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5.1StudentExperiencesThissectionwillbeginwithadiscussionofstudents'experienceswithgradedreadingingeneral.Inthepast,informaldiscussionswithstudentshavesuggestedthatstudentsdonotparticularlyenjoythegradedreaderassignments,butdoperceivethattheassignmentsarehelpfulfortheirEnglishstudies;thesurveyssupportedtheseconclusions.Notably,therewasnotasignificantdifferencebetweenfirst-yearstudents（whohadonlyusedtheonlinegradedreadersystem）andsecond-yearstudents（whohadusedboth）formostofthesurveyresults;experiencewiththeoriginalphysicalbookgradedreadersystemdidnotseemtochangestudents'opinionsabouttheebooksystem.Whenaskeddirectlyhowtheyfeltaboutreadinggradedreaders,only15.4%ofrespondentsstatedthatthey“verymuchliked”or“liked”readinggradedreaders,while41.7%respondedthatthey“neitherlikednordisliked”them,andtheremaining42.9%ofstudentsreportedthatthey“disliked”or“hated”doingtheassignments.Inasimilarvein,26%ofthestudentsreportedthattheyagreedwiththestatementthatthey“couldforgetthattheywerestudying”whenreadingthegradedreaders,while52.1%disagreed.withtheremainingstudentsofferingnoopinion.However,studentsgenerallyfeltthatdoingthegradedreaderassignmentshadpositiveoutcomesfortheirEnglishskillsandotherlearninggoals.WhenaskedaboutgeneralEnglishskills,69.8%ofrespondentsagreedthatGradedreadershelpedthemimprove,whileonly8.3%disagreed,with21.9%feelingneutralonthetopic.Similarly,57.3%ofthestudentsfeltthattheirreadingspeedhadimproveddramaticallysincebeginninggradedreaders,and40.6%feltthattheirvocabularyhaddramaticallyimproved,and56.2%feltthatreadinggradedreadershadapositiveeffectontheirTOEICscores.Generally,studentsdidnotexpressastrongpreferenceforonesystemortheother:30.2%statedapreferenceforphysicalbookstoebooks,while41.6%statedtheoppositeand28.2%statednopreference.Individualstudentshadpreferences,buttakenasawholetherewaslittledifference.Switchingtoebooksalsohadlittleeffectonstudents’successrates:completionratesremainedstableatroughly90%beforeandthroughthepandemicwiththechangetothevirtualsystem.5.2FacultyExperiencesDiscussionswithfacultyaboutthechangeinsystemhadtwonotablerecurringthemes:Easeofuseontheonehand,andcommunity-buildingontheother.ThegeneralfacultyconsensuswasthattheonlinetoolsofferedbytheXReadingprogrammadeadministeringtheprogramconsiderablyeasier,thankstoallresourcesbeingconsolidatedinoneplace.Trackingstudentprogresswasalsoquitestraightforward,andremovingtheburdenofmaintainingaphysicallibraryofbooksandtrackingwhichstudentshadborrowedbookswasalsonotedasaconsiderablestepforwardcomparedtotheoldprogram.Thelargestdrawbackoftheprogram,however,wasmoredifficulttomeasuredirectly,butstillquiteimportant.Underthepreviousprogram,studentshadtocometotheDepartmentofEnglishLanguageandCulture'sMultimediaRoom（MMR）inordertocheckoutphysicalbooks,andinteractednotonlywitheachother,butwiththeirupperclassmenintheMMRandworkingasstaffthere.Itwasquitecommonforfirst-andsecond-yearstudentstoasktheolderstudentsforrecommendationsofbookstoread,oradviceabouthowtoachievetheirgoals.Morethanthis,though,simplycomingtotheMMRandinteractingwithotherstudentswas,inretrospect,apowerfulandimportanttoolinbuildingcommunityintheDepartmentofEnglishLanguageandCulture.Naturally,thankstothepandemic,allaspectsofstudentlifelostmuchofthiscommunityaspectduringthesemesterthatwasspententirelyonline,andinfollowingweeksandmonthswhenface-to-facestudentinteractionswerekeptataminimum.However,evenafterreturningtonearly-fullface-to-faceteaching,asthegradedreaderassignmentscontinuedbeingadministeredonline,manystudentssimplyhadlittlereasontocomeintotheMMR,asbeyondcheckingoutbooksforgradedreaders,studentsonlyneededtousetheroomforprintingoccasionalreports,orsolitarycomputerwork.ThisispotentiallytroublingwhenoneconsidersJournalofChubuUniversityEducationNo.23（2023）―18―