What Is Digital Learning: What the Research Says

Digital learning has transformed education
over the past two decades — moving
from a supplementary tool to a central
feature of how children learn both
in school and at home. Understanding
what digital learning actually is —
what it includes, what research shows
about its benefits and limitations,
and how parents can support effective
digital learning — is practically
important for every parent navigating
education in the digital age.

This article covers what the research
shows about digital learning — what
it is, what the evidence supports,
what the limitations are, and what
parents can specifically do.

What Digital Learning Is

Research on digital learning — including
work by Richard Mayer at the University
of California Santa Barbara on multimedia
learning — defines digital learning as
any learning that occurs through digital
technology — devices, software, platforms,
and online resources.

Digital learning includes:

E-books and digital reading
materials.
Educational apps and software —
including adaptive learning platforms.
Online courses and educational
platforms — Khan Academy,
Coursera, and similar.
Educational videos and multimedia —
YouTube educational content,
documentaries, educational animations.
Digital note-taking and word processing.
Coding and computational thinking programs.
Interactive digital simulations
and virtual experiments.
Collaborative digital tools —
Google Docs, shared platforms.
Gamified learning — educational
games and game-based learning platforms.
Virtual and augmented reality
learning experiences.

Research distinguishes digital
learning from recreational
screen use — the defining feature
of digital learning is educational
intent and educational design —
content specifically created
to build knowledge, skills,
or understanding.

The History of Digital Learning

Research on the history of digital
learning in education identifies
several significant developments:

Early computer-assisted instruction —
1970s and 1980s. Early research
on computer-assisted learning
found genuine benefits for
drill and practice — particularly
in mathematics — but limited
benefits for higher-order thinking.

The internet era — 1990s and
2000s. Research on internet-based
learning found significant benefits
for access to information —
but also new challenges around
distraction, reliability of
sources, and depth of engagement.

The tablet and app era — 2010s.
Research on tablet-based learning
found genuine benefits for
engagement — particularly for
younger children — but raised
questions about comprehension,
distraction, and the replacement
of foundational analog skills.

The personalized learning era —
2020s. Research on adaptive
digital learning platforms finds
genuine benefits for personalization —
matching content to the individual
learner’s level and pace —
that traditional classroom instruction
does not replicate.

What Research Shows About
the Benefits of Digital Learning

Research on digital learning and
educational outcomes finds genuine
benefits in several specific areas:

Access and equity. Research
consistently finds that digital
learning tools significantly
improve access to quality educational
content — particularly for
students in under-resourced
schools, in rural or remote
areas, or with physical limitations
that affect traditional school attendance.

Personalization and adaptive
learning. Research on adaptive
digital learning platforms —
including significant evaluation
of platforms like Khan Academy —
finds that well-designed adaptive
systems produce genuine learning
benefits by matching content
to the individual learner’s
level, identifying gaps, and
adjusting pace accordingly.

Engagement for specific learners.
Research finds that digital
learning tools — particularly
well-designed educational games
and interactive simulations —
produce genuine engagement
for students who struggle with
traditional instruction modalities —
including students with ADHD,
learning differences, and low motivation.

Immediate feedback. Research
on feedback and learning finds
that immediate feedback — a
feature of well-designed digital
learning tools — significantly
improves learning efficiency
compared to delayed feedback
in traditional assessment contexts.

Multimedia learning. Research
by Richard Mayer finds that
well-designed multimedia learning —
combining words and images
in specific ways — produces
significantly better understanding
of complex concepts than text alone.

Coding and computational thinking.
Research on coding education
finds that learning to code —
a genuinely digital skill —
builds logical thinking, problem-solving,
mathematical reasoning, and
computational thinking in ways
that analog learning does not replicate.

What Research Shows About
the Limitations of Digital Learning

Research on digital learning
also finds significant limitations:

Distraction. Research on digital
devices and attention consistently
finds that digital learning
environments introduce significant
distraction — through notifications,
available entertainment, and
the temptation to task-switch —
that analog learning environments do not.

Comprehension — particularly
for reading. Research on reading
modality finds that digital
reading produces significantly
lower comprehension than physical
book reading — particularly
for longer, more complex texts.

Surface processing. Research
on digital learning and cognitive
processing finds that digital
learning environments — particularly
those with multiple media and
frequent switching — can produce
surface processing rather than
the deeper processing that
genuine understanding requires.

Replacing foundational analog
skills. Research on digital
learning and skill development
finds concerns about digital
learning replacing foundational
analog skills — particularly
handwriting, which research
finds important for literacy
and learning.

Screen time accumulation. Research
on total screen time and child
development finds that educational
screen time adds to the total
screen time burden — and that
the cumulative effects of high
total screen time are significant
regardless of content type.

What Makes Digital Learning Effective

Research on effective digital
learning identifies several characteristics
of digital learning that produces
genuine outcomes:

Clear educational purpose.
Research finds that digital
learning tools with clear,
specific educational goals —
rather than general engagement —
produce significantly better learning outcomes.

