| A quantitative research study was conducted with 120 undergraduate higher education students at a large metropolitan university using a self-reporting online survey to measure student use and misuse of personal technological devices (PTDs) during instruction. Data regarding time spent using PTDs on course related and non-course related material during class was gathered along with basic demographics: age, gender, level of undergraduate study, grade point average (GPA). In addition, levels of engagement, deficient self-regulation (DSR), media system dependency (MSD), and PTD dependency were determined. Analyses were made using descriptive statistics, correlations, and regressions. Findings indicated that many higher education students are not 100% engaged in the class instruction but rather distracted by PTDs and by classmates that use PTDs during instruction. Sixty five percent (78) of students in the study reported that they did not use PTDs solely for course related material during instruction. In fact, when asked specifically, 77.5% (93) of students in the study reported that they used PTDs for non-course related material during class instruction, including accessing emails, texting, social media, gaming, or watching movies. The most significant analysis from this study indicated that a unit change in student level of DSR explained 30.8% of the change in the mean score of student PTD dependency. |
