Module texts were obtained in Kindle format (mobi) from the Learning and Teaching Solutions unit within the OU, as part of a wider project (OU Anywhere) to produce module texts in mobile formats. The project team preloaded these texts onto student Kindles before distribution by post. Some documentation on using the Kindle for study was produced and sent to students via their tutors.
Usage
16 students and all four tutors returned study diaries covering the period late February to late March 2013. Each diary is split into a series of practical and reflective logs. The practical log includes details such as date used, length of usage, location, type of reading and
whether and how notes or highlights are made. Reflective logs focus on how the Kindle affects study patterns and includes reflections on the use of a Kindle for concentrating, learning and remembering.
116 student and 26 tutor practical logs were collected. These showed that for students, concentrated reading over a period of about one hour was the most common type of usage.
The students used the Kindle both at home (67 logs) and away from home (53 logs). Table 1 indicates the type of reading and the markers of active learning use indicated in the student logs. The tutors used a mixture of skim reading, when answering student queries, and
concentrated reading, when preparing to mark an assignment. Tutors mainly used the Kindle at home, in their normal working environment, but one tutor also used it whilst travelling.
Type of Reading Took notes (in any format)
Took notes (using Kindle)
Highlighted (using Kindle) Concentrated (77 logs) 50 (64.93%) 5 (6.49%) 12 (15.58%) Skim (27 logs) 6 (22.22%) 2 (7.40%) 6 (22.22%)
Both(10 logs) 8 (80%) 1 (10%) 4 (40%)
Didn't indicate (2 logs) 1 (50%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Table 1: Type of reading and markers of active learning in the student logs.
Student and tutor perceptions
Student and tutor reflective logs, and the tutor group interview transcript, were analysed using a grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). In effect this method allows themes, issues and important topics to emerge from the data through iterative reading of the texts; these topics then form the basis for subsequent analysis.Several interesting themes emerged and we discuss these in detail below.
Deep/active reading and learning
An apparent contradiction arose in the student logs, where some students reported that they found it simple to concentrate using the e-Reader. However the same students (and others) reported that when it came to studying for an assignment, a process we came to describe as active learning, they tended not to use the e-Reader. In fact when answering a question about the learning tools used while writing an assignment, the students were eloquent on the problems associated with using an e-Reader.
Comments relating to ability to concentrate whilst reading with the Kindle included:
I have found it quite easy to concentrate and learn from the Kindle just as much as from the printed text. (S3)11
I tend to lose concentration and start reading random pages of a text book, with the kindle I am much more disciplined and know to stop when my concentration is waning. (S14) I am finding it easier to concentrate and take in the information using the kindle... (D4) While students seemed to be able to concentrate whilst reading with a Kindle, they had more difficulty using the device for concentrated, or active, learning. Typical comments include:
The kindle is easy enough to learn from. However, I prefer using printed text for concentrated learning. (S7)
I'm enjoying reading from it, - it gives you the impression you are covering material quite quickly. I'm still not sure about the learning and remembering, - again it's all too 'samey'.
(S1)
It is more difficult to concentrate on the text on a Kindle, I am more accustomed to using printed text and therefore I associate it with studying whereas a Kindle feels more like a leisure activity. (D3)
It is not hard to concentrate on the Kindle. Indeed, one gets the impression of reading faster, - perhaps because the pages are smaller. I think… it is harder to learn and remember than from printed text, because each page is less distinctive, - they all look similar. (S1)
These extracts offer one possible explanation for the apparent contradiction around 'concentration': it might be the case that in terms of simply reading, the Kindle is similar to printed text, allowing text to be read in a concentrated fashion. However, the more active reading associated with the learning process, which Thayer et al (2011) described as 'responsive' reading, is more difficult on an e-Reader.
