Jordan Schugar is an Assistant Professor of English at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania (USA) whose research interests include mobile pedagogies, eReading text comprehension, wearable technologies, and figurative language. He has presented and published his work widely, and has also been featured in outlets, such as the New York Times, USA Today, Real Simple Magazine, and The Atlantic. Dr. Schugar was also named an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2013

Making Sense of the Features in Interactive eBooks: Considerations and Recommendations

For students, teachers, and librarians who may have reservations about using interactive eBooks (picture books, textbooks, multi-touch books), this session will describe the different types of in-text eBook features and recommend several strategies that may help increase reading comprehension. Studies of expert readers’ reading comprehension of academic texts from both tablet devices and paper-based mediums revealed that readers who had developed a strong repertoire of reading strategies with paper-based texts did not necessarily employ these same strategies when reading on tablet devices. When incorporated with good pedagogy, those eBooks with text features that support and extend comprehension—versus those that have “just for fun” interactions—have immense potential to transform the reading experience.