Use of social reading in engineering education

There are many things that we expect undergraduate students in STEM areas to have mastered while in high school. One such area is the effective reading of course and related materials. However, the act of reading itself has dramatically changed over the last 20 years or so. Majority of reading now happens through electronic means, instead of using printed copies. Up until recently, student reading assignments have been almost entirely invisible to instructors but social reading tools like Persuall now provide much greater visibility into this activity. This means that many new questions can be asked, including how much emphasis to place on reading vs. other activities, given that students’ time is limited. In this paper, we analyze student reading habits, including the time spent actively reading, when they do the reading and the quality of the reading. Suggestions for the construction of reading assignments are given and areas for future study are identified.