Search

The introduction and wide use of devices, especially mobile ones, has changed the way learners read and do research for a variety of reasons, and this trend has attracted a number of studies conducted regarding reading on screen and on paper in addition to those dealing with the students’ behavior in using online resources to print ones. This paper aims at identifying the major findings and trends in reading research by describing the current state of knowledge and practice in the studies comparing reading on screen and on paper and to provide guidance for practitioners by analyzing and summarizing the existing research. The current review adopted a systematic review as the research methodology as well as the article selection and screening process. The articles published between 2009 and 2017 were reviewed, and 37 articles were included in the analysis. The review revealed that the research on onscreen and paper-based reading focused on comparing the learners’ performances in reading activities in both contexts and sharing preliminary findings and students’ views. However, the findings are inconclusive as mixed findings were produced as to the effects of reading on screen and on paper. Moreover, the review also indicates that practitioners are also interested in examining the factors and affordances in reading on screen. As a result, there is still further research needed to establish the factors affecting reading and comprehension while reading on screen and on paper.

Objective The purpose of the present research is to establish measurement equivalence and test differences in reliability between computerized and pencil-and-paper-based tests of spatial cognition. Background Researchers have increasingly adopted computerized test formats, but few attempt to establish equivalence for computer-based and paper-based tests. The mixed results in the literature on the test mode effect, which occurs when performance differs as a function of test medium, highlight the need to test for, instead of assume, measurement equivalence. One domain that has been increasingly computerized and is thus in need of tests of measurement equivalence across test mode is spatial cognition. Method In the present study, 244 undergraduate students completed two measures of spatial ability (i.e., spatial visualization and cross-sectioning) in either computer- or paper-and-pencil-based format. Results Measurement equivalence was not supported across computer-based and paper-based formats for either spatial test. The results also indicated that test administration type affected the types of errors made on the spatial visualization task, which further highlights the conceptual differences between test mediums. Paper-based tests also demonstrated increased reliability when compared with computerized versions of the tests. Conclusion The results of the measurement equivalence tests caution against treating computer- and paper-based versions of spatial measures as equivalent. We encourage subsequent work to demonstrate test mode equivalence prior to the utilization of spatial measures because current evidence suggests they may not reliably capture the same construct. Application The assessment of test type differences may influence the medium in which spatial cognition tests are administered.

BACKGROUND Computerized surveys present many advantages over paper surveys. However, school-based adolescent research questionnaires still mainly rely on paper-and-pencil surveys as access to computers in schools is often not practical. Tablet-assisted self-interviews (TASI) present a possible solution, but their use is largely untested. This paper presents a method for and our experiences with implementing a TASI in a school setting. METHODS A TASI was administered to 3907 middle and high school students from 79 schools. The survey assessed use of tobacco products and exposure to tobacco marketing. To assess in-depth tobacco use behaviors, the TASI employed extensive skip patterns to reduce the number of not-applicable questions that nontobacco users received. Pictures were added to help respondents identify the tobacco products they were being queried about. RESULTS Students were receptive to the tablets and required no instructions in their use. None were lost, stolen, or broken. Item nonresponse, unanswered questions, was a pre-administration concern; however, 92% of participants answered 96% or more of the questions. CONCLUSIONS This method was feasible and successful among a diverse population of students and schools. It generated a unique dataset of in-depth tobacco use behaviors that would not have been possible through a paper-and-pencil survey.

We examined changes in the number of authors per paper for science and technology papers (agricultural sciences, engineering and technologies, medical sciences, and natural sciences) in Korea. We employed the Scopus database to examine the change in the number of authors in papers, which were published from 2000 to 2015 in the 234 Korean academic journals indexed on Scopus. We found that the global trend of growth in the number of authors per paper is evident in Korea as well. While there was little evidence of a correlation with the citation per paper, a positive correlation was found between with the field-weighted citation impact, another measure of a paper’s impact, in medical and natural science papers. In terms of the type of collaboration, we found that international collaboration papers had the highest number of authors, followed by national and institutional collaborations. The number of authors per paper was highest for those published in the top 10% journals by Source Normalized Impact per Paper, followed by Scopus-indexed journals, while papers published in Korea Citation Index had the lowest number of authors per paper. We propose that the rise in the number of authors per paper in Korean papers may be ascribed to many Korean research programs encouraging group research and the widespread availability of the internet, which has stimulated joint research efforts and encouraged international collaboration.

