & Kim, 2000, in Flores-Macías et al.):
 Address the individual needs of each learner,
allowing work at their own pace;
 Create a less hierarchical relationship with the
teacher, who becomes an online mentor;
 Provide a creative, fun, motivating
environment;
 Enabling individual support and feedback.
This paper describes the design and presents
evaluation results for the new use of LI as “Lectura
Inteligente: Agilmente” (LI:A) (Smart Reading:
Agility). The system was adapted specifically to
promote the reading and mathematical/logical
reasoning of adults engaged in lifelong learning.
2 LI:A, SOFTWARE DESIGN
This section presents both the technical and
pedagogic design of the LI:A software. The
intention of the technical section is to describe how
the software can reach a varied labor force; it does
not delve deeply into the actual programming. The
pedagogic design shows the reasoning behind the
content of the courses.
2.1 Technical Description
LI has three modules: (1) Reader Module, in which
the adult learner performs all their activities; (2)
Mentor Module, used by on line mentors who
monitor the progress and provide regular feedback
and support to the learners; it includes the possibility
to see individual and group progress; the mentors
can see the content of the full course done by the
students; and (3) Administrator Module, used by the
core team to create and manage the content of the
courses, allowing real-time adaptation of content and
creation of new courses for new groups of learners.
These three modules and their interaction are
presented graphically in Figure 1.
The LI:A software, used the Administrator
Module to create four new courses specifically for
the lifelong learning adults, with four different levels
(the design of these courses is detailed below). The
Mentor Module was also enhanced to better address
the need for mentors to remotely support the
learners. Specifically, an integrated messaging
system was added and mentors were provided with
better summary reports to help supervise a wide
range of learners. Administrators of LI can use the
Mentor Module to supervise the learners directly,
and also the mentors themselves, ensuring there are
multiple levels of supervision to ensure learners get
constant feedback while working remotely at their
own pace. The Reader Module was also enhanced to
include the ability of learners to respond to the
feedback from mentors, making the interaction two
ways.
The process to start the course also required new
improvements to LI. During normal LI courses,
teachers directly told students what to do, and they
were designed so all the students in a class took the
course for their grade. LI:A required the learners to
be automatically assigned to the right course level.
To this end, the LI:A registration system used a-
priori information on the educational level of the
learners (elementary, preparatory/high school,
undergraduate college, and advanced degrees). The
program administered an initial speed and reading
comprehension Diagnostic Assessment (DA) based
on that a-priori educational level.
Based on the learner’s performance on the DA, a
course was assigned automatically: a very low
diagnostic (< 30% comprehension) result meant a
Figure 1: The modules of LI.
Course D
Course C
Course B
Course A
Administrator
Creates course content
Reader
Learner uses to
course lessons
Mentor
Monitors
progress and
sends feedback
Database
Messaging
Results
An Online Software to Support Lifelong Learning Strengthening Reading and Logical Mathematical Skills
705

learner would be assigned to a level below; a very
high score (> 90% comprehension) assigned a
higher level; other scores maintained the same level.
After completing the diagnostic, the learner was
automatically assigned to the corresponding “class”
– but rather than a regular school class; it’s a virtual
group, all supported by the same mentor. The
mentor sent an initial “welcome greeting” to the
group, to all the learners. Figure 2 summarizes the
LI:A process from registration through Final
Assessment (FA).
The software was designed with deadlines, but
not a set pace. Specifical registration took place on
Sep 2015, and the courses ran from Oct 2015 to Dec
2015. Each learner could work as fast or as slow as
they needed, while being required to complete the
course by the deadline.
The LI:A system is programmed using a standard
LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) setup. This
allows the online courses to dynamically be
presented, including real-time data collection and
availability between learners and mentors. There
was no need for the learners to install any special
software, and the students were able to conduct the
course on multiple devices and platforms. Learners
successfully used PC’s and tablets – the program is
not geared towards phone use (although it can
work), since it requires text (sometimes multiple
paragraphs) input during some exercises, which is
complex to do in the small screen/keyboard space of
small devices.
2.2 Pedagogic Design
Experts in educational psychology have collaborated
in the development of the educational content, it is
also the result of several investigations related to
fluency and reading comprehension and the
development of logical / mathematical thinking that
began in 2006 (Flores, Otero, Lavallée & Otero,
2101; Flores & Otero, 2014).
For its instructional design, desirable features
are considered in this learning tool such as: the
adaptation to the characteristics of learning
(cognitive and affective) of users with different
levels of education (from elementary school to
college); the curricular requirements; to maintain
appropriate challenges to create interest or avoid
frustration.
The activities in LI are designed thinking of the
user to become autonomous and learning engaged,
besides of the reading comprehension or strategic
thinking in solving problems; the goal is to promote
self regulated learning, critical thinking and
communication skills. But the reading fluidity
exercises require drill and practice. In general, LI
does not encourage learning by trial and error
method
LI:A was designed specifically for adults whose
work environment requires them to be efficient and
effective readers of all kinds of texts, as well as to
demonstrate mathematical and logical thinking
which enables them to find solutions to problems
which may arise in real-time.
