The dean of teaching at Griffith University, Professor Glenn Finger, has urged students to return to pen and paper in preparation for their HSC exams as the risks of digital distraction continue to escalate.

More than 69,000 students in NSW are due to sit their final HSC exams in just over two weeks time.

"There is an assumption that this generation can multitask, but to actually be successful you need to be able to effectively revise and commit points to memory," Professor Finger said.

"Going totally online is problematic. The best way is to make sure you blend computer-based learning with print."

A 2013 study from Norwegian academics at Stavanger University found that reading narrative texts on a computer screen led to poorer reading comprehension than reading the same texts on paper.

The same study also found that page scrolling through large slabs of texts on a screen lacked the natural markers that allowed for reading comprehension.

Researchers from the University of Karlstad in Sweden found in 2005 that reading on screen drained more of students' mental resources, making remembering the text more challenging.

Other studies in the Journal of Experimental Psychology have found that the way people approach digital and printed texts is fundamentally different. The majority of people engage with printed texts in a way that is more geared towards learning.

Professor Finger said that in the age of Facebook these differences have only been exacerbated.

New research commissioned by Canon Australia and conducted by Galaxy found that, out of the 500 students surveyed, 52 per cent of them cited the temptation to check social media as a key challenge when focusing on exams.

"You can't assume that students studying for hours clicking through many screens are actually engaging in learning," Professor Finger said. "They might be playing games, or online gambling. You never know."

Professor Finger urged parents to encourage their children to use handwritten notes as they did when they were studying for their own exams decades ago.

"The handwritten notes of a successful student look like a dog's gotten into it," he said. "Sometimes we overlook good old-fashioned study because of new technology. There is a tendency to say 'we've always done it this way, it's no good any more'. We can't just discard old study habits.

"We have to get the blend right."