Abstract:

Introduction:
With the evolution of smartphones, their use and versatility have spread to every part of our lives. Education has not been immune to these technological changes, opening more and more opportunities to experiment with the use of smartphones to complement what students have learned in class. The objective of this study was to explore the frequency and type of smartphone usage to support studying among high school (HS) and higher education (HE) students from the Netherlands.

Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 304 students from high school and higher education (HS: 92 participants and HE: 212 participants) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. All students answered a survey in Qualtrics about smartphone use. The results were summarized using percentages for categorical variables, and the average and standard deviation for continuous variables. Chi-squared test was used to compare the frequency of smartphone use to support studying by educational level (high school versus higher education).

Results:
The participants were on average 21 years old (standard deviation = 7 years) and 72% of them were female, with 2% identifying as other than man or woman. More than three quarters of the participants used smartphones to support their studying (77%). Highschool students used their smartphone to support studying more often compared to higher education students (HS: 88% versus HE: 73%, p = .002). There were different usage patterns between the two education levels. High school students predominantly utilized their smartphones as tools for study applications (HS: 26% versus HE: 12%) and accessing course resources (HS: 30% versus HE: 12%). While students in higher education exhibited more frequent use of smartphones for tasks involving searching and consuming information (HE: 64% versus HS: 48%), note-taking (HE: 10% versus HS: 0%), and communication (HE: 11% versus HS: 3%).

Conclusion:
There was a high prevalence of using smartphones to support studying in both high school and higher education. Students from high school used their smartphone more to support studying compared to higher education students. The main use of high school students was for study applications and accessing course resources. While for higher education students, smartphone use was more for searching and consuming information, note-taking, and communication.

Keywords:

Smartphone, Education, Learning, High school, Higher education.