The pedagogic contents (readings, activities, and
types of exercises) for the LI:A software were
chosen in consultation with the Mexican government
agency, which provided the courses for a select
group of their administrative staff. In this way the
staff was able to both, enhance their reading and
mathematical/logic skills, while also reading
material relevant to their work at the agency. In
summary, the contents of the online courses pursued
the following learning objectives:
1) For reading abilities: improvements on both
the speed and comprehension while
maintaining reading self-regulation. This
includes the use of different readings
(narratives, expository texts); additional
vocabulary; training on different reading
strategies for before, during, and after
Figure 2: LI:A Course Process.
Registration
Learners indicated their
education level
Diagnostic
Assessmen
t
DA presented based on
their education
Course
Selection
Each course has:
- 8 lessons
- approx. 30 exercises
per lesson
- approx. 6 questions
per exercise
-approx. 40 hours
Course
Final
Assessmen
t
FA based on assigned
course
Course assigned based
on results from DA –
may be a more basic or
more advanced course
than their education
level default
LLL 2017 - Special Session on Lifelong Learning
706

reading a text; learning strategies;
argumentative abilities; and critical thinking.
2) For mathematical reasoning: real world
problem solving strategies (budgeting,
interest rates, percentage calculation,
fraudulent sales, etc.); interpretations of
tables and charts; and extraction of
information from maps.
3) For logical reasoning: creative and flexible
thinking strategies in daily life situations;
recognition of similes and opposites; finding
differences; create analogies; classify
events; and establish causality between
different events.
Each lesson has different content based on a
strategy to learn at that point. All lessons address
reading, mathematics, and logic abilities. By
emphasizing a strategy in each lesson the students
are able to develop multiple techniques to help their
learning skills. These include study habits, ability to
self-regulate learning, skills to develop an argument,
and even finding answers online. In all exercises
LI:A offer immediate feedback.
3 PILOT PROGRAM RESULTS
LI:A was implemented by the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México (UNAM) upon request by the
government agency. The agency leaders provided an
initial description of the administrative workers as:
age; between 40 to 60 years old; any gender; had
concluded their formal education over 20 years ago;
and had regular full-time jobs with the agency;
during different training courses the performance
was sub-standard, mostly due to limited self-learning
skills.
Participation in the LI:A program was voluntary.
279 learners began the course. 100 learners
completed the final evaluation. Most workers
completed the first lesson, but many did not finish
the second one. The full courses were estimated to
require 40 hours for completion; as mentioned, the
students had 12 weeks (Oct to Dec) to complete the
course.
LI:A collected data on five quantifiable
variables: reading speed (average words per minute);
comprehension (percentage of correct answers to
questions regarding the readings presented to the
learners; the questions increased in complexity as
the lessons progressed); efficient reading (a measure
that combines speed and comprehension, to provide
the efficiency of reading; it ranges from 1[lowest] to
5 [highest]); mathematical reasoning (percentage of
correct answers in: word problem solving, exercises
with table and charts interpretations and extraction
of information from maps ); and logical reasoning
(percentage of correct answers in exercises).
Table 1 presents the improvements measured
between the Diagnostic Assessment (DA) and Final
Assessment (FA). The data is statistically significant
and shows a positive trend in all the skills required
for improved self-learning as related to reading. The
improvements were: Speed (words per minute) [DA:
M=220.2, ED= 69.1 and FA: M= 323.4, ED=8.8;
t(99) = −12.4, p =.00]; Comprehension [DA:
M=71.8, ED= 16.2 and FA: M= 82.8, ED=2.3;
t(99) = −6.2, p=.00]; Efficient Reading [DA:
M=2.30, DE= .95 and FA: M= 3.6, ED=1.0; t(99) =
−10.1, p=.00]; and Logical Reasoning [DA:
M=66.6, DE= 32.2 and FA: M= 83.1, DE=15.4;
t(99) = −5.0, p=.00]. The data for mathematical
reasoning was not statistically significant, but it did
show a positive trend in general and an improvement
between DA and FA [DA: M=45.6, ED= 30.4 and
FA: M= 51.6 ED=25.4; t(99) = -1.7, p >.00].
Table 1: Comparison between the results obtained in
Diagnostic Assessment (DA) and Final Assessment (FA).
Variables assessed in LI:A DA FA
Reading speed (words per
minute)
220 323
Reading comprehension
(percentage of correct
answers)
72 83
Efficient reading (ratio
between speed and
comprehension; out of 5)
2.3 3.6
Math reasoning (percentage
of correct answers)
46 52
Logical reasoning
(percentage of correct
answers)
67 83
Figure 3 shows the progress of the learners in
LI:A. In addition to the diagnostic assessment and
final assessment, the figure shows the results during
lessons L3 and L6. The most significant
improvements are in reading speed, comprehension,
and efficient reading (which are the main goals of
the original LI software). A substantial improvement
is also present in the logical reasoning (a new
pedagogic element to LI:A). The improvements in
mathematical reasoning (also new to LI:A) were
moderate and varied much to be statistically
significant.
