Open AccessWho gets lost? How digital academic reading impacts equal opportunity in higher education
Author(s) -
Axel Kühn,
Annika Schwabe,
Hajo Boomgarden,
Lukas Brandl,
Günther Stocker,
Gerhard Lauer,
Ina Brendel-Kepser,
Marion Krause-Wolters
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
new media and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.501
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1461-7315
pISSN - 1461-4448
DOI - 10.1177/14614448211072306
Subject(s) - reading (process) , set (abstract data type) , higher education , digital divide , covid-19 , mathematics education , inequality , digital learning , computer science , sociology , public relations , pedagogy , multimedia , psychology , political science , world wide web , the internet , mathematics , medicine , mathematical analysis , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , programming language
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, providing digital texts as learning material had become a common practice in academia. But little is known about who profits from and who loses out when moving from print to digital reading in higher education. In this study, we connect digital reading to digital divides, and draw on a unique data set of university students digital reading practices obtained by a quantitative survey during the lockdown semester in three European countries. Based on the statistical results for digital reading access, attitudes, motivation, skills, behavior, and support, we argue that varying digital reading experiences of students are linked to inequalities in higher education opportunities. In conclusion, our results contrast current digital policies of merely improving access to digital texts in academia to democratize higher education.