Engagement in Digital Lecture Halls: A Study of Student Course Engagement and Mobile Device use During Lecture

Abstract

Universities have experienced increases in technology ownership and usage amongst students entering undergraduate programs. Almost all students report owning a mobile phone and many students view laptops and tablets as educational tools, though they also report using them for nonacademic activities during lectures. We explored the relationship between student course engagement and the use of smartphones, laptops, cell phones, and tablets during lecture. Undergraduate students responded to an online survey asking about both course engagement and mobile device habits. Results show that smartphone use was most strongly related to lowered course engagement and while laptop use was related to lowered engagement, it was to a lesser extent. In contrast, overall engagement of students using tablets or cell phones was not significantly different than those who did not.

Use of electronic devices by the medical students of UniKL-RCMP, Malaysia, and its influence on academic performances

“…Our findings were to some extent less than the findings of Canada (93%) and the USA (80%). [44,45] Our respondents opined that their teachers encourage them to use smart devices; similar finding also reported from the UAE and USA [46,47] ; such corroboration was also witnessed even in medical schools. [48,49] The study respondents used a number of electronic devices, which was also observed among the US health-care professionals and four Canadian university students.…”

“…UniKL-RCMP medical students use a number of electronic devices, and many of them have and use more than one device: laptop (195, 85%), smartphones (203, 90%), tablet (78, 34%), and dongle (3, 1%). Thirty-seven percent (86), 34% (78), 19% (44), and 10% (22) of the study participants use smart devices for academic purpose for 1-2, 3-4, 44, and o1 h, respectively. Again, 35% (80), 28% (64), 29% (68), and 8 (18) of the study participants use smart devices for nonacademic purpose for 1-2, 3-4, 44, and o1 h, respectively ( Table 3).…”

“…Questionnaire was designed to find the proportion of students possessing smart devices; how many hours a day they used for educational purposes; and any correlation between academic grades and use of gadgets. Academic grades were A (80-100), A-(75-79), B+ (70-74), B (65-69), B-(60-64), C+ (55-59), C (50-54), C-(45-49), D (40)(41)(42)(43)(44), and F (0-39). The questionnaire also contains three questions regarding demographic data.…”

Online Off-Task? Impact Of Preservice Teachers’ Use Of Mobile Devices During Class

“…Lecturers have responded by adopting innovative pedagogical methods such as the use of mobile technology devices, including tablets, laptops and smartphones. Such devices have also been used regularly by university students in a variety of settings and have become the standard for note taking, recording, photographing work, and searching the Internet within the academic learning environment at university (Roberts & Rees, 2014;Witecki & Nonnecke, 2015). While students regard mobile devices as highly useful in such university contexts, ready access to the internet and social network sites (SNS) has changed the forms and depth of students' engagement in the teaching and learning process.…”

“…There is considerable research literature that focuses on what students do with the technology used in class and the technology they are using (Norton, Sonnemann, & McGannon, 2013;Roberts & Rees, 2014;Witecki & Nonnecke, 2015); fewer studies address the amount of time spent by students in class connected to the Internet and utilising SNS unrelated to their academic work. This research study aims to help address this gap in the research literature while also reflecting on the impact of students' in-class behaviours and level of active participation in the teaching and learning environment.…”