No abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between the amounts of time that U.S. and Chilean students spend on conventional academic reading, extracurricular reading, and Facebook and also to report the types of materials they prefer to read. The study surveyed students in the United States (n = 1,265) and Chile (n = 2,076) across all discipline areas. Descriptive analysis indicated that U.S. students spent 4.94 hours on academic reading, 4.17 hours on extracurricular reading, and 16.40 hours on Facebook weekly. For Chilean students, the figures were 13.17 hours, 3.07 hours, and 14.00 hours, respectively. The results indicated that for both U.S. and Chilean participants, online reading materials were the most popular type of material, followed by magazines/newspapers, graphic novels/comic books, best‐selling novels, and nonmajor academic books (books on topics outside the student's major subject in conventional print format). Due to the impact of the Internet on reading resources, students' reading patterns today are different from how they were in the past. College students' reading practices have moved to different venues with the advent of Internet technology, and the modality has migrated to online reading. Specifically, social media sites (e.g., Facebook) provide social accessibility to academic contexts that constitute students' learning experiences and shape their identities.

This study is a follow up to the Reading Habits of College Students in the USA, which employed a convergent mixed-method research design to investigate reading habits of American College Students. A total of 395 students majoring in education voluntarily participated in the study by completing a self-reported survey. The significant contributing factors to time spent on Academic Reading include ethnicity; time spent on Extracurricular Reading, engagement with magazines, engagement with non-major academic books, and bestsellers. The significant contributing factors to time spent on Extracurricular Reading include ethnicity, time spent on Academic Reading, time spent on the internet, engagement with novels/comic books, and engagement with bestsellers.

New student orientation programs typically have been developed from the perspective of what new students need upon their arrival on a 4-year college campus. There is little consideration given to the environment from which students come, namely, the secondary and high schools from which students graduate. The current study study explores what secondary school administrators perceive to be the most important elements that should be included in an orientation program. This perspective, which largely supports the inclusion of all the Council for the Advancement of Standards' Standards for New Student Orientation, particularly noted the need for orientation programs to help the student identify the personal and financial costs (and benefits) of attending college.