Understanding smartphone usage in college classrooms: A long-term measurement study

The negative effect of smartphone use on academic performance may be overestimated: evidence from a two-year panel study

“…The size of our sample far exceeds earlier field studies using smartphones both in terms of individuals followed and of data point per individual than earlier studies (Felisoni and Godoi, 2018;Kim et al, 2019). In our analysis we excluded 352 students who were part of the Copenhagen Networks Study.…”

“…The majority of prior experimental and field studies have relied heavily on self-reported or self-initiated measures of device use (Lepp et al, 2015;Uzun and Kilis, 2019). However, self-reports of digital device use have been found to be inaccurate, exhibiting little relation to true usage (Kraushaar and Novak, 2010;Douglas et al, 2012;Andrews et al, 2015;Ellis et al, 2018;Orben and Przybylski, 2019;Kim et al, 2019). Only a small subset of the field studies that found negative associations between device use and academic outcomes measured usage directly by digitally tracking student device behaviors, and did so only for a few weeks, a single course and/or over a single term (Grace-Martin and Gay, 2001; Kraushaar and Novak, 2010;Ravizza et al, 2017;Felisoni and Godoi, 2018;Kim et al, 2019).…”

“…Self-activated tracking may also bias participation in the study through selective logging and errors of omission. By comparison, the recent advent of smartphone activity tracking apps provides a less invasive approach to collect device interactions in the background (Felisoni and Godoi, 2018;Kim et al, 2019).…”

“…A student's relative smartphone usage outside class -such as engaging in more or less digital interactions with social contacts -could influence both their device use and performance in the classroom setting. Two recent studies tracked mobile phone use inside and outside of class for respectively 43 students over two weeks and 84 students over 14 weeks (Felisoni and Godoi, 2018;Kim et al, 2019). The studies found a negative effect of in-class device use which was twice as large outside (Felisoni and Godoi, 2018;Kim et al, 2019).…”

“…Two recent studies tracked mobile phone use inside and outside of class for respectively 43 students over two weeks and 84 students over 14 weeks (Felisoni and Godoi, 2018;Kim et al, 2019). The studies found a negative effect of in-class device use which was twice as large outside (Felisoni and Godoi, 2018;Kim et al, 2019). Given the limited study duration and sample size, it is unclear whether these results generalize.…”