otu.lea
Lead: Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf
ZeMKI-Lab "Media Education and Educational Media"
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration: 2017 - 2020
According to PISA, about 7.5 million functional illiterates live in Germany and about 20 percent of 15-year-olds are at or below Level 1. otu.lea" is an online test environment for functional illiterates and teachers in literacy courses and is being developed as part of the lea. project (literacy development of workers).
The lea. research network consisted of five sub-projects, a network management and cooperation partners from the practical field. The project was carried out between 2008 and 2011. The lea. project has developed a multidimensional and hierarchical competence model for adults with extremely low literacy and numeracy skills. Based on this, a diagnostic competence measurement procedure (lea.) was developed and empirically validated. With this method it is possible on the one hand to determine which competences already exist (strength orientation) and on the other hand which competences still need to be developed or promoted. In addition, individual support measures can be derived. The diagnostic competence measurement procedure is implemented in the online test environment otu.lea.
Due to the target group, the developers of otu.lea are faced with special challenges. It should be noted that functional illiterates tend to have low ICT literacy. This means that they are little used to dealing with computers and new technologies and require special support in order not to have a disadvantage in a computer-based test due to their low ICT literacy, even without outside help. otu.lea therefore integrates innovative multimedia item formats and support functions. These are e.g. audio files, (work- and lifeworld-related) videos, animations and so-called cues, which e.g. facilitate orientation by animating a button. The use of these item formats and support functions is conceivable for anyone with a tendency towards low ICT literacy.
Further information can be accessed here.