College Students' Perceptions of the C-Print Speech-to-Text Transcription System.

C-Print is a real-time speech-to-text transcription system used as a support service with deaf students in mainstreamed classes. Questionnaires were administered to 36 college students in 32 courses in which the C-Print system was used in addition to interpreting and note taking. Twenty-two of these students were also interviewed. Questionnaire items included student ratings of lecture comprehension. Student ratings indicated good comprehension with C-Print, and the mean rating was significantly higher than that for understanding of the interpreter. Students also rated the hard copy printout provided by C-Print as helpful, and they reported that they used these notes more frequently than the handwritten notes from a paid student note taker. Interview results were consistent with those for the questionnaire. Questionnaire and interview responses regarding use of C-Print as the only support service indicated that this arrangement would be acceptable to many students, but not to others. Communication characteristics were related to responses to the questionnaire. Students who were relatively proficient in reading and writing English, and in speech-reading, responded more favorably to C-Print.

Approaches to studying in deaf and hearing students in higher education.

We conducted a survey to compare the responses of 149 deaf students and 121 hearing students taking the same courses to a shortened and adapted version of the Approaches to Studying Inventory. In general, the impact of deafness on approaches to studying was relatively slight, and deaf students appeared to be at least as capable as hearing students of engaging with the underlying meaning of the materials to be learned. We used factor analysis to identify eight scales, and differences between the two groups were statistically significant on four of these scales. Discriminant analysis indicated that deaf students found it more difficult to relate ideas on different topics and that this was more marked in those who preferred to communicate using sign. However, deaf students were more likely than hearing students to adopt a critical approach and to analyze the internal structure of the topics studied.

The promise of the World Wide Web and other telecommunication technologies within deaf education.

The authors summarize a national survey that collected information on instructional technology resources available at schools serving deaf students in the United States. Results indicated that over 70% of these schools have access to the Internet and World Wide Web. The authors also explore innovative uses of the Internet and provide examples of specific applications for deaf students.

Characteristics of effective teachers.

We designed and administered rating and ranking instruments to examine the perceptions about teaching characteristics held by administrators, academic department chairpersons responsible for evaluating teaching, instructional faculty, and deaf college students. The differences in perceptions found between supervisors and teachers about characteristics of effective teaching indicate a need for ongoing dialogue. In addition, teachers and deaf college students were found to differ in their views of the importance of certain characteristics, and we suggest teachers discuss these perceptions with students. We also recommend additional research on particular characteristics of effective teaching.