Where words are restrained, the eyes often talk a great deal! Understanding Graduate Students’ Reading Behaviors through Webcam Eye-tracking

Students’ reading difficulties have existed for a long time, and they still persist and prevail. Our eyes play an important role in our day-to-day learning tasks. Eye-tracking methodology has recently gained increasing importance as a new technology-driven research approach in learning analytics. This study examined the potential of webcam eye-tracking for understanding graduate students’ reading behaviours in the classroom setting to imitate a normal reading situation. We administered three reading comprehension tests i.e., Image-only, Text-only and Image-Text with varying task demands to 36 graduate students while monitoring their eye movements through using RealEye. The results of these tests provide additional evidence that there is a close association between reading ability and eye movements of readers. Similarly, the differences of eye-gaze between good and weak readers reflect the underlying development of skills that are vital for effective reading. The study also suggests that webcam eye-tracking may provide a beneficial alternative for measuring reading comprehension.