Bridging the Printed or Digital Controversy: A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Digital and Print Resources on College Students’ Reading Comprehension

ABSTRACT

Recent studies have shown contradictory results on the influence of digital technology on the level of reading comprehension performance in college students. This paper examines the existence of differences in reading comprehension between the use of digital technology and traditional support in college students. A meta-analysis of international publications between 2012–2022 is carried out with a total sample of 481 students. The results indicate that technology has not an average positive effect on reading comprehension. The study evidences improvement in students’ reading comprehension with printed medium with an effect size of 0.19. The practical implications should be aimed at stimulating research with new digital resources and increasing educational actions on teaching methodology in the classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital technology
• meta-analysis
• reading comprehension
• college students

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Cristina de-la-Peña

Cristina de-la-Peña is specialized in linguistic competence, early literacy and neuropsychopedagogical processes that affect academic skills and their difficulties. She has more than 15 years of experience in this field and has participated in a wide range of projects and more than fifty publications of scientific articles on linguistic competence and its difficulties.

Beatriz Chaves-Yuste

Beatriz Chaves-Yuste holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics for language teaching, a B.A. in English and Spanish Studies and an MA in Bilingual Education and Teaching. Her lines of research are acquisition of foreign languages through active learning methodologies and bilingualism. She has been teaching for more than 20 years to different levels and ages and is currently teaching in the Faculty of Philology at UCM.

María Jesús Luque-Rojas

María Jesús Luque-Rojas is a specialist in knowledge of the brain and its relationship with learning. The research areas focus on the sum of Neuroscience applied to Education. She. His main lines of work are focused on evaluation and intervention in educational Neuropsychology (neurodevelopmental disorders, Neae, Nees, High Intellectual Capacities…).