While some people enjoy reading full-length novels, most people have a difficult time concentrating on reading or even finding the time to do it. Audio books, especially abridged ones, may be a way for people to enjoy fiction without having to read the whole novel and they can listen to the text at the same time as they do other things. The purpose of this essay is to study whether the abridged audio books can be a valid replacement for the full novel in terms of genre. The essay compares Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë in its full length with three abridged audio books of the same novel. In these three audio versions the original text has been abridged in varying degrees so that the shortest version runs to fifty minutes, the second shortest to three hours and the longest to six hours. The three genres I focus on are the Romance, the Gothic novel and the female Bildungsroman. I present genre-specific features and then analyze how these characteristics are affected in the abridged versions of Jane Eyre.

In a Title I school located in a southeastern state, 60% of 3rd grade students are reading below grade level. The state's new reading initiative ties grade promotion to 3rd grade students reading on grade level. At the study site, administrators identified audio books as a possibly helpful reading tool. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development theory, which holds that learners can learn new skills more readily with guided assistance, framed this study. The purpose of this quantitative, comparative design study was to explore the associations between the use of audio books and the reading levels of 3rd grade struggling readers. Research questions were used to compare the reading levels of struggling readers who use audio books with the reading levels of: (a) struggling readers reading silently, (b) at or above grade level readers who read with audio books, and (c) at or above grade level readers who read silently. Two 3rd grade classes were selected, with 25 students using audio books and 25 students reading silently, to participate in this project. Scores from the AR and from the pre- and posttest STAR assessments over a 9-week period were analyzed and compared using an independent samples t test to explore associations between the use of audio books and the comprehension and reading levels of the participants. Analysis of the results showed that the use of audiobooks was not significantly related to increased reading or comprehension levels for struggling readers. Significant improvements in reading comprehension were shown for students reading at or above grade level that read silently or used audio books. Based on the findings, a professional development project for teachers providing research-supported reading strategy instruction was developed. The findings may lead to improvements in instructional practices by encouraging the use of research-based reading strategies, which could promote positive social change by supporting greater academic success for elementary students through improved reading comprehension.

This project provides an audio notification about nearby tourism place to visit (named sight in this thesis), a chapter based Audio Books related to the current sight and involving Digital Library to provide text for the Audio Books for the Tourist Information Provider on a mobile device (TIP). The current system plays a background sound for the sight only when the system displays the specific information for that sight after user selects it. This has been improved to provide a notification by which to receive audios from the recommendation service, and then keep sending audio data to clients on real time. So users can know the sight nearby before they look at their screen. The limitation of current Audio Books is that it only provides Audio Books when the books start from the current sight. This problem is solved by providing a list of books that has any chapter related to that sight, and users can add them into a now-playing list. The Travel Planning Service has been involved to place the Audio Books chapters into the now-playing list based on the order of the visiting sight in their plan. The TIP/Greenstone Service, which can load particular text from Greenstone Digital Library into TIP, has been involved in this project to provide related chapter-based text for those Audio Books. The implemented prototype has been evaluated on effeteness and performance based on the purpose of this project. The result has been discussed to prove it has effectively solved the problem described above. Finally, the result of the experiment on distinguishing audio, and technology for implementation and audio transfers, has been left for future study.

<p>“Reading with Your Ears” is a comparative study of comprehension in reading a text versus listening to an audio book. The text excerpt is from Mark Haddon’s <em>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</em> and has been read or listened to by seventh-grade students. The results show that the readers understand more from the text since they can read at their own speed and see the pictures in the book. The listeners, on the other hand, seem unaccustomed to listening and have troubles focusing.</p>

“Reading with Your Ears” is a comparative study of comprehension in reading a text versus listening to an audio book. The text excerpt is from Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and has been read or listened to by seventh-grade students. The results show that the readers understand more from the text since they can read at their own speed and see the pictures in the book. The listeners, on the other hand, seem unaccustomed to listening and have troubles focusing.

