The two bar graphs illustrate the perceived trustworthiness of print and non- print academic materials as perceived by undergraduate and postgraduate students at Oxford, Cambridge, and Leeds universities.
To commence with, printed resources were considered to be trusted by both groups. At Oxford, 80% of undergraduates and 92% of postgraduates trusted those printed sources. It was still slightly lower in Cambridge, with 75% of undergraduates and 87% of postgraduates believing in print sources. The most confident was at Leeds University, where 80% of undergraduates and 96% of postgraduates trusted print sources.
Analysing the bar chart further, non-print materials were rated lower across all institutions, but particularly among postgraduates. Of students at Oxford, 59% of undergraduates rated digital sources as reliable and 50% of postgraduates, at Cambridge 63% of undergraduates had supported non-print materials while 54% of postgraduates rated them reliable; similarly at Leeds, 61% of undergraduates supported non-print materials while only 47% of postgraduates did.
In summary, students at all three universities showed a clear preference for printed academic sources to digital educational sources. Postgraduate students had the most confidence in their print sources. While undergraduates accepted non-print sources, they were still less trusting than their printed sources.