Lecture summarizer: a tool for personalized learning and assessment

Abstract

This thesis’s endeavour ventured into the development of a semi-automatic, artificial note-taker. Customer’s proposition was the summarization of attended academic lectures, due to their inability to mark down information in time, therefore, extensive research on the note-taking practices amongst students was conducted. The primary research question driving this thesis determined if the utility of combined modern technologies in a scenario described by the customer, effectively enhance students’ engagement. Additionally, the following research question addressed the adaptations of various digital technologies in the education field and applied the best practices in order to provide the customer with the most suitable solution. The purpose of the literature review presented in this thesis was to describe and abstract the note-taking practices among students through qualitative research of influential publications on this phenomenon. The critical literature regarding the potential negative effects of note-taking on conceptualization was highly considered to determine the product’s potential viability for everyday academic use, however, these effects were found to be relatively infrequent among the average student. An overview of the most recent applicable technologies was provided, detailing their early recorded origins and contemporary abstractions. These technologies were applied to construct a prototype of the desired product according to the researched noting requirements. The developed product proved to be a viable solution for students defined as low efficiency listeners. The software was designed to record and transcribe given lecture, reduce it into keywords, and generate informative descriptions of these keywords. The product was released as a free and redistributable software under the General Public License version 3 to empower individuals in their learning endeavours.