Here in the Learning Innovation team we regularly survey a cohort of students from The Open University’s Curriculum Design StudentPanel to establish trends and patterns relating to the usage of smart devices amongst our students.
The responses from our sixth survey are in and now that we have crunched the numbers we’ve included the key highlights in this report.If you would like to explore the data that we collected for this report, this is available on our website.
Download full reportDownload dataset (.xlm)
Smartphones and Laptop PCs remain the devices that most students have access to (93%). This has been the case since we started the surveys three years ago with little indication of any change to these device preferences.
For clarity, having access 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 and smart screens) has seen a flattening of their continual growth of usage since the start of these surveys.
There has been a marked decrease in usage in the number of students using a desktop PC or tablet since our first survey in 2019. This recent decline has flattened out in previous surveys, with tablets showing a small increase in usage for the first time in two years.
There are many devices that students have access to or have mentioned that they use of which they are not using for study.
Smartphone usage has almost returned to it's first survey usage for study levels after a period of decline that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Desktop PC and tablet usage for study from the OU students we surveyed has flattened out its recent period of decline.
% change in device type usage for study since 2019.
15% decrease of tablet usage for study
11% decrease of desktop PC usage for study
2% decrease of smartphone usage for study
Laptop PC usage for study is at its highest level of 84% since our surveys began 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.
While 54% of students that responded had access to a Smart TV, only 1% used this device for study purposes. Interestingly, 15% indicated their openness to using a Smart TV for study.
In this most recent survey, the percentage of students currently utilising smart TVs, smart speakers, or smart screens for study remained consistent with previous findings. Despite access to these devices being at one of their highest levels since we began our surveys, there has been no change in their usage for study.
After a recent continued period of decline, WiFi or mobile data limitations has flattened out as a blocker for using devices for study but remains at its lowest levels since surveys began. This is encouraging to think that most of the students we surveyed do not consider this as a limitation to their studies.
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, consistent with our previous surveys, 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
