Harmful threshold of ICT distraction on the learning process

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are nowadays widely used during academic or occupational trainings from an official standpoint (integrated in pedagogical programs) as well as from an informal standpoint (non class-related use by students, trainers or learners). Regarding this latter point, the research question was to know how often students may authorized themselves to deal with non-class related secondary tasks during a lecture without reducing the learning process performance? Experiments were thus undertaken with N= 66 UK students (MSc.) listening to a 13 minutes video lecture in individual cublicles and then answering questionnaires for knowledge, fidelity and MSLQ (motivation) assessment. Whilst viewing the lecture, students were distracted by sms received on their personal mobile phone. These sms were with neutral emotional valence. The cohort was divided into 5 groups, each related to a distraction frequency f=0, 10, 15, 20, 30 occ/h. We identified a threshold fcrit between 10 and 15occ/h under which learning performance was not lowered compared to the control group and beyond which a significant decrease was observe (15%). These findings are discussed in the light of the Information Processing theory and on the basis of a modified cognitive model based on Mayer and Moreno’s work. Concluding advices for learners and teachers are provided. Limits are discussed and further experiments are suggested.