Smartphone Use among Undergraduate STEM Students during Covid-19

An Opportunity for Higher Education

Bibliographic Data

ID22049005
AuthorsJavier Mella-Norambuena (0000-0002-4288-142X, University of Concepción), Rubia Cobo-Rendon (0000-0002-3350-071X, University of Concepción), Karla A Lobos (0000-0002-0145-0041, University of Concepción), Fabiola Sáez-Delgado (0000-0002-7993-5356, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, corresponding author), Alejandra Maldonado-Trapp (0000-0003-2131-6090, University of Concepción)
Year2021
Volume11
Issue8
Pages417
Publication date2021-08-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducation Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2227-7102 • E-ISSN: 2227-7102
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/educsci11080417
OpenAlexW3188696070
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited36

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

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Mathematics education · Medical education · Multimedia · Pandemic · Schedule · Computer Science · E-Learning and Knowledge Management · Educational Innovations and Technology · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Medicine · Psychology

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