Academic reading preferences and behaviors of Indonesian undergraduate students during Covid-19 pandemic

Over the past decade, numerous studies on reading preferences between print and electronic material had been carried out with generally consistent results of favoring print material. However, current condition of COVID-19 outbreak has forced students to adjust their learning environment to be fully digitalized. This study investigates the preferences and behaviors of Indonesian undergraduate students in reading their academic materials during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 318 students from eight universities across Indonesia participated in this study. They were voluntarily asked to respond to an online questionnaire adopted from Mizrachi (2015). The questionnaire focuses on the reading formats that the students prefer (print vs. electronic) and factors that motivate their choices. The data was then analyzed descriptively. Despite of the current demands of digital reading, the results revealed that most of the students still favored print format for their academic materials. Nevertheless, various factors that contributed to the students’ preferences were mentioned, including types of courses, accessibility, and print reading habits, which resulted to the students’ lack of confidence upon electronic material. Further research should be conducted to better understand on how such factors affect students’ favorableness of print material over electronic one.

Over the past decade, numerous studies on reading preferences between print and electronic material had been carried out with generally consistent results of favoring print material. However, current condition of COVID-19 outbreak has forced students to adjust their learning environment to be fully digitalized. This study investigates the preferences and behaviors of Indonesian undergraduate students in reading their academic materials during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 318 students from eight universities across Indonesia participated in this study. They were voluntarily asked to respond to an online questionnaire adopted from Mizrachi (2015). The questionnaire focuses on the reading formats that the students prefer (print vs. electronic) and factors that motivate their choices. The data was then analyzed descriptively. Despite of the current demands of digital reading, the results revealed that most of the students still favored print format for their academic materials. Nevertheless, various factors that contributed to the students’ preferences were mentioned, including types of courses, accessibility, and print reading habits, which resulted to the students’ lack of confidence upon electronic material. Further research should be conducted to better understand on how such factors affect students’ favorableness of print material over electronic one.