Student Reading Fails: Edtech to the Rescue

Faculty members now have a new window into student reading challenges, and a technology-enabled solution to alleviate the trouble spots. Regardless of modality, discipline, and level, our faculty report learning improvements related to the course readings. A new (and free) web-based platform allows faculty to upload almost any text for students to read and annotate. Their annotations can be public to groups within class, or private for their own learning/study needs. When annotations are "public," students respond to one another's comments/questions. Back-end analytics provide faculty with detailed reports indicating where the students are achieving good comprehension and where confusion is rampant.

Outcomes: Explore the functionality of a new web-based tool that alleviates common student learning obstacles associated with reading * Discuss the benefits of social media in augmenting student reading practices * Pilot a sophisticated and free teaching and learning tool that provides learning analytics for student annotations of text