Here in the Learning Innovation team we regularly survey a cohort of students from The Open University’s Curriculum Design Student Panel to establish trends and patterns relating to the usage of smart devices amongst our students.
The latest responses are in and now that we have crunched the numbers we've included the key highlights in this summary. However, If you would like to know more, the full report is available to download below, together with the set of data that we collected for this report, enabling you to explore further.
Download full reportDownload dataset (.xlm)
While access to the more traditional devices for study (e.g. laptop) has remained strong, the growing trend in students having access to a variety of smart devices has continued. For clarity, this includes devices that students are able to use or have access to, such as a device at home, place of work, place of study etc.
The usage of smart devices (smart TVs, smart speakers, etc.), has seen continual growth since the start of our surveys and this has continued.
Interestingly, there has been an even more marked decrease in usage in the number of students using a desktop PC or tablet, a decline that has continued at pace since our first survey in 2019.
While desktop PC and tablet usage among OU students has slipped to just below a third, and is part of a longer term decline, laptop usage for study has remained very static at just over 80% since 2019.
Smartphone usage has stabilised at around a third in the same period.
% change in device type usage for study since 2019.
17% decrease of tablet usage for study
11% decrease of desktop PC usage for study
7% decrease of smartphone usage for study
Laptop usage for study has remained at 83% since our second survey in early 2020, up just slightly from 80% in 2019.
In our most recent survey, the percentage of students currently utilising smart TVs, smart speakers, or smart screens for study remained consistent with previous findings, with almost zero use of these for study, despite strong growth in the access to and usage of such devices among students.
However, the usage of these devices for study can be reasonably linked to the provision of our learning materials and supporting systems on such devices, which has not yet been forthcoming.
While the number of students identifying the availability of WiFi or mobile data as a blocker to smart device usage for study has decreased significantly in the past two years, the percentage of students stating that device support, in terms software compatibility or the availability of learning materials on smart devices, remains just as problematic as it was when we first ran the survey in 2019.
Data from our recent surveys has indicated that students are becoming more open to alternative device usage for studying and this has broadly continued in this most recent survey.
For example, while 43% of students that responded already use a Smart TV, only 1% of them use it for study. Yet, 13% of the same students have a desire to use a Smart TV for study.
It is worth noting that a third of all students that responded to the survey stated they would not change their behaviour even if the materials they require were made available on other device types.
Conversely two thirds stated they would consider using a device they already use for non-study purposes if we could provide materials for it.
Overall the responses showed a marked consistency with previous results and close alignment with market and consumer trends.
One key conclusion that we can draw from the data is that there remains a continued pattern of increased usage in the variety of smart devices for non-study purposes, but again, this is very much in line with consumer trends.
Perhaps a more important finding, however, is that there remains an opportunity to provide learning materials on smart devices that are not yet supported, but of which students have access to and regularly use, and which could offer greater flexibility for learning.
You can see the full version of the data that we gathered from our survey in our downloadable report. The full dataset is also available here if you would like to explore deeper.
Download full reportDownload dataset (.xlm)
In April 2019 we ran our first survey, looking at how student's smart device usage differed between study and non-study purposes. These additional survey reports are available to download here.
If you would like to find out more about this report, or would like to work with us, please complete your details using the contact form.
LDS-LearningInnovation@open.ac.uk
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Learning Innovation
