{"id":13347,"date":"2025-10-14T11:41:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=13347"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:44:18","slug":"back-to-basics-teaching-digital-reading-and-the-age-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/10\/back-to-basics-teaching-digital-reading-and-the-age-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to Basics: teaching digital reading and the age of AI\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jon Chandler (UCL) and Jamie Wood (University of Lincoln) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the debate about generative AI in higher education has focused on the \u201cdeath of the essay\u201d<\/a> and whether machines will make independent research and deep reading redundant. These concerns are particularly strong in the Humanities and Social Sciences, where essay writing has long been a central part of the learning process. But the real issue is not that AI has destroyed traditional forms of learning; it\u2019s that we already lacked robust ways to teach students how to read and write effectively in digital spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before ChatGPT entered public consciousness in late 2022, we completed a QAA-funded project, Active Online Reading<\/a> (AOR), that explored how students read online for their studies and how universities supported them to do so. We wanted to find out what students did when reading online and what pedagogies worked. We discovered that student practice varied greatly, that many struggled with reading online and that approaches to teaching students to read digitally in online spaces were not particularly well developed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generative AI only intensifies these challenges. It increasingly mediates students\u2019 encounters with texts by outsourcing processes of summarisation, annotation, and note-taking which are crucial stages of the \u201creading into writing\u201d process<\/a>. If students rely on AI to \u201cread\u201d for them, how can we assess genuine comprehension or critical engagement? As we argued in AOR, strategies such as collaborative annotation<\/a> and structured scaffolding of digital reading<\/a> can help develop students\u2019 skills as online readers. These approaches foreground transparency, reflection, and peer interaction, which are the very qualities we need to develop among our students if they are to engage critically with AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our AOR research also identified several worrying disjunctions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Academics recognised that online reading is vital for learning within their discipline, but few of them devoted much time to helping students learn how to do it effectively.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Support was available, but it tended to sit within study skills or library teams, often disconnected from core degree programmes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Students reported that the move to university was accompanied by often unexpected difficulty in reading, but this was rarely acknowledged or addressed in transition modules.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    We recommended closer collaboration between academics and skills development and library teams, more attention to transition, in particular a greater understanding of how students are taught to read before they arrive at university, and more sustained thinking about the specific<\/em> skills that are necessary for reading online. This more integrated approach should, we believe, be adopted when we think about AI. Rather than focusing solely on preventing misuse, we should ask: Why do students turn to AI? How do they use it? What works and what doesn\u2019t? And what specific skills do the need to use is more critically? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Our research that we will be presenting at ALT-C 2025 suggests that students tend to over-rate their own skills as AI users while judging their peers as ineffective and uncritical. This suggests a potential mismatch between perception and practice, which can only be addressed by careful and transparent teaching.The core skills that degrees in the Humanities and Social Sciences have long cultivated \u2013 analytical thinking, deep reading, independent research, critical reflection, and problem-solving \u2013 remain crucial to informed engagement with (or disengagement from) AI. Neglecting these basics potentially undermines students\u2019 ability to engage productively with a whole host of digital tools, of which generative AI is just the most prominent and recent example<\/a>. The frameworks for cultivating reading practices that we identified in AOR are both human-centred and digitally literate, and can potentially help students navigate a world where reading is increasingly mediated by machines, but still fundamentally a social and intellectual act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"\/<\/figure>
    \n

    ALT\u2019s Annual Conference<\/strong><\/a> is one of the UK\u2019s largest conferences for learning technology and digital education professionals. The conference provides a valuable and practical forum for practitioners, researchers, managers and policy-makers from education and industry to solve problems, explore, reflect, influence and learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ALTC25 will take place in Glasgow on 23 and 24 October 2025.  Register closes 20 October 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much of the debate about generative AI in higher education has focused on the \u201cdeath of the essay\u201d and whether machines will make independent research and deep reading redundant. These concerns are particularly strong in the Humanities and Social Sciences, where essay writing has long been a central part of the learning process. But the […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2215,2216,1496,1409],"tags":[1258,2217,1666,1918,2236,725,1667,2244,2246,1466,1929,2243,2245],"class_list":["post-13347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-altc25","category-altc25-annual-conference","category-annual-conference","category-events","tag-altc-2","tag-altc25","tag-ai","tag-alt-annual-conference","tag-alt-annual-conference-2025","tag-altc","tag-artificial-inteligence","tag-back-to-basics","tag-digital-reading","tag-event","tag-jamie-wood","tag-jon-chandler","tag-teaching-digital"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13397,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/10\/explore-the-voices-and-resources-of-altc25\/","url_meta":{"origin":13347,"position":0},"title":"Explore the voices and resources of ALTC25\u00a0","author":"ALT","date":"24 October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"We would like to thank everyone for contributing to and taking part in ALT\u2019s Annual Conference 2025. It was a delight to have so many of you joining us in Glasgow. As we do every year, we are collecting links to blog posts and resources for and about the conference.