Smartphone Use, Experience of Learning Environment, and Academic Performance among University Students: A Descriptive Appraisal

Abstract

In our contemporary digital society, the smartphone is at the center of a powerful technological revolution affecting multiple domains. In the context of higher learning, the use of smartphones among students has been an area of interest. Previous studies on smartphone use and academic performance have generally focused on measuring the impact that smartphone use has on the academic performance of students. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which gender differences and the experience of a particular learning environment contributes to the use of smartphones for academic purposes. Data were collected through the use of a standardized self-report questionnaire completed by 300 first-year and 203 fourth-year undergraduate students from the University of Botswana. Our analysis is guided by the following specific objectives: first, to explore gender and the patterns of smartphone use for academic purposes; second, to appraise the contributing value of the experience of a learning environment on the use of smartphones to enhance academic achievement; and third, to examine smartphone use and its possible contribution to the performance outcome of students. Overall, we argue that the use of a smartphone for academic purposes is partly influenced by the extent to which a student is familiar with or understands the multiple contexts that shape his/her learning environment. For further studies in the field of smartphone use and academic performance, we suggest using multiple methods of data collection to uncover how students attach meanings to the use of smartphones and the role of smartphone use in improving their academic performance outcomes.

Assessing the effectiveness of smartphones in education: A Meta-analysis of recent studies

“…Most students use their smartphones to have fun, stay in touch with friends and learn (Singh & Samah, 2018). There are studies that claim using smartphones has a good influence on students' learning (Ahmed et al, 2020;Tao et al, 2018;Zhdanov et al, 2022), but there are other studies that claim it has a detrimental effect on students' learning (Faimau et al, 2022;Foen Ng et al, 2017;Junco, 2012;Platonova et al, 2022). The study's data were aggregated based on the random effect you.…”

“…Students at higher education institutions are digital natives who cannot function without their smartphones. They cannot be parted from their smartphones (Faimau et al, 2022). Students spend a significant amount of time online, and many choose to access the Internet through their smartphones over other devices.…”

“…The correlation between the use of smartphones and academic performance has piqued the interest of academics, as seen by the rise in the number of academic research conducted in this area over the course of the past decade (Faimau et al, 2022). The findings of research examining the association between smartphone use and academic performance and student outcomes are often contradictory.…”

Exploring Undergraduate Students’ Digital Multitasking in Class: An Empirical Study in China

“…Mobile phones have provided essential assistance to college students in class [3][4][5], in finishing coursework [6], and in exam preparation [7]. As digital natives, students believe that smartphones have become an integral part of their lives [8].…”

“…Some studies tried to employ interventions to reduce students' digital multitasking but failed to achieve that goal [24,25]. Furthermore, some studies [8,23] only took social media as a lens to investigate the impact and the nature of digital multitasking, which means that more factors should be included to better understand such behavior.…”