Thinking through how students study for an assignment offers a useful way into considering active learning, as typically students will be engaging with certain elements of the learning materials in a concentrated fashion:
The difficulty of navigating between sections on the e-Reader was highlighted by a number of students, who valued the capability of skimming associated with printed textbooks, particularly when preparing a Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA). Typical comments include:
When I read the student notes relating to part A of the TMA, I considered whether to use the Kindle or Text Books to refer back - well I considered it for about one second. The Kindle seems much too cumbersome/clunky to use to refer back to specific parts of the chapters - it seems to me that it would never be a substitute for flicking back through a text book. (D1) I have not used the kindle this week as I have been attempting to do my TMA and find it better to sit with the course book and handwritten notes whilst working on it. The small screen was a disadvantage this week as I could not skim read over the page to find the information I was looking for. (D2)
I suppose the ultimate test would be to use nothing else but the Kindle up to the point of an exam, and I'm not sure I would feel confident enough that its sole use would not jeopardise my results! (D6)
It would appear that the active reading associated with studying for an assignment requires an overview of the subject matter and the capacity to quickly skim between sections, a process related to the 'cognitive mapping' discussed in the Introduction (Rose, 2011).
11 Note that 'S' refers to individual Science students and 'D' refers to individual Social Science students.
Although tutors were not using the texts for concentrated learning, two of them also expressed difficulties with cognitive mapping using the Kindle, and reverted to using their printed texts:
I did revert to my trusted course text book on a few occasions, because I had bookmarked certain sections with coloured sticky tabs, which made them easy to locate quickly! (Social Science tutor)
If I need to know something now, if I've got a student email or a student on the end of the phone and I want to find out, I reach for the textbook, I don't reach for the Kindle. Because I know I can find it in the textbook, and then I'll be able to flick through and find page
whatever, diagram whatever, and talk it through with the student. (Science tutor) One tutor however had little difficulty with this, suggesting that familiarity with using the Kindle can compensate for some of the problems associated with cognitive mapping, if the text is also familiar:
You know I've got quite an awareness of where certain subject material is, I've got a good idea of where they are and it's just using it to double-check really…. I'm used to using it... I don't find it time-consuming to scroll through. (Science tutor)
However, our findings so far, especially with regards to student learning, echo Thayer et al's (2011) conclusions, that e-Readers can "strip away" the kinaesthetic and spatial clues which support easy location of content. On these particular criteria the Kindle has performed poorly so far in this study, and most students did not use the e-Reader for their early assignments.
Diagrams and tables
Working with tables, diagrams and photos was a particular challenge using the Kindle, for both students and tutors, with problems caused mainly by the small (6 inch) screen and the lack of colour:
…whereas normally if you had a table columns of numbers and you could easily come up and down and across and whatever, if you're only limited to looking at a part of a table at a time, that restricts how much you could sort of analyse the data and work out what the data's telling you so… I think that's the limitation. (Science tutor)
This week whilst reading chapter 2, a table was actual split over two screens which made it difficult to read and as I have bad vision anyway, I did not feel that I could make the writing any smaller so that it would come on to one page. (D2)
…in the pages I was studying this week there were lots of pictures and diagrams, and I was frustrated that even with enlarging them I still could not see them adequately… I took out the text book to study these particular pages. (S3)
Text is clear but, diagrams and photos don't come up on the black and white screen clearly enough. Scientific data is often in colour and using this type of kindle has not met my needs.
