Does Social Annotation Improve Reading Comprehension?——An Experimental Comparison with Individual Annotation
Traditionally,reading was perceived as a solitary and private activity.However,within the contemporary digital landscape,reading has undergone a notable transformation into a communal experience.This evolution is characterized by the emergence of social reading,a phenomenon that accentuates interaction and knowledge sharing among readers.A significant aspect of social reading is social annotation,where readers annotate textual content during their reading process.Unlike individual annotation,social annotation enables readers not only to annotate documents themselves but also to engage with and respond to annotations made by others.This transition from solitary to collaborative annotation prompts critical inquiries into its impact on reading comprehension.While numerous studies have explored the relationship between social annotation and reading outcomes,many have focused on comparing social annotation to no annotation.However,the essence of social reading lies in the interaction and communication with others around the text.Drawing upon the computer-supported collaborative learning framework and cognitive load theory,this study employed an experimental approach to compare the effects of social annotation versus individual annotation on readers' comprehension of textual content.The results showed that while social annotation did not significantly affect self-assessed comprehension,it exerted a significant positive impact on comprehension level as evaluated by experts.Furthermore,mediation analysis indicated that,in contrast to individual annotation,social annotation increased readers' perceived reading support,which in turn correlated positively with both self-assessed comprehension and expert-evaluated comprehension level.Additionally,the study found that,compared to individual annotation,social annotation did not have a significant impact on readers' perceived reading distraction.Meanwhile,reading distraction was not related to either self-assessed comprehension or expert-evaluated comprehension level.By comparing the effect of individual and social annotation,the current study represents an initial endeavor to discern whether and how social annotation influences reading comprehension levels.To gain deeper insight into the phenomenon under examination,this study integrated perceived reading support and perceived reading distraction as two-sided mechanism variables into the conceptual model.Additionally,the study evaluated both self-assessed comprehension and expert-evaluated comprehension to enhance the validity of the construct's measurement.Theoretically,this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of social annotation and its underlying mechanisms in the digital age.Simultaneously,it offers practical implications for the social reading applications to strengthen the functionality of social annotation and provides guidance for reading promoters on leveraging social annotation to improve readers' comprehension of textual content.5 tabs.53 refs.
Social readingSocial annotationIndividual annotationReading comprehensionComputer-supported collaborative learningCognitive load theory
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