The effects of video gaming on academic effectiveness of higher education students during emergency remote teaching

The pandemic caused a new digital scheme of work to be implemented in higher educational institutes to avoid physical contact, which is referred to as emergency remote teaching in the literature (Hodges, Moore, Lockee, Trust, & Bond, 2020). The inevitable consequence of emergency remote teaching (later on ERT) was that the students’ inter-and extra organisational relationships decreased significantly (Pusztai & Győri, 2021). Based on the results of previous studies, we know that the lack of student relationships is strongly related to ineffectiveness (Astin, 1993; Pusztai, 2015; Tinto, 1975), which was also identified during the period of ERT (Pusztai & Győri, 2021). In the current study, firstly, we hypothesised that the students’ social interactions, which were accomplished by video gaming, could compensate for isolation (Pisan, 2007) and improve their effectiveness. Secondly, we hypothesised that video gaming might prove ineffective due to stressful and uncertain periods as well as avoidance of activity. In our study, we applied database analysis (Learning Alone database, N = 677) and half-structured interviews (N = 19). In the quantitative sample, we identified that increased gaming time (compared to the time spent before the pandemic) was related to persistence reduction, whereas similar results were obtained with the reduced playing time. In addition, the interview participants reinforced that they used video gaming as a tool to maintain their relationships during ERT, and they tended to do so in their relationships with other students as well. Thus it can be said that video gaming is an extracurricular activity that could affect academic effectiveness positively and negatively at the same time.