COVID-19 and digital multitasking during academic lectures.

The present database collected quantitative data through the survey technique, appealing to an online questionnaire. The data regards the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital multitasking during lectures in university students. The data traces the self-assessment of Portuguese university students (N=44) regarding digital multitasking behavior – including the use of digital resources (U) and the purpose of digital multitasking behavior during lectures (P) – in three different moments (M) – before the COVID-19 pandemic (M1), during the lockdown (M2), and after the COVID-19 pandemic (M3). The use of digital resources was divided into 16 categories of digital resources, including the following: (C1) store & share – store and share data through platforms and clouds; (C2) actuality – newspapers, journals, or specific interest sites; (C3) commerce – sites, tools, and applications for buying and selling products and services; (C4) audio communication – exclusive audio communication; (C5) written communication – exclusive text communication; (C6) video communication – exclusive real-time video communication; (C7) education – educational platforms, applications, sites, and online courses; (C8) entertainment – digital games, entertainment video channels, and applications; (C9) online office tools – document creation resources; (C10) management & organization – calendars, agendas, notes, checklists, and similar; (C11) language – online translators, dictionaries, text correctors, and similar; (C12) multimedia – photo, music, and video edition tools, programs, or applications; (C13) music – listening to music online; (C14) orientation – maps, guides, or similar; (C15) knowledge & research – browsers, wikis, and databases to search for information; (C16) social networks – personal and professional social networks. The purpose of engaging in digital multitasking during lectures encompasses the following: exclusive educational (ED), exclusive non-educational (NED), and combined (COMB) – combining educational and non-educational purposes. Participation criteria included the following: being an adult (≥18 years old); giving previous consent with study-informed participation and results divulgation; having been a student since 2019/2020; having internet access since before the Covid-19 pandemic (2019); being able to write and to read in Portuguese or English languages; and to correctly conclude the survey by submitting all the data required. Exclusion criteria relied on the non-observance of one of the inclusion criteria established. The data was collected between the 1st and 10th of December 2021.