The impact of relevant versus irrelevant media multitasking on academic performance during online learning: a serial of mediating models

Background: Online learning offers autonomy, convenience, and flexibility but also presents challenges such as lack of supervision and increased susceptibility to digital distractions, resulting in heightened media multitasking compared to traditional classrooms. Media multitasking—simultaneously engaging in or rapidly switching among media activities—can be classified by task relevance into academically relevant and academically irrelevant types, enabling differential examination of their links with academic outcomes. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of 557 Chinese university students who had completed eight weeks of online classes assessed academically relevant media multitasking (AR-MMQ), academically irrelevant media multitasking (AIR-MMQ), self-regulation strategies (SRS), flow experience (FL), and academic performance (AP). Bivariate correlations were computed and serial mediation was tested via structural equation modeling. Results: Academically relevant media multitasking showed significant positive correlations with self-regulation strategies, flow experience, and academic performance, whereas academically irrelevant media multitasking showed no significant correlations with these variables. Self-regulation strategies and flow experience acted as serial mediators linking academically relevant media multitasking to academic performance; this serial mediation did not emerge for academically irrelevant media multitasking. Conclusion: Individuals who frequently engage in academically relevant media multitasking appear better able to regulate behavior, sustain concentration, experience greater flow, and thereby achieve improved academic performance. Engaging in task-relevant media multitasking may bolster cognitive processes rather than merely disrupt them, supporting a comprehensive view that the multidimensional characteristics of media multitasking lead to distinct cognitive outcomes.

Lifang Fan, Chen Pan, Xuejun Bai, Shiyi Li