Active engagement. Research
on active versus passive learning
finds that digital tools that
require active engagement —
responding, creating, problem-solving —
produce significantly better
outcomes than passive consumption.

Appropriate pacing. Research
on adaptive learning and pacing
finds that digital tools that
adjust to the learner’s pace —
allowing mastery before progression —
produce significantly better
outcomes than fixed-pace instruction.

Limited distraction. Research
on digital learning environments
finds that distraction-limited
digital learning — single-purpose
devices, no notifications,
no available entertainment —
produces significantly better
outcomes than distraction-rich environments.

Parental and teacher involvement.
Research on digital learning
and adult involvement finds
that digital learning is significantly
more effective when parents
or teachers are involved —
discussing content, asking
questions, and connecting digital
learning to real-world experience.

How Parents Can Support
Effective Digital Learning

Research on parental support
and digital learning identifies
several effective approaches:

Distinguish educational from
recreational screen use. Research
supports clearly distinguishing
educational screen use — with
specific educational purpose —
from recreational screen use.
Different limits apply to each.

Choose high-quality digital
learning tools deliberately.
Research supports choosing
digital learning tools based
on evidence of educational
effectiveness — not marketing
or entertainment value.

Research-supported platforms:
Khan Academy — mathematics
and core subjects.
Duolingo — language learning.
Scratch — coding for children.
Epic — digital books for children.

Limit distraction during digital learning.
Research supports:
Single-purpose use during
digital learning — not switching
between apps.
Notifications off during learning sessions.
A specific designated learning
time and location.

Stay involved. Research supports
parents staying involved in
their child’s digital learning —
asking what they are learning,
discussing content, and connecting
digital learning to real-world experience.

Balance digital and analog learning.
Research supports maintaining
strong analog learning foundations —
physical books, handwriting,
hands-on exploration — alongside
purposeful digital learning tools.

Try This This Week

Practice 1 — The Digital Learning Audit
What it is: A deliberate honest
assessment of your child’s
current digital learning —
distinguishing genuinely educational
use from recreational use.

How to do it: This week honestly assess:

What digital tools is my
child currently using for learning?
Are they genuinely educational —
with clear learning outcomes?
Are they being used in a
distraction-limited environment?
Am I involved and aware of
what my child is learning?

Identify one improvement —
and make it this week.

Why it works: Research on
digital learning effectiveness
consistently finds that the
quality and intentionality of
digital learning — not the
quantity — determines whether
genuine learning occurs.

Practice 2 — The Distraction Reduction Practice
What it is: A deliberate commitment
to distraction-limited digital
learning environments — the
most important single improvement
for digital learning effectiveness.

How to do it: This week establish
distraction-limited conditions
for any digital learning:

Notifications off during learning.
Single app or platform in use —
no switching.
A specific designated learning
time — not mixed with recreational screen time.
Phone in another room during
digital learning sessions.

Why it works: Research on
distraction and digital learning
consistently finds that distraction —
the most significant limitation
of digital learning environments —
is significantly reduced by
deliberate environmental management,
producing significantly better learning outcomes.

Practice 3 — The Involvement Practice
What it is: A deliberate weekly
involvement in your child’s
digital learning — the parental
engagement that research finds
most improves digital learning outcomes.

How to do it: Once each week —
sit with your child during
a digital learning session:

Ask what they are learning.
Discuss the content genuinely.
Connect it to real-world experience.
Show genuine interest and curiosity.

Why it works: Research on
parental involvement and digital
learning consistently finds
that parental engagement —
discussing content, showing
interest, making real-world
connections — significantly
improves digital learning outcomes
and transforms digital learning
from a solitary screen activity
into a genuinely educational experience.

The Bottom Line

Digital learning is a broad
and varied category — ranging
from genuinely effective adaptive
learning platforms to low-value
entertainment dressed as education.
Research is clear: effective
digital learning has clear educational
purpose, requires active engagement,
operates in distraction-limited
environments, involves parental
or teacher engagement, and
is balanced with strong analog
learning foundations.

The child whose digital learning
is purposeful, distraction-limited,
actively engaging, and supported
by parental involvement — and
who maintains strong analog
foundations alongside their
digital learning — has the
most evidence-based learning
foundation available.

Sources

Mayer, R. E. (2009).
Multimedia Learning.
Cambridge University Press.

Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M.
(2014). The pen is mightier
than the keyboard.
Psychological Science,
25(6), 1159–1168.

Mangen, A., Walgermo, B. R.,
& Bronnick, K. (2013).
Reading linear texts on paper
versus computer screen.
Computers and Education,
58(1), 785–790.

Sana, F., Weston, T., & Cepeda, N. J.
(2013). Laptop multitasking
hinders classroom learning.
Computers and Education,
62, 24–31.