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Introduction

The Power of Flexibility and Choice

Examining Alternative Format Usage Before, During and After COVID-19

Accessing Higher Ground 2023

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Meet the Presenters

Chris Aldin

Director of Product, Anthology Ally

Nick Lum

CEO, BeeLine Reader

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Diverse 21^st Century Learning Needs

Supporting diverse 21^st century learners by unlocking

the power of flexibility and choice

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As the title of this presentation states, the power of flexibility and choice is as important as it may have ever been especially with what we saw since COVID-19. Anthology Ally as a product has always been driven by this guiding principle and vision to help support diverse 21st century learnings by unlocking this power. We do this in a variety of ways, but most immediately for students through Ally’s alternative formats.

As Nick and I started to discuss potential pathways to examine the data, it was clear that showing what students are choosing and how this is impacting their learning had a lot of potential. This led to two main questions to start with as we worked to figure out what that impact might be:

How does download activity compare when looking at the period directly before, during and after COVID-19?
What are overall trends in download activity and types of formats downloaded by students?

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Why is this important?

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Personalization through Learner Preference

Learner Preference enhances student choice and active engagement

Learner Preference is not Learning Styles

Fosters metacognitive awareness and “executive function” for lifelong learning

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How do we approach this?

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Anthology Ally in Courses

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Alternative Formats (Ally)

How do you prefer to engage with digital learning content?

Do you read on your phone or tablet, use a screen reader, like to highlight or listen to an audio version?

Ally lets you choose the format that is right for you.

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List of Ally Alternative Formats and Use Cases

Format Type	Original File	Use Cases
Tagged PDF	Word, PPT	Devices without MS office; Screen readers; Reduced file size
HTML	PDF, Word, PPT	Mobile-friendly; Responsive; Semantic markup for structure
BeeLine Reader	Word, PPT, PDF, HTML File	Speed reading; Eye attention and focus
OCRed PDF	Scanned PDF	Searchable document; Screen reader friendly
ePub	Word, PPT, PDF, HTML File	Annotation and highlighting; Font customization; Mobile
MP3	Word, PPT, PDF, HTML File	On-the-go learning; bimodal presentation
Electronic Braille	Word, PPT, PDF, HTML File	Tactile reading; Improve spelling/grammar
Language Translation	Word, PPT, PDF, HTML File	2^nd Language Learners; supporting families
Immersive Reader	Word, PPT, PDF, HTML File	Font customization; On-the-go learning; bimodal presentation

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BeeLine Demo

The idea behind BeeLine Reader is to make text easier to read by using eye-guiding color gradients. These gradients wrap from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, reducing the incidence of line transition errors. Readers of all ages and skill levels use BeeLine to make reading easier and more enjoyable. Many readers—especially those with dyslexia, ADHD, and new language learners—find that BeeLine allows them to read with unprecedented fluency and ease.

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BeeLine Demo

The idea behind BeeLine Reader is to make text easier to read by using eye-guiding color gradients. These gradients wrap from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, reducing the incidence of line transition errors. Readers of all ages and skill levels use BeeLine to make reading easier and more enjoyable. Many readers—especially those with dyslexia, ADHD, and new language learners—find that BeeLine allows them to read with unprecedented fluency and ease.

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BeeLine Demo

The idea behind BeeLine Reader is to make text easier to read by using eye-guiding color gradients. These gradients wrap from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, reducing the incidence of line transition errors. Readers of all ages and skill levels use BeeLine to make reading easier and more enjoyable. Many readers—especially those with dyslexia, ADHD, and new language learners—find that BeeLine allows them to read with unprecedented fluency and ease.

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How does download activity compare before, during and after COVID-19?

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Increasing Learner Autonomy and Choice

99.9M

Total Alternative Format

Downloads

2019-2023*

ABC

PDF

< >

ePub

*Ally Alternative Format data pulled across all integrations and regions through July 2023

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Alternative Format Download Activity

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*Ally Alternative Format data pulled across all integrations and regions through July 2023

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What are overall trends in download activity and types of formats downloaded by students?

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Key Findings

Conversion Rate

Americas- 86%

Europe- 83%

Asia Pacific- 85%

(Students clicking on Alt Format and completing download)

HTML and Tagged PDF represent

80%

Of All Downloads

(Worldwide)

3.9

Downloads per unique user

(Worldwide)

2.1M

BeeLine / Immersive Reader

Downloads

(Worldwide)

1.5M

OCRed PDFs downloaded

(Worldwide)

25.5M

Total Unique Users

Downloading Formats

(Worldwide)

21.3M HTML Files from 85.6M PDFs, Docs and PPT

(Worldwide)

338%

Increase in downloads in 2020

(Worldwide)

ABC

< >

*Ally Alternative Format data pulled across all integrations and regions through July 2023

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What are the implications of these usage trends?

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I’m an audio-visual and kinesthetic learner, so reading assignments back-to-back are a lot. Reading isn’t the best way for me to learn and if I can listen to someone telling me something instead of just reading it, I process and understand the concepts better. I can really take it in. I probably end up understanding things better with Ally.