Objective: There are concerns that structured electronic documentation systems can limit expressivity and encourage long and unreadable notes. We assessed the impact of an electronic clinical documentation system on the quality of admission notes for patients admitted to a general medical unit.Methods: This was a prospective randomized crossover study comparing handwritten paper notes to electronic notes on different patients by the same author, generated using a semistructured electronic admission documentation system over a 2-month period in 2014. The setting was a 4-team, 80-bed general internal medicine clinical teaching unit at a large urban academic hospital. The quality of clinical documentation was assessed using the QNOTE instrument (best possible score = 100), and word counts were assessed for free-text sections of notes.Results: Twenty-one electronic-paper note pairs (42 notes) written by 21 authors were randomly drawn from a pool of 303 eligible notes. Overall note quality was significantly higher in electronic vs paper notes (mean 90 vs 69, P Conclusions: An electronic admission documentation system improved both the quality of free-text content and the overall quality of admission notes. Authors wrote more in the free-text sections of electronic documents as compared to paper versions.

The bodily aspects of reading/writing practices are investigated in Finland.The paper is considered more adaptive to varied reading purposes than the screen.Handwriting is described as a more flexible and relaxed practice than typing.Skills determine less than materials and images the practices of reading/writing.Digital interfaces determine the ways we read and write less than suggested. This article investigates the different shapes in which reading and writing practices occur when paper/pen are compared with keyboard/screen. The focus is on the bodily aspects of these practices. Reading and writing are viewed as techniques of the body, which over the years have become increasingly mediated by technologies. The analysis is grounded in the theory of social practice. Research material consists of written essays collected from 25 students at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, in 2013. Results show that paper as material is considered suitable and adaptive to numerous reading purposes and bodily positions, while regarding the screen the places and positions of reading are viewed as more limited due to the material boundary conditions presented by devices. Students describe handwriting as a more flexible and relaxed bodily practice than typing, although the worsening skills of handwriting are recognized too. Skills and competences turned out to be less decisive factors than materials and images when trying to explain the differences in reading and writing practices when a paper/pen is compared with a keyboard/screen. Finally, the study argues that digital reading writing interfaces do not determine the ways we read and write as strongly as previously suggested.

Children with reading difficulties and children with a history of repeated ear infections (Otitis Media, OM) are both thought to have phonological impairments, but for quite different reasons. This paper examines the profile of phonological and morphological awareness in poor readers and children with OM. Thirty‐three poor readers were compared to individually matched chronological age and reading age controls. Their phonological awareness and morphological awareness skills were consistently at the level of reading age matched controls. Unexpectedly, a significant minority (25%) of the poor readers had some degree of undiagnosed mild or very mild hearing loss. Twenty‐nine children with a history of OM and their matched controls completed the same battery of tasks. They showed relatively small delays in their literacy and showed no impairment in morphological awareness but had phonological awareness scores below the level of reading age matched controls. Further analysis suggested that this weakness in phonological awareness was carried by a specific weakness in segmenting and blending phonemes, with relatively good performance on phoneme manipulation tasks. Results suggest that children with OM show a circumscribed deficit in phoneme segmentation and blending, while poor readers show a broader metalinguistic impairment which is more closely associated with reading difficulties.

In the veterinary professional curriculum, methods of examination in many courses are transitioning from the traditional paper-based exams to electronic-based exams. Therefore, a controlled trial to evaluate the impact of testing methodology on examination performance in a veterinary physiology course was designed and implemented. Formalized surveys and focus group discussions were also used to determine student attitudes toward the examination formats. In total, 134 first-year veterinary students and 11 PhD/MS students were administered a total of 4 exams throughout 1 semester (2 on paper and 2 electronically) using a split-halves design. The paper (P) and electronic (E) exams contained 25 identical multiple-choice questions. Students were randomly assigned to two groups and were given exams in one of two sequences (E-P-E-P or P-E-P-E). Participants consented to and completed two anonymous surveys vis à vis their experience. Out of a maximum raw score of 25, the mean score for electronic examinations (20.8; 95% confidence interval, 20.3–21.2) was significantly ( P = 0.01) greater than that for paper examinations (20.3; 95% confidence interval, 20.0–20.7). However, students expressed numerous concerns with the electronic examination format, and, at the completion of the study, 87% preferred to take their examination on paper rather than the electronic format. These data show that student attitudes concerning the examination format are not primarily determined by examination results, and that the additional anxiety related to the electronic examination format plays a large role in student attitudes.

This study explores three formats for the presentation of tangible line graphs to visually handicapped people, using the capsule-paper production process. The formats are L/no-grid (standard x and y axes/data curves on smooth background), box/no-grid (duplicated axes enclose graph space on all four sides/smooth background), and box/grid (duplicated axes/data curves superimposed on grid). Subjects answered questions concerning the coordinate value of points, the difference in coordinate value between two points, and configurational aspects of the data. Questions that involved determining coordinate values were answered most accurately from the box/grid format, followed by the box/no-grid, and, lastly, the L/no-grid. Response times did not differ. A different pattern emerged with questions concerning configurational aspects of the graph. With these there was no difference in accuracy between the formats, but the L/no-grid format led to faster responding than the box/no-grid, which in turn was faster than the box/grid. The practical implications of these data are considered.