Why is it so important we make sure that learners have access to the right college reading aid? 

Making the move from high school into college is one of the busiest and most intense transitions that UK students go through. It’s almost as if the training wheels have come off. Instead of being a learner, they’re now a mini-adult having a lot of frank conversations about things that seemed miles off at the end of last term. Jobs, careers, university – they all begin to feel uncomfortably close during the September of college. 

College means a change of pace for learners  

The work changes too. Lessons have become lectures, and even if learners progress into an internal sixth-form college that’s attached to their school, they still end up reeling from the change of pace. A-levels are intensive, and there’s a lot of reading and learning to do… both in the classroom and at home. 

Those studying for vocational qualifications don’t escape the uptick either, as even when learning happens alongside practical experience in T-Levels, BTecs and apprenticeships, the style has become far more complex: instead of textbooks created for learning, there are manuals, instructions, and then everything else they’re expected to pick up too. 

And that’s without counting the new responsibilities that older learners deal with. Travelling longer distances, learning how to drive, or juggling part-time work commitments, it’s no wonder that so many report feeling like they don’t have enough time to fit it all in.  

It’s a lot of pressure, and that’s before we’ve even thought about neurodiversity and special educational needs. 

A college reading aid that understands dyslexia  

Another reason why college students might feel like they don’t have enough time could be literacy differences like dyslexia. If it already takes a student more effort and a longer time to read than it does their classmates, it’s easy to envision themselves falling behind and scrambling for grades when exam time rolls around. 

That’s why having the right college reading aid for the job is vital when learners hit post-16 education. 

So the right college reading aid needs to be able to… 

• Hit the ground running and move through work as quickly as they do. There just isn’t time for a long-form training plan when they’ve got so many other things to learn. 

• Be intuitive to use: as well as quick and easy, it’s got to be user-friendly, too. Complex tech that takes a while to set up in a lesson is annoying, and they’re losing valuable learning time. 

• Take learning on the move! Learning happens everywhere in colleges: resource rooms, social areas and libraries, and that’s in addition to learning at home and on the go. A college reading aid needs to be as portable as a pencil case to ensure that it’s always there when they need it. 

• Understand the unique nature of their dyslexia. Everybody experiences dyslexia differently and needs different support, so things like reading speed, word pauses and languages need to factor into the equation to create a completely customisable support package that doesn’t waste their time. 

• Be designed to adapt and grow with them. College is a transitional period, and it’s here that learners begin to hone the skills they need for work and further study: a college reading aid might well end up being their university reading aid and workplace reading aid, too. They need something they can rely on and know they can depend on the outside. 

Meet C-Pen Reader 2! 

So when you’re resourcing support on a large scale and every learner has different skills, needs and preferences, how do you make sure it works for everyone, and still effectively breaks down the barriers to reading in a budget-friendly way?  

C-Pen Reader 2 is a college reading aid that uses AI-led text-to-speech tech to support users with multi-modal reading to foster better comprehension and understanding. 

Basically: you put the pen on the page, move it across the text, and listen to the text through the headphones. 

It’s far more discreet and far faster than working with a human reading support assistant, and as well as being able to look up dictionary definitions and store words to file, users can also customise both speaking speed, pause speed and language to their needs. 

It’s our bestselling reading support throughout the UK, and it’s designed with speed in mind to ensure that college learners get to make the most out of every moment they spend learning for the future.  

5 ways that our flagship college reading aid, C-Pen Reader 2, can save your learners time this term! 

Reading can get time-consuming. 

There’s a lot of reading to be done in college. Whether they’re studying one subject or trade intensively or taking on a number of A-level subjects, whole chapters get assigned on the regular and many tasks have conflicting deadlines and submission dates. 

When reading takes them a while, it can get daunting, but the right college reading aid can speed up the process and allow learners far more efficient access to texts without compromising on the support they receive. Experiencing the text on the page via audio supports their understanding, bypasses decoding problems and helps them to feel confident enough to take on more complex reading independently, without waiting for teacher or lecturer support. 

Resourcing college reading aid poses a few logistical issues. 

There aren’t nearly enough reading support professionals to go around. Schools and colleges are dealing with a huge uptick in neurodiversity and SEN diagnoses post-pandemic, and more and more learners are requesting reading support. The waiting lists are long, and that’s before colleges have to resource them financially too – human support in any capacity isn’t cheap, and budgets are under more pressure and scrutiny than ever. 

C-Pen Reader 2 puts resourcing reading back into colleges’ hands as it’s far cheaper than a long-term human support contract. Switching out for an assistive tech-based college reading support means that every reader who comes to the classroom needing help has access to it, and educators are more in control of what they’re spending term-to-term. 

The right college reading aid breaks down the language barrier.  

Some learners come from other language backgrounds or live in households where English isn’t the dominant language and have smaller vocabularies and lower English language skills. This might pose a problem in college, where the complexity of the language that they’re exposed to in an educational setting steps up. 

Nothing breaks your learning flow like having to pause quickly to Google translate something or ask somebody to help you with what a word means. That’s why when we created C-Pen Reader 2, we made sure that learners have translation options and dictionary lookup functions at their fingertips. Learning is more independent, and language immersion is easier at home, too, when the pen travels with them. 

And it’s ready to learn, wherever they are. 

Learning doesn’t just happen in college where there’s a convenient high-speed Wi-Fi connection. Sometimes learners have long commutes, like to read and study outdoors, or simply find that things go in better when they’re not sat in a busy classroom. Having a college reading aid that’s ready to read wherever they’re trying to cram in some studying saves time and supports ongoing learning motivation. 

C-Pen Reader 2 works completely independently of Wi-Fi and holds a charge for 8+ hours, so it’s always ready to get reading. No messing around with hotspots, or connecting to dodgy coffee-shop internet on the go: you’re welcome. 

C-Pen Reader 2: it’s as easy as scan, listen, understand. 

It’s literally that simple. 

We know that college students have a lot of competing priorities. And we know that when students are already stressed, doubting themselves and feeling overwhelmed, the last thing they’ll do is willingly take on a complicated piece of tech they need to invest hours in familiarising themselves with. 

C-Pen Reader 2 is designed with user experience in mind, with simple menu systems and a method that even the youngest learners can pick up with ease, so it’s really a case of just picking it up and moving it across the page to get started. Dictionaries, pause and speed options, language and accent choices and file storage are all available at the press of a few buttons so that they can relax and focus on the important stuff.  

To find out more about C-Pen Reader 2 and how it could save time and bust stress for the college learners in your classroom, workshop or lecture hall, head over to C-Pen Reader 2 at Scanning Pens.  

You can also check out our College Resources Hub to explore more about what the right college reading aid can do for you, and how to support learners as they move through one of the most important educational phases of their lives.