Our Consortium

Overview

The Liberated Learning concept is based on two interrelated applications: using speech recognition technology to automatically transcribe spoken language and display it as readable text and; using speech recognition to produce accessible, multimedia transcripts. The Liberated Learning concept undergoes continuous development and refinement by members of the Liberated Learning Consortium, a group of international university and industry partners working to improve information accessibility through speech recognition technology.

The Consortium focuses on two overall goals:

• making the Liberated Learning concept a standard for supporting diverse learning needs in various educational environments, and
• making the Liberated Learning model widely available as a means of improving access to information for persons with disabilities.

Structure

The Consortium is structured around a renewable Joint Study Agreement (JSA) between Saint Mary's University (SMU) and IBM Research.  The JSA allows SMU to engage other like minded institutions to support the Consortium’s overall goals and objectives.  SMU hosts a core infrastructure and manages support systems for the Consortium. Consortium members participate at an overall decision-making level to identify yearly objectives, set priorities to develop SR technology, understand impact, drive future applications, and obtain research/project funding.

The Consortium is dedicated to achieving the following core objectives:

• Collaboratively researching and testing the Liberated Learning concept in various environments 
• Evaluating and reporting the impact of the Liberated Learning concept on students with disabilities, non-disabled students, faculty/instructors, and other stakeholders
• Generating new empirically derived knowledge that improves the universal efficiency and effectiveness of speech recognition technologies and techniques through applied research and development investigations
• Developing a transferable model for successfully implementing Liberated Learning in various environments

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Current Consortium Members

North America:

• Alexander Graham Bell Institute, Canada
• Cambrian College, Canada
• Cape Breton University, Canada
• IBM T.J.Watson Center
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
• Messiah College, USA
• Purdue University, USA
• Saint Mary’s University, Canada
• Trent University, Canada
• University of Kentucky, USA

Asia:

• Beijing Union University, China
• Hiroshima University, Japan

Europe:

• University of Bologna, Italy
• University of Southampton, UK
  

Australasia:

• Australian National University, Australia
• Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory
• Massey University, New Zealand
• University of the Sunshine Coast , Australia

Past Partners:

• California State University Northridge, USA
• Central TAFE College, Australia
• Durham College, Canada
• Murdoch University, Australia
• Ryerson University, Canada
• Stanford University, USA

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Primary Challenges and Strategic Initiatives

The Consortium has identified five key challenges that represent barriers to the Liberated Learning concept becoming more universally available as a solution for increasing information accessibility:

• Accuracy - reducing Word Error Rates for speech recognition generated transcription/captioning
• Usability - improving overall ease of use, implementation efficiencies of utilizing speech recognition
• Transferability - facilitating transfer of best practices/technologies to new applications, new environments, new language settings
• Scalability - moving from small scale pilot to broader usage
• Sustainability - ensuring availability of resources to support collaboration, research

To meet these challenges, the Consortium develops a yearly set of priorities/projects referred to as “Strategic Initiatives”.   The Consortium’s Strategic Initiatives encompass a diverse project portfolio that targets the challenges of Accuracy, Usability, Scalability, and Sustainability.  

Go to the “Projects” section of the site for a full list of formal Liberated Learning projects.

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