Students encounter both internal and external distractions when learning on Zoom. External distractions affect learning and recall which hinders student performance.
A research study on this subject was conducted using distractions while students participated in an online education class. The researchers studied students during the following six distractions: playing a video game, having a conversation, texting, watching a low stimulant video, watching a high stimulant video, and folding laundry (Blasiman, Larabee, & Fabry 228).
They divided these distractions into categories of passive and active as well as communication and motor distractions. Passive distractions did not require as much attention from the students, while active distractions held almost all of the students’ attention. Communication distractions involved other people or conversations while motor distractions involved physical movement.
After each group went through their respective trial, the researchers found that the baseline for the post test dropped from 87% to 62% (Blasiman, Larabee, & Fabry 228). They further found that the lowest performance came after active communication tasks, and the highest performance came from passive communication tasks.
Here’s an exercise to test how your memory works when you experience various distractions:
As you can see, it’s a lot harder to remember and retain information when there are things going on around you. In an in-person classroom, there are significantly less external distractions because you are in a contained, controlled environment. Zoom learning, however, can be conducted anywhere, which means the environment is less controlled, and there are more opportunities for distraction.
Multitasking is a particular pitfall of the lack of pressure in Zoom classrooms. You can talk to your family and friends in person, over call, and over text while taking a Zoom class. You can get up and do chores or other activities. There’s no accountability which means that students are more likely to get distracted.
Another article shows that students in online classes multitask more than in in-person classes. These students score lower in tests, and their overall performance suffers as a result. As a professor at Kent State University, Andrew Lepp, states, “in face-to-face courses, a physically present teacher and the presence of conscientious students help to enforce classroom policies and behavioral norms against multitasking.”
Without the expectations and regulations of a classroom environment, even the most self-disciplined students do not feel the pressure to keep them engaged solely in the lesson, instead turning to distractions to keep them stimulated.