Evaluating reading fluency behavior via reading rates of elementary school students reading e-books

As technology advances, paper-based text is transitioning to e-books, and this affects every aspect of educational practices. Fostering student literacy is critical to success. Reading ability is an important skill that allows young students to acquire knowledge. Several researchers have noted that fluency is highly correlated with reading comprehension ability. In the past, however, it was difficult to track students' reading behavior during a paper-based learning process. In this study, we establish an e-book-based detection system to record the reading process of students in the lower grades of elementary school in order to evaluate reading fluency. This study's goals are as follows: (1) to design and implement a suitable reading assessment tool which can better assess student's reading literacy, and (2) to compare the e-book system with the traditional paper-based manner of assessing reading fluency. The e-book-based detection system gives teachers the ability to evaluate reading fluency using real-time data during the reading process. •The ebook system record students' reading process for diagnosing reading fluency.•The system is as a suitable reading assessment tool to assess the reading literacy.•Compared the difference between paper-based way and ebook-based way.•The ebook system provides teacher to diagnose reading fluency through timed data.