Paper Number
ECIS2026-2347
Paper Type
CRP
Abstract
Reading complex informational text is essential for comprehending global scientific knowledge, yet many nonnative readers from practice-oriented pathways struggle to comprehend such materials and require adaptive support that existing systems do not provide. However, past research lacks prescriptive design knowledge on how to effectively design such support systems. Hence, we present results from our design science research endeavor to design and evaluate an adaptive reading support system grounded in comprehension theory. We built on design principles and instantiated them as adaptive hints and support functions typically scattered across separate tools. We evaluated the systems in an online experiment with 84 participants across three conditions: control, conversational interface, and canvas interface. The results show that a conversational interface grounded in ICAP improves comprehension, while canvas-based instantiations of prior design principles require careful design to manage their higher interaction complexity, illustrating how system design grounded in linguistic theory can support the processing of complex texts. The study contributes design knowledge for effective comprehension support systems.
Recommended Citation
Hänel, Martin; Mwaita, Kevin Fred; Wambsganss, Thiemo; and Söllner, Matthias, "Design and Evaluation Of An Adaptive Reading Support System For Comprehension" (2026). ECIS 2026 Proceedings. 10.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2026/comp_mgmt/comp_mgmt/10
Design and Evaluation Of An Adaptive Reading Support System For Comprehension
Reading complex informational text is essential for comprehending global scientific knowledge, yet many nonnative readers from practice-oriented pathways struggle to comprehend such materials and require adaptive support that existing systems do not provide. However, past research lacks prescriptive design knowledge on how to effectively design such support systems. Hence, we present results from our design science research endeavor to design and evaluate an adaptive reading support system grounded in comprehension theory. We built on design principles and instantiated them as adaptive hints and support functions typically scattered across separate tools. We evaluated the systems in an online experiment with 84 participants across three conditions: control, conversational interface, and canvas interface. The results show that a conversational interface grounded in ICAP improves comprehension, while canvas-based instantiations of prior design principles require careful design to manage their higher interaction complexity, illustrating how system design grounded in linguistic theory can support the processing of complex texts. The study contributes design knowledge for effective comprehension support systems.
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