Thanks to Angella Thalls, Jay Olson, Kim Hwe.

IRB Protocol #HS3453 

Exempt, category 2ii

• Explain the genre, intended audience, writer, and disciplinary context of assigned texts. Digital environments often abstract course texts from their original contexts. Genre awareness  may assist comprehension (Rodrigue, 2017).

• Be purposeful in your text selection. Offer content in multiple lengths and modes. Students find long, complex, and unfamiliar texts intimidating, and they will seek out more expedient avenues to course content through external study guides or videos. Point them towards ones that you find high quality.

• Eliminate as much digital "friction" for reading texts as possible by simplifying access to texts and choosing file types/platforms with the student-user in mind. Make sure texts are easily accessible and portable across platforms to allow for flexible use for many types of software, devices, and student preferences. 

• Integrate reflection not only on the content of texts but also on students' reading process. Solicit feedback from students on their reading experience. 

• Offer print options that are as accessible and equivalent in cost to digital course texts. Many students prefer and desire more access to print sources, but these usually come at a cost to them in time and/or money. Research suggests that readers may comprehend slightly more from print sources, although more research needs to be done (Clinton, 2019).  

• Do not assume that print-based strategies transfer directly to online environments. Students desire explicit instruction that recognizes their mixed print and digital literacies.

• Teach students to modulate their reading strategies and the type of attention they give to texts in digital environments. Many students equate good reading with perfect comprehension or memorization of assigned texts rather than higher-order thinking skills.

• Teach students how to identify elements of the rhetorical situation and genre in digital texts. Many readers find it difficult to identify context in digital spaces.

• Don't assign one specific application or platform for reading and annotation tasks. Students have different preferences, needs, and available technologies. Introduce popular options and have students evaluate them for their needs and preferences. 

• Invite students to reflect in both individual and social ways (e.g. on a discussion forum). Open space for students to share strategies and software choices with each other. 

What idea should we get out of this one that we didn't get out of another article? Because I feel like a lot of [assigned texts] are just saying the same thing over and over. And I feel like [faculty] are not very purposeful in the articles they're choosing.

• Lower division students see the purpose of reading as "comprehension" and "memorization." Upper division students are more likely to see more nuanced purposes for genres within their discipline.

• Students are less likely to complete reading when course content is repeated in class sessions. Students are more likely to complete reading assignments when it is associated with assignments, papers, and exams. 

• Students often consult multiple texts on a topic at the same time, consulting both the assigned text and other texts they find online.

There's different ways people explain [a process]. Either it clicks with you or it doesn't. 

• Many students use "split-screen" techniques in which they have a "notes" document alongside the assigned text. Or they read online and write notes on a paper notebook. It is common for students to work across print and screen modes. 

• Most students do not use a reading or annotation application and are mostly unaware of them. Those who have often report satisfaction with tablet devices: It combines the best of both worlds for me, one participant noted.

• Students indicated that the format and layout of a digital text, its scan quality, and the platform on which it is hosted, all greatly influence whether they will read the text and how they will read it. 

I feel like reading college texts is hard enough, and if [the texts] have small font and  uneven pages, it just makes it  impossible for us to  understand.

• Students used a variety of different platforms and devices, and do not like being assigned to use specific platforms, particularly proprietary textbook e-reading platforms. Students were divided on whether they would continue to use a program like Hypothes.is.

• Many students express difficulty keeping up with the reading assignments for courses. Most students don't find reading pleasurable or meaningful for their learning, particularly when the perceived reading load is high.

 And for the instructors, when they assign homework, especially in lower div classes, especially [general education] classes, most people are taking the class for a GE. If they assign a crazy [amount of] reading, most people are not doing it.

• Students prioritize reading for major assignments and are unlikely to complete reading when there is not an assignment tied to it. 

It's like a nice bonus if you're more interested in what you're learning about. But the priority, when you have so much reading, is what am I gonna get tested on first?

• When students feel overwhelmed by workload, or intimidated by a text, they seek out other sources outside of the course such as SparkNotes, Chegg, and other "study guides" as well as lectures on YouTube. 

I actually use the textbook as a last resort because I'm not too good at reading a lot of material and absorbing information. So what I do is, I go watch YouTube lectures online.

• Students' chief complaint about reading in digital environments is frequent distraction and an inability to appropriately focus on a text. 

I think we're getting there but I feel that paper--the physical copy--is just better. It has my attention, where on a computer there's so much more that can distract us.

• Many students avoid annotation in digital environments because of application and platform challenges. 

Trust me, I tried screen shotting and writing notes in  different apps. It's just not a good option. It gets so bulky and so messy, and with organizing [texts] ... it's pretty difficult.