Evaluations

Other Formats

Content

The content of Lexia is reliable and up-to-date. The voice-over is female without any definite accent, it is sufficiently clear and not annoying for the user.

Lexia starts by introducing the basic vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u) in Level One, to blends and three syllable words in Level Four. Lexia constantly reinforces words learned and progresses in different units. It allows the users to work at their own level as they progress through the units and levels in order to improve the students’ level of reading and word recognition. The units increase in difficulty as the student moves through them. Automatic branching is turned on when the software is installed.  The teacher can, if they wish, turn this facility off and select the specific unit that they want the pupil to complete. The teacher does not have control in inputting, changing words or recording voice. While Lexia is very helpful to students with literacy difficulties, it is not switch or touchscreen accessible.

Each level has five topics. These topics are represented by bar graphs. In my view, it is best if the students work on each of the five activities rather than working on one in particular. Lexia is very repetitive and repeats words and links syllables throughout the levels and within the activities at the same level. This aids memorisation of new words and is of particular use to students with learning disabilities who may experience problems with the recall of information.
 

Lexia is presented in a variety of learning modes.  Depending on the particular activity, the user will have to listen to words, use the keyboard to type in information or click and drag words into the correct place.  As students move through the units, the first section is usually untimed allowing the student to practice words initially. The second section tends to be timed in order to test students to see if they have learned the material.  I found that the students enjoyed being timed and treated it as a game.

The ‘student records’ and ‘reports’ option can be accessed through teacher options. These records can be copied onto floppy disks and transferred to other computers. Progress reports can be viewed on the screen, or printed out. Directions on how to complete the activities and demonstrations are offered at the start of each activity thus aiding independent learning and developing problem-solving skills.

There are three types of reports available on Lexia:

• Achievement Reports: provides bar graphs that illustrate the number of units a student has completed in each activity
• Individual Reports: provides detailed information regarding a student’s work session on Lexia Reading System. This report provides information on which units have been used and how many errors were made in each unit
• Class Reports: summarises the most recent use of Lexia by each student in the class. The report is broken up into sections, one section for each activity. I found this to be most useful as it contains headings showing units, number of wrong answers, number of questions given and how many attempts the students made.