Time to Face the Truth: Do Digital Applications Really Help Students Learn?

Vassilis Trizonis, Odysseus Tsakiridis, Dimitrios Metafas, Panos Photopoulos

2025

Abstract

This study explores how first-year Electronics students interact with digital learning resources. The information collected pertains to recorded lectures from the first year of the health crisis in 2020, short videos created at students' request in 2021, a test/video/test (T/V/T) application developed in 2021, and the Multiple-Choice Help (M-CH) application, which was created in 2024. The findings indicate that students' use of digital learning resources is often disconnected from the creators' intentions. Instead of being used systematically, these resources are typically accessed opportunistically, primarily during exam preparation. Factors such as background knowledge and study persistence significantly influence how students utilise these resources. For more complex applications, like the T/V/T and M-CH, students tend to select only those components that align with their immediate needs. High-performing students are generally more inclined to take advantage of digital learning resources, whereas low-performing students and those who do not attend lectures are less engaged. The digital resources employed proved insufficient to reconnect students with learning. Interestingly, satisfaction with a digital resource does not imply its usage or increased academic performance. While the usefulness of digital resources cannot be denied, they play only an assistive role in students’ learning.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Trizonis V., Tsakiridis O., Metafas D. and Photopoulos P. (2025). Time to Face the Truth: Do Digital Applications Really Help Students Learn?. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU; ISBN 978-989-758-746-7, SciTePress, pages 573-580. DOI: 10.5220/0013433000003932

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu25,
author={Vassilis Trizonis and Odysseus Tsakiridis and Dimitrios Metafas and Panos Photopoulos},
title={Time to Face the Truth: Do Digital Applications Really Help Students Learn?},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU},
year={2025},
pages={573-580},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013433000003932},
isbn={978-989-758-746-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU
TI - Time to Face the Truth: Do Digital Applications Really Help Students Learn?
SN - 978-989-758-746-7
AU - Trizonis V.
AU - Tsakiridis O.
AU - Metafas D.
AU - Photopoulos P.
PY - 2025
SP - 573
EP - 580
DO - 10.5220/0013433000003932
PB - SciTePress