Our Team
We are an interdisciplinary team dedicated to advancing research, theory, and practice. We are former teachers, reading researchers, psychometricians, and computer scientists who have studied digital reading since 2015.
- Amanda Goodwin, Ph.D. – Teaching & Learning, Vanderbilt University – biography
- Sun-Joo Cho, Ph.D. – Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University – biography
- Gautam Biswas, Ph.D. – Computer Science and IT, Vanderbilt University – biography
- Eduardo Davalos, Ph.D. – Computer Science and IT, Vanderbilt University, now at Trinity University – biography
- Jorge Salas, Ph.D. – Computer Science and IT, Vanderbilt University
- Namrata Srivastava, Ph.D. – Institute for Software Integrated Systems, Vanderbilt University – biography
- Amanda Yoshiko Shimizu, Ph.D. – Teaching & Learning, Vanderbilt University, now at Eastern Kentucky University – biography
Principal Investigator: Amanda Goodwin (Reading Content Expert) is a Professor at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. Her research interests include studying factors that support language and literacy for adolescents. Dr. Goodwin has published in journals such as Reading Research Quarterly (of which she served as co-editor) and was PI of an IES grant to develop a gamified-computer adaptive language assessment for 5th-8th graders (Word Detectives). She also led the Vanderbilt trans-institutional partnership exploring the move to digital reading and how to best coordinate learning tools within digital textbooks. She was co-PI on an IES grant, Project DIMES, to develop tools to assess students’ morphological awareness, and is co-PI on an IES grant, Development and Innovations of the TRANSLATE Curriculum, which designs and tests a yearlong English Language Arts curriculum to support the reading comprehension and language development of multilingual learners in grades 4-6. Dr. Goodwin serves as the content director of the Digital Reading Project, facilitating collaboration and leading content work such as identifying texts and tasks for protocols, coding factors, interpreting results, and disseminating findings.
Funding
This research is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) under the grant titled “Zoom: Innovative Detailed Examination of Digital vs. Paper Reading.”
The study is approved by the Vanderbilt University Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Research Context & Background
As students increasingly read on screens, it is essential to understand how digital reading compares to traditional paper reading. Prior research has provided insight into the neuroscience and eye-tracking of reading, but little is known about how students read authentically in classrooms. This project addresses that gap by collecting large-scale, multimodal data (eye gaze, highlights, scrolling, and timing) in real-world school settings, and examining how medium, reader characteristics, and text features shape comprehension across both paper and digital reading tasks, which is particularly important now in post-COVID digital learning environments.
Goals & Research Questions
The project investigates both in-the-moment reading processes, and their connection to comprehension outcomes. We have asked:
- How does digital and paper reading occur (i.e., what patterns of in-the-moment behaviors occur)?
- How do reading processes differ across medium (i.e., digital vs. paper) and readers, texts, and tasks?
- How does medium (digital vs. paper) relate to comprehension? How does this relationship differ by reader, text, and task characteristics?
- How do reading processes link to comprehension? How do reading behaviors moderate (i.e., support or hinder) reading comprehension? Can eye gaze features derived from students’ temporal eye gaze patterns and saccades be predictive of their ability to comprehend?
Study Design
Using a within-subjects design, students read parallel passages on both paper and digital platforms. The digital protocol uses the RedForest web system which integrates browser-based TobiiProWeb eye-tracking to capture gaze, scrolling, highlighting, and mouse behaviors. The paper protocol uses Tobii Glasses and advanced computer-vision modeling to map gaze to text content. Together, these tools allow for real-time, multimodal data collection and feedback.
Participants
The current phase of this research began with a pilot study with college students, and expanded to middle school participants from both private and public charter schools. We collaborated closely with teachers, who helped design and interpret dashboard data. To date, the team has worked with over 650 readers, with extant data analyzed from 381 middle school readers, pilot data collected from approximately 80 university students, and data collected from approximately 200 middle school student participants using both our digital and paper systems.
Impact
The project aims to offer teachers and students immediate, actionable insights into reading behaviors and comprehension. Teachers can identify where students focus, reread, or overlook key text elements, while students can reflect on their own reading strategies. Beyond classrooms, the work advances research in education, psychometrics, and computer science, contributing open-source tools like RedForest, an e-learning platform accessible via the web, and TobiiProWeb, a library enabling access to Tobii Pro eye-tracking data directly in the browser, for broader educational and scientific use.