Student profile – Rebecca
Rebecca is a first-year undergraduate studying English Literature. She’s Deaf and communicates using a combination of British Sign Language (BSL) and written English. Her course is full of deep analysis and dialogue – weekly seminars, small group tutorials, and fast-paced lectures filled with references, debate, and critical interpretations.
It’s not just about reading books. It’s about keeping up with rapid conversations, unpacking layered meanings, and grappling with abstract theories as they’re shared in real time.
Study challenges faced by Rebecca during her lectures & seminars
- Falling behind in discussions – Seminars are fast-paced and unpredictable. Students speak over one another, switch topics quickly, or jump between ideas. For Rebecca, trying to keep track of who’s speaking while interpreting facial cues and switching between speakers is exhausting and often means she misses the flow of the conversation.
- Losing out on spontaneous insights – Lecturers often go off-script – sharing personal thoughts, mentioning obscure texts, or adding extra examples that aren’t on the slides. Without live captions or a transcript, Rebecca misses these spontaneous moments that often contain the most valuable insights.
Study challenges faced by Rebecca after her lectures & seminars
After class, Rebecca often finds herself trying to piece together the discussion using partial notes or slides that only capture the surface-level content. Without an accessible transcript, she can’t revisit the deeper analysis shared verbally, making revision and essay planning more difficult. She also spends extra time filling in the blanks – often relying on classmates, which can feel frustrating and leave her feeling less independent in her learning.
How Jamworks helps Rebecca overcome these challenges
Rebecca doesn’t want to feel like she’s constantly playing catch-up. She wants to be part of the conversation, understand the depth behind the texts, and revise with confidence. Jamworks gives her the support to capture everything that’s said, structure it in a way that’s easy to return to, and stay engaged with her course content, even when the teaching style isn’t naturally accessible.
1. Capture – Lecture recording & live captions
Challenge – Rebecca often misses important parts of lectures and seminars – not because she’s not paying attention, but because the spoken word moves faster than what she can lip-read or interpret in BSL. Academic jargon, off-the-cuff remarks, and spontaneous dialogue are easy to miss when there’s no accurate, real-time support.
Solution – Before each lecture or seminar, Rebecca opens Jamworks on her laptop. As the session begins, Jamworks generates live captions in real time, giving her a reliable text feed she can follow without having to rely solely on lip-reading. She also records the session, so even if she’s focused on reading slides or taking part in a discussion, nothing is missed.
Outcome – With live captions on screen and a full recording to revisit later, Rebecca can stay present in the moment and feel confident that everything has been captured accurately. She’s no longer left guessing what was said, and she can fully participate in discussions knowing she hasn’t missed a thing.
2. Structure – Transcripts & highlight summaries
a. Transcripts
Challenge – Even when Rebecca attends every lecture, there are often gaps in her understanding. Group discussions, questions from classmates, or side comments from the lecturer are easy to miss – especially when several people are speaking at once. Without a clear record of what was said, revising becomes frustrating and incomplete.
Solution – Once the recorded session is uploaded to Jamworks, Rebecca reviews the automatically generated transcript. But what really helps is the speaker separation. Instead of facing a wall of text, she sees the conversation clearly organised by who said what. Whether it’s a detailed explanation from the lecturer or a classmate’s perspective, everything is easy to follow. This clarity helps her understand the flow of discussion, identify key arguments, and process different viewpoints without the pressure of taking everything in live.
Outcome – With structured transcripts, Rebecca can finally revisit her lectures in a meaningful way. No more guesswork as she can fill in the blanks and focus her energy on understanding the content, not reconstructing it. It’s a game changer for her during essay planning, where being able to quote and reflect on what was actually said gives her a huge confidence boost.
b. Highlight Summaries
Challenge – Rebecca often struggles to keep up during her lectures. She relies on live captions, but when conversations move quickly or jump between complex themes, it’s hard to absorb everything in real time—especially while trying to take notes. Important points get lost, and she’s left with fragmented notes that don’t really help when it’s time to revise.
Solution – Now, instead of trying to write everything down, Rebecca taps the Highlight button in Jamworks during class to mark important moments. After the lecture, she goes through her highlights—not just as timestamps or raw text, but as clear, bite-sized summaries. These summaries are written in simpler language and focus on the main ideas, making it easier for her to understand complex topics she missed in the moment. She doesn’t need to rely on memory or piece together incomplete notes—Jamworks distills the content for her.
Outcome – Rebecca finally has structured summaries that actually help her make sense of the lecture. She can revise more efficiently, stop second-guessing her notes, and feel less anxious about keeping up during live discussions.
3. Engage – Analogies
Challenge – Rebecca often finds that some lecture topics or theories can be difficult to understand because they are abstract or complex. While the content may be explained thoroughly in class, some ideas just don’t click with her immediately. Sometimes, hearing a concept compared to something more familiar could help her connect the dots, but she’s left to struggle with figuring out the right analogy on her own.
Solution – That’s where the Analogy prompt in JamAI comes in. When she’s stuck on a concept, she asks JamAI to explain it using an analogy. The feature compares the academic idea to something more relatable. For instance, if a literary theory feels too abstract, JamAI compares it to something simpler, like a common story or everyday experience, giving Rebecca a clearer perspective.
Outcome – JamAI’s analogies help Rebecca engage more deeply with the material. She doesn’t have to pause the lecture to ask for clarification or feel left behind. With relatable comparisons that simplify complex ideas, she builds a clearer understanding and feels more confident navigating challenging content.
The positive impact of recommending Jamworks
It’s important to see Jamworks not just as a helpful tool – but as something that removes a very real, and often invisible, burden that disabled students are expected to carry on their own.
The features we’ve discussed also help reinforce learning, improve understanding, and enhance retention – but more than that, they give students like Rebecca the opportunity to fully take part in their education without constantly trying to compensate for gaps in access.
Recommending Jamworks means recognising that disabled students shouldn’t have to work twice as hard just to keep up. It’s a way to level the playing field and make sure no one’s falling behind because of barriers that could be removed with the right support.
