Abstract
Synchronous remote learning was adopted widely due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. To many educators and students, this was a new medium through which distraction could take place. The research described in this chapter investigates students' perceptions surrounding their engagement and distraction in the synchronous remote learning environment long after the chaos of the 2020 shutdown had eased. Drawing on 32 one-hour interviews conducted during the 2020-21 academic year of undergraduate students in remote classes, data were grouped into three major themes: social presence, cognitive load, and virtual and physical environments. These themes are described in depth in this chapter through discussion of interviewees' quotations. This study provides a nuanced view of students' experiences with synchronous remote learning and contributes to the theory of role strain.
TopBackground
Academic distraction is often blamed on the digital environment (Dontre, 2021; May & Elder, 2018). While many interviewees in this study discussed distractions brought about in the digital space (e.g., social media notifications), digital distraction was only one of several reasons for distraction they discussed. The researchers found three theories useful as interpretive frameworks of student distraction: social presence theory (Short et al., 1976), cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988), and role strain theory (Goode, 1960). Below, the theories are summarized, and relevant scholarship reviewed.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Cognitive Overload: Overabundance of stimuli leading to a decrease in the efficiency and comfort of an individual.
Environmental Role Strain: Increased role strain due to limitations in the diversity of physical environments, causing a detriment in the ability of the individual to effectively compartmentalize the different roles they must carry and perform.
Engagement: To have one's attention occupied by some internal or external stimulus.
Social Presence: The efficient transmission of social cues and the perception of being with another in a synchronous remote learning environment. Key dimensions are intimacy, the feeling of closeness and belonging felt toward the instructors and students in a remote class; and immediacy, which is the sense of psychological distance between people.
Synchronous Remote Learning: A remote class held in real-time with peers and the instructor.
Zoom Fatigue: Increased cognitive load from spending too much time focused on virtual work or learning environments. May include physiological symptoms such as headaches and eyestrain. May also be caused by excessive eye gaze, self-evaluation of one's own appearance, and inability to move around.
Role Strain: The stress involved in fulfilling a totality of over-demanding role obligations and role performances in day-to-day life.