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ALTC25"","block_context":{"text":"ALTC25","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/altc25\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/10\/Blog-cover-image-template-8.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/10\/Blog-cover-image-template-8.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/10\/Blog-cover-image-template-8.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/10\/Blog-cover-image-template-8.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13339,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/10\/looking-ahead-to-altc25-vital-dialogue-for-changed-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":13347,"position":1},"title":"Looking ahead to #ALTC25. Vital dialogue for changed times\u2026","author":"ALT","date":"7 October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"When the ALT Annual Conference was last held in Scotland, at the University of Edinburgh in September 2019, we were unknowingly a few short months away from the world suddenly becoming a more precarious place. For education, the challenges brought forth by the global pandemic included the emergency move to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ALTC25"","block_context":{"text":"ALTC25","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/altc25\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13386,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/10\/prompto-a-generative-ai-card-game-for-educators-at-altc25\/","url_meta":{"origin":13347,"position":2},"title":"Prompto: A Generative AI Card Game for Educators at ALTC25","author":"ALT","date":"16 October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Come and join The University of Birmingham AI in Education working group members at ALTc2025, for a uniquely interactive game-based workshop designed to support your colleagues or students in developing effective Generative AI prompting skills. Designed to meet the increasing need for Generative AI literacy training amongst educators and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ALTC25"","block_context":{"text":"ALTC25","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/altc25\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13531,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2026\/02\/reflections-of-alt-conference-2025-from-a-digital-assessment-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":13347,"position":3},"title":"Reflections of the ALT Annual Conference 2025, from a Digital Assessment Perspective","author":"ALT","date":"4 February 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"In the run up to ALTC25 Revisited, we wanted to share some of our reflections on The ALT Annual Conference 2025. The conference marked significant strides on enhancing student and staff experiences through innovative platforms and practices. The series of presentations at the conference offered insights into current trends and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ALTC25"","block_context":{"text":"ALTC25","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/altc25\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/01\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-23.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/01\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-23.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/01\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-23.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2026\/01\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-23.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13246,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/08\/altc25-guest-post-altc-comes-to-glasgow-finally\/","url_meta":{"origin":13347,"position":4},"title":"ALTC25 Guest Post: ALTC Comes to Glasgow \u2014 Finally!\u00a0","author":"ALT","date":"12 August 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"After years of campaigning to bring ALTC, or a related ALT event, to Glasgow, it\u2019s finally happening in 2025. I nearly managed to host #OER21 at City of Glasgow College, but COVID had other plans. I\u2019ve also long advocated for a more college-friendly time of year for the conference. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ALTC25"","block_context":{"text":"ALTC25","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/altc25\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13367,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2025\/10\/from-fragmented-support-to-strategic-partner-reimagining-digital-education-enhancement-at-leeds\/","url_meta":{"origin":13347,"position":5},"title":"From Fragmented Support to Strategic Partner: Reimagining Digital Education Enhancement at Leeds","author":"ALT","date":"17 October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As universities strive to deliver more inclusive, resilient, and pedagogically ambitious curricula, the role of digital education support is under more scrutiny than ever. At the University of Leeds, we have spent the past few years driving a transformation of our learning technologist teams, from siloed, faculty-bound support staff to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ALTC25"","block_context":{"text":"ALTC25","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/altc25\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2025\/08\/TEMPLATE-DO-NOT-EDIT-THIS-PAGE-14.png?fit=734%2C550&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6CxU9-3th","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13348,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13347\/revisions\/13348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}