Smartphone Use among Undergraduate STEM Students during COVID-19: An Opportunity for Higher Education?
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students worldwide have continued their education remotely. One of the challenges of this modality is that students need access to devices such as laptops and smartphones. Among these options, smartphones are the most accessible because of their lower price. This study...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-08-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/11/8/417 |
| _version_ | 1797524091815591936 |
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| author | Javier Mella-Norambuena Rubia Cobo-Rendon Karla Lobos Fabiola Sáez-Delgado Alejandra Maldonado-Trapp |
| author_facet | Javier Mella-Norambuena Rubia Cobo-Rendon Karla Lobos Fabiola Sáez-Delgado Alejandra Maldonado-Trapp |
| author_sort | Javier Mella-Norambuena |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students worldwide have continued their education remotely. One of the challenges of this modality is that students need access to devices such as laptops and smartphones. Among these options, smartphones are the most accessible because of their lower price. This study analyzes the usage patterns of smartphone users of undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-sectional descriptive study included 365 students: 162 (44.4%) women and 203 (55.6%) men from a Chilean university. The results revealed that students often accessed the learning management system (LMS) with their computers rather than with their smartphones. Students were connected to the LMS for more hours on their computers than on their smartphones. However, they spent more hours simultaneously connected on their computers and smartphones than just on their computers. During the day, students accessed the LMS mainly from 13:00 to 1:00. The number of connections decreased from 1:00 to 8:00 and increased from 8:00 to 13:00. The LMS resource that students accessed the most using smartphones was discussion forums, while the one they accessed the least was wiki pages. We expect these results to motivate faculties to schedule their activities during the hours students tend to be online and promote discussion forums. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:52:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-33e8d842f969468c89ea4ea58a0923a6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-7102 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:52:25Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-33e8d842f969468c89ea4ea58a0923a62023-11-22T07:23:18ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022021-08-0111841710.3390/educsci11080417Smartphone Use among Undergraduate STEM Students during COVID-19: An Opportunity for Higher Education?Javier Mella-Norambuena0Rubia Cobo-Rendon1Karla Lobos2Fabiola Sáez-Delgado3Alejandra Maldonado-Trapp4Laboratorio de Investigación e Innovación Educativa, IDECLAB, Dirección de Docencia, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4030, ChileLaboratorio de Investigación e Innovación Educativa, IDECLAB, Dirección de Docencia, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4030, ChileLaboratorio de Investigación e Innovación Educativa, IDECLAB, Dirección de Docencia, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4030, ChileCentro de Investigación en Educación y Desarrollo, Facultad de Educación, Universidad de Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción 4030, ChileDepartamento de Física, Facultad Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4030, ChileDue to the COVID-19 pandemic, students worldwide have continued their education remotely. One of the challenges of this modality is that students need access to devices such as laptops and smartphones. Among these options, smartphones are the most accessible because of their lower price. This study analyzes the usage patterns of smartphone users of undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-sectional descriptive study included 365 students: 162 (44.4%) women and 203 (55.6%) men from a Chilean university. The results revealed that students often accessed the learning management system (LMS) with their computers rather than with their smartphones. Students were connected to the LMS for more hours on their computers than on their smartphones. However, they spent more hours simultaneously connected on their computers and smartphones than just on their computers. During the day, students accessed the LMS mainly from 13:00 to 1:00. The number of connections decreased from 1:00 to 8:00 and increased from 8:00 to 13:00. The LMS resource that students accessed the most using smartphones was discussion forums, while the one they accessed the least was wiki pages. We expect these results to motivate faculties to schedule their activities during the hours students tend to be online and promote discussion forums.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/11/8/417smartphones and learningmobile learninguniversity studentsSTEMCOVID-19 |
| spellingShingle | Javier Mella-Norambuena Rubia Cobo-Rendon Karla Lobos Fabiola Sáez-Delgado Alejandra Maldonado-Trapp Smartphone Use among Undergraduate STEM Students during COVID-19: An Opportunity for Higher Education? Education Sciences smartphones and learning mobile learning university students STEM COVID-19 |
| title | Smartphone Use among Undergraduate STEM Students during COVID-19: An Opportunity for Higher Education? |
| title_full | Smartphone Use among Undergraduate STEM Students during COVID-19: An Opportunity for Higher Education? |
| title_fullStr | Smartphone Use among Undergraduate STEM Students during COVID-19: An Opportunity for Higher Education? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Smartphone Use among Undergraduate STEM Students during COVID-19: An Opportunity for Higher Education? |
| title_short | Smartphone Use among Undergraduate STEM Students during COVID-19: An Opportunity for Higher Education? |
| title_sort | smartphone use among undergraduate stem students during covid 19 an opportunity for higher education |
| topic | smartphones and learning mobile learning university students STEM COVID-19 |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/11/8/417 |
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