(S7)
Interacting with the text
A theme that emerged from students was difficulty with the more practical elements of using the text as a tool for learning, for example, highlighting and note-taking. Students found it particularly difficult to take notes:
So far I have found [it] too time consuming to add notes and highlight text on the kindle. (D6) Writing text notes is cumbersome and I have given up, preferring to make notes on paper before I forget what I am putting. (S3)
I don't like using the kindle for highlighting parts of text as I feel it is not as effective as the traditional coloured highlighter on paper. (S7)
I still studied the same way as I would with the printed book - by taking notes with pen and paper, although I didn't highlight any text on the Kindle. (S4)
In practice, students did not use the Kindle's note-taking facilities; instead they preferred to take handwritten notes, which they used to refer back to, particularly when studying for an assignment. This was contrasted to their use of the textbook as a practical learning tool:
I do miss the wide margins provided in OU printed text books for scribbling personal thoughts/comments about the text. These have an immediacy of impact through recall of
writing them and hence aid revision/re-reading. Flicking back to a note on the Kindle doesn't seem to make such an impression. (S1)
I did notice that when I read the course text book, I tend to make notes as I go but when I use the kindle, I just read. (D2)
The implication is that students find the direct interaction with learning materials (which is so crucial to study) difficult with an e-Reader. Indeed, the implication of the second quote above is that using the Kindle is more passive: ''I just read.'' This contrasts with active note-taking on printed material, which one student described as 'a means of taking ownership of the knowledge/learning'. The difficulties with annotating text do seem to suggest that this is a major weakness with using an e-Reader for educational purposes. In this respect our study agrees with findings from several previous studies (eg Angelataki, 2011; Thayer et al, 2011;
Behler, 2009), although it should be noted that these previous studies focused on the use of PDF texts rather than the dedicated Kindle format used here.
Changing study habits
Size matters
The most significant advantage, reported by nearly all students and tutors, and in common with previous findings (eg Richardson and Mahmood, 2012; Angelataki, 2011), is the small size, weight and portability of the e-Reader. The Kindles were used to study where students may not have been able to study before: at the top of mountains, in doctors' waiting rooms, at sick children's bedsides, on ferries, on buses, at bus stops and in bed. Responses on this topic include:
[The e-Reader is] Obviously much more convenient - wouldn't have lugged the great tome up the hill in my rucksack. Sometimes my learning has a sense of place about it - so I will recall facts/principles from where I physically was in the landscape as in 'oh yes, on that glorious day up Blencathra I learned about the Financial Planning Model then thought about the activities as I walked up.' (D1)
It seems very light and portable, does not need an internet connection, and is as easily held as a book would be. (D5)
My most challenging week yet - I was supposed to have Friday & Saturday to myself to catch up with my study. Both my children decided to get the flu within days of each other, so I had to fit in the studying with looking after sick children. I don't think this would have
mattered whether I was studying from paper or kindle. The up side was that I could sit beside my ill boys while reading, instead of being at a desk. Note taking was slightly more difficult. (S6)
I have found it absolutely invaluable because through my work I travel a lot and it means that I don't have to be worried about taking all the textbooks with me. (Science tutor)
So rather than having a big book, you know, I've got a very small computer desk, I've just got a small Kindle. And I've got it on the book that we're looking at. (Science tutor, talking about using the Kindle when running an online tutorial)
Students also described themselves as 'snatching' study time, where they studied for a few minutes with the Kindle whilst out, something not possible with a large textbook:
It is perfect for taking in your handbag and snatching a few minutes here and there. (S6) I can study more because of the kindle. You are able to snatch extra time i.e. when
commuting, out for a walk at lunch and because it fits in your handbag, you can always carry it about just in case. (D2)
Of course an interesting point for learning is whether this study is additional to or a substitute for other academic work. At least one student commented that because they felt they had 'done' their study on the Kindle, they tended to do less concentrated learning elsewhere in the week. For example one student reported that because they had read their textbook on the Kindle on the morning commute they didn't 'tend to study at home because I think that I can do it on the Kindle'. (D3)
'Surreptitious' study
Another interesting feature of the Kindle's size is the capacity to do what we describe as surreptitious study. This is study which takes place when others are present, but do not know what the student is reading. Most commonly this was reported as taking place at work, but also in the home environment:
It is small enough to be discreetly used (I can read it in waiting rooms/in a quiet part of office). (D2)
I would have been uncomfortable reading a text book at the hairdressers however the kindle is inconspicuous and nobody questions it. They simple[y] assume you are enjoying a good book - which I am! … In fact this week it has been easier for me than a text book, which would have made me feel conspicuous in a public place. (S3)
One tutor also appreciated this feature of the Kindle:
…nobody in public has any idea of the subject matter you are reading (unlike a book which has a cover and a title)…therefore you can concentrate safely in the knowledge that no-one beside or close to you is aware of the content. (Social science tutor)