Gia S.

Occupational Therapy, 2025

Thomas Jefferson University

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I don’t have any significant/diagnosed difficulties with reading or learning — I’m actually quite a fast reader. Normally, though, I struggle to read even a paragraph on my laptop, so I always print out my readings. BeeLine has completely changed that. The color gradient makes reading so much more comfortable, so that I strain less to get through an article. Since so much more learning will surely happen remotely next year, regardless of whether or not we’re allowed back on campus, it would be a huge help to have regular access to BeeLine.

Liberal Arts Student

using BeeLine Reader

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Taking a Deeper Look

Data points to improved study habits and better support for a more diverse student population.

Annotate and highlight an ePub on a tablet

PDF

Skim a tagged PDF on a desktop

Listen and review an MP3 on your phone

Leverage a format like BeeLine reader on your laptop

Download content to your device while commuting

Use HTML for for a better mobile experience

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Looking at this data we can draw a few conclusions based on the available trends. This points to improved study habits for everyone and better support for a more diverse student population. We can look at both the general benefits of alternatives and direct feedback we’ve received to highlight these points:

Improving Study Habits – What we see across the board on how specific use cases can improve study habits:

Image 1 (icon of an epub file): Imagine leveraging epub and the annotation and highlighting features of an epub reader to improve your understanding of the content.
Image 2 (icon of a PDF doc): Imagine having an easier time skimming and reading a tagged PDF on your desktop while leveraging the document structure to your advantage.
Image 3 (icon of an mp3): Imagine a multi modal student reviewing the written content and listening to content as an MP3 on their phone based on their own personal preference.

Supporting a more diverse student population - We pulled some real-world examples from what users have told us.

Image 4 (icon of a laptop showing BeeLine example): A student who normally prints out readings reported using BeeLine reader’s color gradient to make reading much more comfortable with less strain on their laptop.
Image 5 (icon of a Bus): A commuter student with children at home reported downloading her content in MP3 format so she can review her materials during a long drive to campus.
Image 6 (icon of a mobile phone): A student with diagnosed anxiety reported using the HTML format for a simpler, high-contrast text that is easier to read.

Historically the download rates have always suggested that students are discovering the formats on their own and increasingly making them part of their learning. There is also an opportunity to further educate students on how to use the formats and how to leverage different modalities and reading practices in their study habits, such as using the ePub to engage deep reading comprehension practices. Instructors can take advantage of the formats as well, such as replacing their original scans with the OCRed PDFs to save students time downloading, or reviewing their lecture materials with the MP3 format to assess the clarity of their content.

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4 Learning Benefits of Alternative Formats

Find a higher quality alternative

Improve time management

Enhance comprehension and retention

Become a better learner

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Our partnership with BeeLine has been a great success, with far more students using BeeLine than we originally expected.

Femi Kalejaiye

Head of Partnerships at Perlego

45%

Choose to read with BeeLine

68%

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x

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Discussion

What is your experience?

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Thank You!

Nick Lum – nick@beelinereader.com

https://www.beelinereader.com/

Chris Aldin - chris.aldin@anthology.com

https://usergroup.ally.ac/

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Notes and Data Sources

The data set used includes Alternative Format (AF) activity from Ally customers of varying size, type and implementation and may include cases where alternative formats were not enabled for every course or content item or were being used in a pilot.
Americas includes US, Canada and Latin America/South America as one group.
Ally Alternative Format usage data was pulled for the time period of January 2019 to July 2023 unless otherwise specified as a year-to-year comparison.
Immersive Reader became available in Fall of 2022 and is not present in the data prior to that time period.
BeeLine Reader became available in Spring 2020 right at the beginning of Covid-19 and is not present in the data prior to that time period (except for early adopter/pilot institutions).
While any user can download an Alternative Format, the majority of our usage comes from students (or website users for Ally for Websites).
BeeLine Reader data from non-Ally integrations has been included in this presentation but was not added into any Ally data or findings.
BeeLine Reader and Anthology (Ally) are two separate companies while Ally integrates BeeLine reader as one of its alternative format options.

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Notes and Data Sources

The data set used includes Alternative Format (AF) activity from Ally customers of varying size and type and may include cases where alternative formats were not enabled for every course or content item.
Ally Alternative Format usage data was pulled for the time period of January 2019 to July 2023 unless otherwise specified as a year-to-year comparison.
Immersive Reader became available in Fall of 2022 and is not present in the data prior to that time period.
BeeLine Reader became available in Spring 2020 right at the beginning of Covid-19 and is not present in the data prior to that time period (except for early adopter/pilot institutions).
While any user can download an Alternative Format, the majority of our usage comes from students (or website users for Ally for Websites).
BeeLine Reader data from non-Ally integrations has been included in this presentation but was not added into any Ally data or findings.
BeeLine Reader and Anthology (Ally) are two separate companies while Ally integrates BeeLine reader as one of its alternative format options.