De senaste 10 åren har bokbranschen genomgått en omfattande digitalisering. Ett av resultaten från denna digitalisering är framväxten en helt ny marknad för ljudböcker och ur denna marknad har ett flertal ljudbokstjänster vuxit fram. Dessa ljudbokstjänster erbjuder sina användare en produkt i form av en applikation, i produkten får de tillgång till en obegränsad mängd streamat innehåll, huvudsakligen ljudböcker. Produktutvecklingen av dessa ljudbokstjänster har skett under en tid då agila arbetsprocesser har blivit allt populärare, vilka främjar en delad kunskap mellan utvecklare och kunder. Samtidigt har tillgången till kvantitativt loggad användardata vuxit enormt, vilket har möjliggjort en större och mer kontinuerlig närhet till produktens användare än någonsin tidigare. Denna studie ämnar att undersöka hur svenska ljudbokstjänster arbetar för att integrera sina användare i utvecklingen av deras produkt, med vilka metoder och i vilka syften det utförs. Med den obegränsade tillgången till användare i form av kvantitativt loggad användardata, är det av intresse att undersöka hur det påverkar användandet av andra traditionella metoder för användarinvolvering. En litteraturstudie genomfördes för att ta reda på det rådande kunskapsläget gällande metoder för användarinvolvering inom produktutvecklingen av streamingtjänster. Utifrån denna litteraturstudie utformades en intervjuguide. Därefter genomfördes tre kvalitativa intervjuer med en representant vardera från tre av de största och mest etablerade svenska ljudbokstjänsterna. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades mot den undersökta teorin. Ur den analyserade empirin kunde två huvudsakliga syften till ljudbokstjänsternas användarinvolvering fastställas: • Att involvera användare som en medskapare av produkten • Att involvera användaren som testobjekt för prototyper Samtliga av de undersökta ljudboksföretagen använde sig av loggad kvantitativ användardata i båda dessa fall av användarinvolvering. Med användaren som ett testobjekt visar sig A/B-testning spela en stor roll vid användandet av loggad kvantitativ användardata. Två tredjedelar av ljudboksföretagen använde sig av kvalitativa metoder som fokusgrupper, vilket visade sig vara av stor vikt både i syftet att låta användaren testa och medskapa. Fokusgruppens unika fördelar exempelvis empatisk förståelse av användaren, är något som den kvantitativt loggade användardatan inte kan erbjuda. / The audiobook industry has undergone extensive digitisation. One of the results of this digitalisation is the emergence of a whole new market for audio books and from this a number of audiobook services have emerged. These audiobook services offer their users a product as an application where the users have access to an unlimited amount of streamed content in form of audiobooks. The product development of these audiobook services has taken place during a time when agile work processes have become increasingly popular, which promotes shared knowledge between developers and customers. At the same time, access to quantitatively logged user data has grown tremendously, which has enabled a greater and more continuous proximity to the product's users than ever before. This study aims to investigate how Swedish audiobook services work to integrate their users in the development of their product, with what methods and purposes it is performed. With the unlimited access to users in the form of quantitatively logged user data, it is of interest to investigate how it affects the use of other traditional methods of user involvement. A literature study was conducted to find out the current state of knowledge regarding methods of user involvement in the product development of streaming services. Based on this literature study, an interview guide was designed. Subsequently, three qualitative interviews were conducted with one representative each from three of the largest and most established Swedish audiobook services. The interviews were transcribed and analysed against the theory investigated. From the analysed empiric study, two main purposes for the user involvement of audiobook services could be established: • Involving users as a co-creator of the product • Involving the user as a test object for prototypes All of the audiobook companies surveyed used logged quantitative user data in both of these cases of user involvement. With the user as a test object, A / B testing proves to play a major role in the use of logged quantitative user data. Two-thirds of audiobook companies used qualitative methods such as focus groups, which proved to be of great importance to both user testing and co-creation. The focus group's unique advantages, for example empathic understanding of the user, is something that the quantitatively logged user data cannot offer.