Academic reading format preferences and behaviors among university students worldwide:a comparative survey analysis

Abstract This study reports the descriptive and inferential statistical findings of a survey of academic reading format preferences and behaviors of 10,293 tertiary students worldwide. The study hypothesized that country-based differences in schooling systems, socioeconomic development, culture or other factors might have an influence on preferred formats, print or electronic, for academic reading, as well as the learning engagement behaviors of students. The main findings are that country of origin has little to no relationship with or effect on reading format preferences of university students, and that the broad majority of students worldwide prefer to read academic course materials in print. The majority of participants report better focus and retention of information presented in print formats, and more frequently prefer print for longer texts. Additional demographic and post-hoc analysis suggests that format preference has a small relationship with academic rank. The relationship between task demands, format preferences and reading comprehension are discussed. Additional outcomes and implications for the fields of education, psychology, computer science, information science and human-computer interaction are considered.Acknowledgments Tania Todorova¹, Pan Yantao², Jiuzhen Zhang³, Daniela Živkovic⁴, Darija Pešut⁴, Terttu Kortelainen⁵, Judit Bar-Ilan⁶, Noa Aharony⁶, Elena Collina⁷, Liga Krumina⁸, Hanady Geagea⁹, Silvia Ghinculov¹⁰, Ane Landøy¹¹, Almuth Gastinger¹², Aurora de la Vega¹³, Ana Lúcia Terra¹⁴, Nicole Johnston¹⁵, Angela Repanovici¹⁶, Polona Vilar¹⁷, René Schneider¹⁸, Güleda Dogan¹⁹, Serap Kurbanoglu¹⁹, Patricia Jamal²⁰, David Bawden²¹, Jane Secker²², Chris Morrison²³, A.M. Salaz²⁴, Diane Mizrachi²⁵*, and Joumana Boustany²⁶ ¹University of Library Studies and Information Technology, Sofia, Bulgaria ²Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China ³Peking University, Beijing, China ⁴University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia ⁵Oulu University, Oulu, Finland ⁶Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel ⁷Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy ⁸Latvijas Universitate, Riga, Latvia ⁹Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon ¹⁰Academy of Economic Studies, Chişinău, Moldova ¹¹Bergen University, Bergen, Norway ¹²Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway ¹³Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Lima, Peru ¹⁴Instituto Politecnico do Porto, Porto, Portugal ¹⁵Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia ¹⁶Transylvania University, Brașov, Romania ¹⁷University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia ¹⁸Haute Ecole de Gestion, Geneva, Switzerland ¹⁹Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey ²⁰Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates ²¹City University, London, England ²²London School of Economics, London, England ²³Kent University, Canterbury, England ²⁴Carnegie Mellon University, Doha, Qatar ²⁵University of California, Los Angeles, USA ²⁶Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, Paris, Franc