In recent years, the number of learning applications has greatly increased, and they have become available for a wide range of subjects and ages, including many applications to support reading....Show moreIn recent years, the number of learning applications has greatly increased, and they have become available for a wide range of subjects and ages, including many applications to support reading. Sometimes studies show that an application claims to influence reading behavior, but in practice, this effect is not achieved. This also applies to the subject of this study, namely the application Beeline Reader. The current study investigates to what extent the application Beeline Reader makes reading a digital text easier and faster for students, as they claim on their website. Students read eight texts, including four in black font color and four in Beeline font colors. Students (N=19) were randomly assigned to one of four different layouts, each with a combination of single or enlarged line spacing with short or long lines. Data were collected with eye-tracking and reading comprehension questions and analyzed with a Repeated Measures ANOVA. Results showed that the use of Beeline font colors had no effect on reading speed (duration first-pass reading, duration second-pass reading and duration return-sweep) or text comprehension. In contrast, the layout with single line spacing and long lines was found to cause a lower reading speed (first-pass reading and second-pass reading) as well as the layout with enlarged line spacing and long lines (first-pass reading). In conclusion, the use of Beeline font colors has no positive effect on students' reading speed and text comprehension, but no negative effect either. For follow-up research, it might be useful to test the effect of Beeline font colors on different target groups.Show less
