Effects of using a second-screen application on attention, learning, and user experience in an educational content

ABSTRACT

Using a secondary device while viewing a primary device (i.e. TV), or media multitasking, is now common. Numerous researchers and practitioners have attempted to introduce secondary devices into education as a new learning environment providing additional information to the user. However, the learning-related effects of using a second screen remain controversial. This study examined the effects of second-screen-application use on attention, learning performance, and user experience per content relevance for three primary contents (PC; i.e. videos) requiring different amounts of cognitive load: low, medium, and high. Second-screen use reduced learning performance and user satisfaction when the PC required high cognitive load. However, participants exhibited increased learning performance, concentration, and satisfaction with the PC requiring medium-cognitive-load when highly relevant information was presented on the secondary screen simultaneously. Based on these findings, guidelines were suggested for designing a second-screen application without degrading users’ learning and experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Second-screen application
• media multitasking
• educational content
• content relevance
• multimedia learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mr Seungyup Lee earned B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea in 2010. He worked at Mobile Telecommunication division of Samsung Electronics’ from late 2009 to early 2011. After that, he is now as a Ph.D. candidate at School of Integrated Technology in Yonsei University. His research interests include learning technology, interaction techniques, and multi-device applications.

Dr Jongsoo Baek is a research professor in Yonsei Institute of Convergence Technology, Yonsei University, Incheon, Korea. He got a Ph.D. degree in Psychology (Brain and Cognitive Science), University of Southern California in 2012, and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Ohio State University from 2012 to 2014.

Prof. Gunhee Han received the Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, in 1997. From 1998 to 2010, he was with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University. Since 2011, he has been served as a school chair in School of Integrated Technology, Yonsei University, where he is currently a Professor. He has authored or coauthored over 100 international journal and conference papers, 3 books, and 70 patents. His research interests include smart sensors, human–computer interaction, and neural networks.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP), Korea, under the “ICT Consilience Creative Program” (IITP-2017-2017-0-01015) supervised by the Institute for Information & communications Technology Promotion (IITP).