Laptop use within college courses has been a topic of debate for nearly two decades. Completely banning laptops from college classes may seem appealing given the potential drawbacks, but these policies may have unintended consequences. One seemingly successful intervention that can address these conflicting goals is the use of laptop zones and laptop-free zones which allows students who want to use their laptops to continue to do so, without hindering the performance of those who do not. We examine the efficacy of this intervention through the lens of the theory of self-regulated learning. We implemented laptop(-free) zones in two large college courses with a total of 168 students, 60 of whom reported sitting in a laptop-zone. Students sitting in the laptop-free zone performed better on objective measures of learning on the day of learning new material, but this difference was not significant five days later on a measure of retention. Further, there were no differences between these groups on self-rated performance at the point of retention. By examining open-ended responses regarding their motivation to sit in the laptop-free zone or the laptop-zone, we found students who sat in the laptop-free zone typically reported wanting to avoid distractions and enhance their memory of the material/class performance compared to those who sat in the laptop zone. Also, more individuals who sat in the laptop zone reported doing so to ensure completeness of their notes, to look up extra course-related material, and to complete non-course related tasks while listening to the lecture. Lastly, we pose a set of future directions aimed at learning more about the use of laptops in and outside of class, and how we can help students be successful using laptops for learning.

近二十年来，大学课程中使用笔记本电脑一直是一个争论的话题。鉴于潜在的缺点，完全禁止在大学课堂上使用笔记本电脑似乎很有吸引力，但这些政策可能会产生意想不到的后果。可以解决这些相互冲突的目标的一项看似成功的干预是使用笔记本电脑区域和无笔记本电脑区域，这让想要使用笔记本电脑的学生可以继续使用笔记本电脑，而不会影响那些不想使用笔记本电脑的学生的表现。我们通过自我调节学习理论的视角来检验这种干预的有效性。我们在两个大型大学课程中实施了笔记本电脑（无）区域，共有 168 名学生，其中 60 人报告坐在笔记本电脑区域。坐在无笔记本电脑区的学生在学习新材料的当天在客观学习指标上表现更好，但这种差异在五天后的保留指标上并不显着。此外，这些组在保留时的自评表现方面没有差异。通过检查关于他们坐在无笔记本电脑区或笔记本电脑区的动机的开放式回答，我们发现坐在无笔记本电脑区的学生通常表示希望避免分心并增强他们对材料/课堂表现的记忆与坐在笔记本电脑区的人相比。此外，更多坐在笔记本电脑区的人报告说这样做是为了确保笔记的完整性，查找额外的课程相关材料，并在听讲座的同时完成与课程无关的任务。