Can Digital Reading Improve the Academic Experience? Get a cup of your favorite tea and join Tea for Teaching podcast hosts John Kane and Rebecca Mushtare as they discuss reading in a digital environment with Dr. Jenae Cohn of Stanford University. The episode, Pedagogies of Care: Digital Reading, previews Dr. Cohn’s new book, Skim,…
Shanahan on Literacy In his always interesting blog, Shanahan on Literacy, Dr. Timothy Shanhan discusses the use of Correct Words Per Minute measures of student reading. He makes clear the relationships between reading fluency, decoding, and comprehension. This succinct article also covers linkages to eye-voice span and proper expression or prosody. He notes, “The…
April 28, 2020 — Fast Company has announced the winners of its World Changing Ideas Awards, which honor businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that offer innovative solutions to the issues facing humanity. Readability Matters is honored to be selected as a finalist in the Experimental category, which includes ventures that “have the potential to change…
Organizations Driving to Change the World Every year, Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards honor the businesses and organizations driving change in the world. This year, as the escalating crises of the coronavirus and economic collapse continue, the bold ideas they feature here seem more vital than ever. Read the full article here. Readability…
Reading Comprehension is a Critical in Today’s Information-Based Society UC Irvine Study Seeks to Improve Student Outcomes In a 2018 Computers & Education paper, Connor, et al. studied the potential impact of technology on learning opportunities provided in the classroom. The study was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, a part of the…
Remote Work The coronavirus pandemic has changed how millions around the globe work, are educated, and stay connected. While the toll on human life and economies continues to rise, it is clear that the world will not return to the way it was before COVID-19 arrived; new business models have emerged. As the economy…
New Readability Study Finds Personalizing Text Formats Improve Reading Outcomes Published in the proceedings of the Computer Human Interaction (CHI) Conference 2020, was this study of font as a factor in accelerating adult reading. The 63 participants were aged 18-55; they were 12 university students and 51 from digital testing platforms. Those with low…
ReadWorks’ High-Quality Content in Readability Research Readability Matters is excited to announce that we have teamed up with the nonprofit ReadWorks to enhance testing materials used in research with K-12 students. ReadWorks uses cognitive science research to create world-class content. They currently serve over 16 million students and are growing rapidly as learning becomes…
Study Measures the Differences in Glance-Based Legibility of Eight Sans-Serif Typefaces In a paper published in Ergonomics, the International Journal of Research and Practice in Human Factors and Ergonomics, Sawyer, Dobres, Chahine and Reimer compared differences in glance-based legibility of eight sans-serif typefaces. Their research demonstrates that differences measured in milliseconds are significant in…
The global pandemic has changed how students are educated. Worldwide, 9 out of 10 children, or 1.57 billion learners, are out of school (UNESCO, April 2020). Education looks different with students now at home being educated by their parents and by teachers remotely. To tackle this challenge, organizations across sectors are working together with new…