An Online Software to Support Lifelong Learning Strengthening Reading and Logical Mathematical Skills
707

Figure 3: Diagnostic, formative, and final assessment in
LI:A. From left to right: speed (green), comprehension
(blue), efficient reading (purple), mathematical reasoning
(orange), logical reasoning (yellow).
The additional presentation of data from lessons
L3 and L6 demonstrates a constant improvement as
the course continued. For example, in L3
comprehension rose to 78%; by L6 it rose more, to
83% (the final average at the time of the FA). It is
important to notice that, since the difficulty of the
readings increases with each lesson, the percentages
obtained in the later lessons and the final assessment
not only show an improvement in comprehension,
but an acquisition of new strategies to approach
more complex texts.
The mathematical reasoning data had
fluctuations. Still, the results of all the lessons and
FA show an improvement over the DA. As with
other types of exercises, the complexity of the
problems increased as the course progressed.
Therefore it is safe to imply that while the trend is
not as clear, the students acquired new mathematical
reasoning skills as the course progressed.
The learners that completed the course filled out
a social validation survey to provide subjective
feedback on LI:A. With regards to the question, Will
the skills help you in other professional settings?”
the results were 61.4% said LI:A is very useful and
31.6% said LI:A is useful. The question, “Is LI:A a
user friendly course?” was answered 86% positive.
Regarding, Were the mentors helpful during the
course?” 68.4% replied they were very helpful and
21.1% that they were somewhat helpful. The
question, “How much time and effort is needed for
positive results?” received 59.6% of answers that
indicated it did require substantial time and effort,
but good results were obtained; 21.1% responded
that it requires substantial time and effort, and the
results are moderate. 70.2% of the pilot study
participants completed the course from home, even
though they were given one hour during work time
to complete the LI:A course.
The participants who did not continue the
program were asked why they had stopped. 80.6%
of them indicated that their workload did not allow
them to continue with LI:A.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained indicate that, as expected, one
of the main obstacles for adults to benefit from
lifelong learning is the limited skill to comprehend
the content of courses and self-regulate their
learning programs (de Greef, Verté, & Segers, 2012;
Shaffer, Eshbach, & Santiago-Blay, 2015). The data
shows that the use of an online system designed to
directly improve these skills, such as LI:A,
contribute positively to overcome this obstacle.
The learners that completed LI:A developed
important reading skills, and improved their
mathematical and logical reasoning (although LI:A
can contribute more to mathematical reasoning in
future versions).
Mathematical reasoning presented the largest
challenge, as the data showed large differences
between learners. Some learners did not have issues
with mathematical reasoning. But for the users who
had many difficulties with mathematical reasoning,
it will be necessary to create a more gradual lesson
plan and add more skills exercises, so that these
learners can experience a constant improvement.
The team will further analyze the results and update
the LI:A courses.
The effectiveness of an online system can be
influenced by the background of the users. While
LI:A provided important reading and reasoning
skills, it was also noticed that some participants
required more support than others. While the
average results are mostly statistically significant,
some data clearly shows that there were participants
that required substantially more support. The mentor
program is essential to provide the help needed by
these students, and will be further improved, based
on the lessons from the pilot program. The results of
the Diagnostic Assessment will be used to identify
the learners at greater risk, and mentors will work
more closely with these users – while maintaining
regular contact with the others.
To address the issue of participants who dropped
out of the program between lessons L1 and L2, the
team learned that it will be necessary to decrease the
difficulty of these two initial lessons, providing a
more gradual start to the course. The difficulty may
then increase a little more steeply in future lessons,
once the learners have acquired the initial basic
skills presented in the first two lessons.
LLL 2017 - Special Session on Lifelong Learning
708

It is important to be aware that the Mexican
government agency provided an economic incentive
to those participants who finished the LI:A course
and provided both facilities (computers / internet
access) and work time for their staff to participate in
the program. These incentives will continue in future
implementation of LI:A.
Last, but not least, the results obtained by the
users as well as their opinions on LI:A indicate that
it is an educational tool that prepares adults for other
lifelong learning experiences. However, it is
necessary that experts in the teaching of adults in
work environments assess LI:A in a comprehensive
manner. For these purposes the rubrics have been
shown to be useful and raised relevant
characteristics that should be considered when
evaluating an educational app (Lee & Cherner,
2015;) Papadakis, Kalogiannakis & Nicholas
Zaranis, 2017). In particular for LI:A it is important
to recognize: the relationship between the skills that
teach LI:A and the preparation for lifelong learning;
the relationship between the content and learning
objectives proposed for LI:A (knowledge and skills);
the adaptation of the instructional design to the
learners’ characteristics and If LI:A is friendly and
easy to interact and navigate.
Collaboration between different professionals
(psychologists, engineers, mathematicians) and
complying with the requirements of the government
agency, are inescapable and complex task;. however,
have been very enriching to LI:A.
REFERENCES
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Note: If you are interested in knowing LI:A software,
please write to [e-mail] to ask
for a free demo.
An Online Software to Support Lifelong Learning Strengthening Reading and Logical Mathematical Skills
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