Educause Study Explores How Undergrads Use IT

Educause’s Core Data Service Fiscal Year 2007 Summary Report is always fascinating from a management standpoint.

More interesting to me is [url=http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ECAR/TheECARStudyofUndergradua/47485
]The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008[/url]. I find it fascinating to track the changes in the N‑Gen, which are in full display if you read this report.

There’s no doubt that the sample size for this study is impressive: it “analyzes the responses of 27,317 freshmen, seniors, and community colleges students at 98 colleges and universities in the United States,” and includes findings from focus groups.

Some interesting findings:

*More than 80 percent of respondents own laptops and one third own both a laptop and a desktop computer.

*66.1 percent own Internet-capable mobile phones, though many say it’s too expensive, too cumbersome, or too time-consuming to do much browsing with their phones.

*Students spend an average of 19.6 hours a week actively doing online activities for school, work, or recreation.

*85.2 percent of students report using social networking websites. These are sites like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. Most respondents (55.8 percent) spend 5 hours or less per week on these sites; another 29.6 percent spend between 6–10 hours a week. The 14.8 percent who don’t use theese sites view them as a waste of time.

*Among 18–19 year-olds, 95.1 percent use social networking sites, in contrast to 37 percent of students 30 and older. Not surprisingly, they use social networking sites to say in touch with friends, with 11.6 percent saying that the sites serve their professional needs (job networking, etc.). Only 5.5 percent report using them to communicate with instructors.

*Younger students are also more likely to use text messaging (83.6 percent report texting daily) and IM (73.8 percent use IM daily).

*Students report contributing content to YouTube, Flickr (46.6 percent do this monthly); contributing to wikis (38.2 percent do it monthly); and blogs (34.1% do it monthly).

For those who are interested in learning how students view the use of technology on campus, there’s plenty of material in the report. One tidbit that stood out to me is that 31.8 percent of respondents agreed with the statement “I get more actively involved in courses that use IT.”

Are we a 21st Century campus yet?

And consider this, from a survey conducted by CDW‑G. The CDW‑G 21st Century Campus Study reports that the number one desired technical capability among students-according to 39 percent of those surveyed-is the ability to chat online with professors. The report says:

Todays collegians want more than a lecture-hall atmosphere from their college experience they want regular and immediate communication with faculty. Students rated online chat with professors the tech capability that would be most useful in their studies. Still, just 23% of IT staff say their campus currently offers it. 

The actual purppse of the study, according to CDG‑W is to learn how close we to achieving the 21st-century campus. CDW‑G surveyed more than 1,000 college students, faculty and IT staff members about their perceptions of campus technology.

The key findings:

*Regardless of their major, students say campus technology was a key factor in their school selection – and is critical to their chosen professions

*More than 80 percent of faculty teach at least some of their classes in “smart classrooms,” yet just 42 percent of those faculty use the technology during every class session

*Topping students’ technology wish list is online chat capability with professors; just 23 percent of higher education IT staff say their campus offers it

*Faculty and IT staff agreed that lack of technology knowledge among faculty is the biggest barrier to technology on campus 

In short, students want faculty to use technology creatively to engage them. Here are some suggestions:

Use videos, instructional Web sites, slide shows, online experiments, etc., to better instruct and familiarize students with relevant info
Use wikis
I know my campus offers training courses for all faculty on how to use the new technology I would highly recommend that all professors take these courses
Get AIM
Keep grades updated, send out mass e‑mails to students, stop using VHS … its called live streaming!
Teachers seem to grasp the concept of using technology, but sometimes dont embrace using it
Be creative. I enjoy podcasts as a learning tool

Get your very own PDF of this report here.