Digital devices have become an essential part of learning. We use laptops and tablets to do our readings, take notes and write code. But they can also distract from our learning: While one tab may hold a PDF, another might offer a temptation to text, scroll or shop. In 2015 and 2024, the editorial page board argued in favor of professors banning screens in class. Although some faculty members have adopted this approach, the University could take steps to make it more realistic in practice.
For many reading-intensive classes, the primary mode professors use to provide readings is to post a slew of files on the course’s Canvas page. While students in courses that prohibit laptops can print out each reading, doing so is costly and impractical. Course readers — bound collections of assigned articles and excerpts, excluding full-length books — compile a courses’ materials into single physical, paperback volumes. In effect, they are printed versions of the Canvas “Files” tab. By making course readers available through the bookstore, Brown would provide faculty with the infrastructure to make the analog leap in their reading intensive classes.
Course readers offer a rare luxury in the age of technology: the chance to focus deeply on one task at a time. When students online shop, browse LinkedIn or skim the news alongside their notes, they create only the illusion of engagement. But this multitasking can kill the efficacy of our learning. Even when class materials are the only thing open, notifications and the urge to open another tab can pull our attention away from the work at hand. By having students read from a physical packet instead of from a screen, professors will find fewer distractions and more critical engagement in their classrooms.
Reading on paper also offers cognitive advantages beyond just reducing distractions. According to one study, comprehension is achieved six to eight times more effectively in a physical format than on a screen, as the physical manipulation of the materials in one’s hand allows for the brain to create a mental “index” that strengthens retention.
Physical pages also invite annotation in ways that screens can rarely replicate. Marginal notes and dog-eared pages allow students to trace how their thinking evolved as they worked through the text. In this way, course readers could create personal archives of a students’ education. They can serve as physical memorials to the learning experience. Years down the line, one might reopen a reader and remember not only the texts, but the hand cramps that came from wrestling with them.
While some professors already create course readers for their classes, the volumes need to be purchased from third parties. While Brown’s Book/Course Materials Support program can cover these materials for students on financial aid, the process is less straightforward than simply charging a purchase at the bookstore.
Professors select readings deliberately. We owe it to them and to ourselves to read each page with the same level of care. Discussions in reading-intensive classes require focus — something exceedingly difficult to cultivate in a browser. There is one simple, clear solution: mandate the creation of course readers, carried by the Brown Bookstore, to facilitate deep, engaged learning for students and teachers alike.
Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board, and its views are separate from those of The Herald’s newsroom and the 136th Editorial Board, which leads the paper. A majority of the editorial page board voted in favor of this piece. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
