What Is Better to Study: The Printed Book or the Digital Book?: An Exploratory Study of Qualitative Nature

Abstract

Several years after the incorporation of digital in educational contexts, there is little systematic knowledge about the attitudes and practices of students with regard to reading in printed and digital books. This study aims to know what the students think of the Master “Research in Teaching and Learning of Experimental, Social and Mathematical Sciences”, of the University of Extremadura - Spain (2017–2018 academic year), about the study through printed books or digital books. The design of the research is descriptive and based on the qualitative and quantitative analysis (mixed-method) of the messages of an electronic Forum in which 31 students will participate. The content analysis of the messages of the Forum has been carried out following a process of reduction, organization, coding, obtaining results and determination of conclusions, using webQDA resource, software to support the qualitative analysis of data. The quantitative findings reveal that the largest of university students continues to prefer to study from printed books. The main justifications for this option refer to the importance of making annotations on an object with a life of its own and that reading on paper allows reaching higher levels of concentration and memory through the sensory experience that its use provides.