Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 50, Issue 3, April 2008, Pages 906-914
Computers & Education

In-class laptop use and its effects on student learning

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2006.09.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Recently, a debate has begun over whether in-class laptops aid or hinder learning. While some research demonstrates that laptops can be an important learning tool, anecdotal evidence suggests more and more faculty are banning laptops from their classrooms because of perceptions that they distract students and detract from learning. The current research examines the nature of in-class laptop use in a large lecture course and how that use is related to student learning. Students completed weekly surveys of attendance, laptop use, and aspects of the classroom environment. Results showed that students who used laptops in class spent considerable time multitasking and that the laptop use posed a significant distraction to both users and fellow students. Most importantly, the level of laptop use was negatively related to several measures of student learning, including self-reported understanding of course material and overall course performance. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Section snippets

Participants

One hundred thirty-seven students, from two sections of General Psychology taught by the same instructor, participated in the research. All students who completed the course (i.e., took all the exams) were included as participants. There were 83 freshmen, 41 sophomores, 9 juniors, and 4 seniors. All participants signed consent forms, and the instructor assured them that all data would be confidential and that the survey responses would not influence course grades.

Course structure and assessment

The research was limited to a

Response rate

Only those students who answered at least 7 of the 10 weekly surveys were included in the analysis. Nine students out of the original 137 failed to complete the requisite seven surveys, leaving an overall response rate of 93.4%. Sixty-five students completed all 10 surveys, 38 students completed 9 surveys, 15 students completed 8 surveys, and 8 students completed 7 surveys. For each subject, his or her responses for each item were averaged across all the surveys completed.

Level of laptop use

Of the total

Discussion

This research raises serious concerns about the use of laptops in the classroom. Students admit to spending considerable time during lectures using their laptops for things other than taking notes. More importantly, the use of laptops was negatively related to several measures of learning. The pattern of the correlations suggests that laptop use interfered with students’ abilities to pay attention to and understand the lecture material, which in turn resulted in lower test scores. The results

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by a summer research grant from Winona State University. I thank Kathryn Jargo for all her assistant in data coding and data entry and John Johanson and Peter Miene for their feedback on earlier versions of this paper.

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