Abstract

Poornima V. and Adithya Kumari

In the present study an attempt is made to assess the time spent on reading and extent of reading
various resources by students of distance education for different purposes. The sample was made up
of 1005 students who were sampled from various disciplines of KSOU with different programmes.
Questionnaire was the instrument used to collect data for the study, which elicited the information on
time spent per day on reading and to what extent they read different type of books. Data analysis was
done using chi-square tests and contingency table analysis. Results revealed that majority of the
sample respondents spent less than 1 hour per day on reading. More than 70% of the respondents read
books for education purpose to a moderate to great extent. Further, male respondents read more books
for education purpose than females, and unemployed ones read more than employed ones.
Approximately 60% of the respondents read the books for gaining information, male respondents read
more books for education than females, and unemployed ones read more than employed ones. A large
majority of 85% of the respondents read books for recreation purpose to a moderate to a great extent.
Again, extent of reading for gaining knowledge varies from a moderate to a great extent of 92%. About
76% of the respondents indicated that they read books for employment purpose to a moderate to a
great extent, and female respondents were keener to read employment books than male respondents.