A Comparison of the Influence of Interactive CD-ROM Storybooks and Traditional Print Storybooks on Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Changing from print to electronic text impacts the way students are reading and their reading comprehension. This article reports on 2 experiments designed to study the impact of electronic text on the reading comprehension of third-grade students. Experiment 1 involved 37 matched pairs of students reading either CD-ROM or print versions of books. The results of this study indicate that there was no statistically significant difference in reading comprehension as measured by open-ended questions. However, there was a statistically significant difference in reading comprehension as measured by story retellings for the group that read the CD-ROM versions of the stories. In Experiment 2,30 students who read the print stories in Experiment 1 read 2 additional stories in CD-ROM format. As measured by story retellings, their comprehension was statistically significantly higher when reading the CD-ROM stories.

Keywords:

• CD-ROMs
• electronic text
• reading comprehension