Supporting multitasking in online synchronous classes
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Mavali, Sahar
issued: 2023-10-12T19:50:02Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Applied Science - MASc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: In-class multitasking is a very common practice among university students as a strategy to tackle their many goals and commitments in life. However, research shows that in-class multitasking affects students' learning outcomes and academic performance negatively. Even though many students are aware of these potential drawbacks, in-class multitasking remains persistent in in-person and even more so in online classes. To learn more about students' motivations, perceptions, and challenges in in-class multitasking in online classes and to be able to propose solutions to their challenges, we conducted a small formative study (N=10) where we asked students to keep multitasking diaries in their online classes and followed up with semi-structured interviews. Through this study, we categorized students' challenges with in-class multitasking into 1. cognitive consequences which consist of content loss, context loss, and the overhead in time spent after the class to compensate for multitasking, and 2. metacognitive consequences which consist of the inhibition of time and attention management due to multitasking. Our insights from the preliminary study lead to the overarching requirement in design which is to support in-class multitasking by reducing its adverse effects on learning. Based on the cognitive consequences, our first design requirement is to enable immediate recovery of missed content in the class time frame. To satisfy this requirement, we propose a bichronous learning environment that enables accelerated guided viewing of past/missed content immediately. In an experimental evaluation (N=20) of these design elements, our prototype showed significant improvement in students' learning outcomes when they multitask, compared to a baseline system. Based on the metacognitive consequences, we define our second design requirement as providing assistance in metacognitive monitoring in in-class multitasking by enabling cognitive offloading. We propose topic, activity, and ti…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/86137
note: Supporting Multitasking in OnlineSynchronous ClassesbySahar MavaliB.Sc., Sharif University of Technology, 2020A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFTHE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFMASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCEinThe Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies(Electrical and Computer Engineering)THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA(Vancouver)October 2023© Sahar Mavali 2023The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend tothe Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesisentitled:Supporting Multitasking in Online Synchronous Classessubmitted by Sahar Mavali in partial fulfillment of the requirements forthe degree of Master of Applied Science in Electrical and ComputerEngineering.Examining Committee:Sid Fels, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBCSupervisorLuanne Sinnamon, Associate Professor, School of Information, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberKonstantin Beznosov, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberiiAbstractIn-class multitasking is a very common practice among university studentsas a strategy to tackle their many goals and commitments in life. How-ever, research shows that in-class multitasking affects students’ learningoutcomes and academic performance negatively. Even though many stu-dents are aware of these potential drawbacks, in-class multitasking remainspersistent in in-person and even more so in online classes. To learn moreabout students’ motivations, perceptions, and challenges in in-class multi-tasking in online classes and to be able to propose solutions to their chal-lenges, we conducted a small formative study (N=10) where we asked stu-dents to keep multitasking diaries in their online classes and followed upwith semi-structured interviews. Through this study, we categorized stu-dents’ challenges with in-class multitasking into 1. cognitive consequenceswhich consist of content loss, context loss, and the overhead in time spentafter the class to comp…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0437137
language: eng
degree discipline: Electrical and Computer Engineering
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Fels, Sidney
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/86137