Classroom Technology Adoption at Cabrini College

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Classroom Technology Adoption at Cabrini College
March 20, 2008

• Dr. Joanna DeFranco
• Assistant Professor
• Information Science and Technology

• Dr. Eric Malm
• Assistant Professor
• Business

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Background

• Colleges have spent millions of dollars on
  classroom technology.
• How is the technology being used?
• How is it changing the classroom experience?
• How is it improving education?

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Technology Adoption Study

• Student and Faculty Survey
• Attitudes and use of technology outside the
  classroom
• Attitudes and use of technology inside the
  classroom.
• WebCT Log Analysis
• Frequency and intensity of use
• Tool usage

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Technology Survey

• Administered to 86 Students and 64 faculty
  members at Cabrini College.
• Questions on
• Attitudes toward Internet Technologies
• Use of Internet Technologies Outside the
  classroom
• Attitudes toward Classroom Technology
• Use of classroom technologies
• Thank you Anthony Razzi!

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Similar Attitudes

• Students and faculty have relatively similar
  attitudes toward technology outside of the
  classroom.

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Similar Attitudes

• Faculty likes buying online.

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Different Usage

• Students and faculty differ dramatically in how
  they use technology outside of the classroom,
  particularly as a communications medium.

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Different Usage

• Faculty email pictures instead of posting them.

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Classroom Attitudes

• Students and Professors are positively disposed
  toward the use of classroom technologies.

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Use of Classroom Technologies

• Students are exposed to more in-class
  technologies.

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BBVista Log Analysis

• Attitudes toward technology were combined with a
  WebCT Log Analysis for the entire college.
  (Thanks to Caitlin ODonnell)
• BBVista Data showed the actual usage of the
  online classroom software for the entire college.

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Low Total Use

• 78 of courses had No Activity on BBVista during
  the fall semester.
• Note All courses are traditional classroom
  based courses.

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Low Intensive Use

• Only 8 of classes used BBVista intensively
  (defined as an average of at least 20 student
  logins per semester).

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The Good News

• Change is seldom quick.
• Infrastructure is in place.
• Students are ready to use technology.
• Professors are experimenting with new ways of
  structuring and conducting classes.

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• BBVista use varies widely by department.

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Tool Usage

• The variety of usage patterns suggests that
  Professors are finding a variety of ways to
  incorporate technology into the classroom.

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Both Students and Professors Are Open To
Technology
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Education and Support

• Many faculty say they need more training and
  support.

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Education and Support

• Many faculty do not know how to access the
  Colleges network H Drive.

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Education and Support

• Both students and faculty say WebCT is
  unreliable despite a 99 reported up-time.
• Most problems are user-related.

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Education and Support

• Students and faculty both rely on the ITR Help
  Desk and other faculty for support.

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No Easy Answers

• Each course, discipline, professor and class are
  different
• Usage data shows that active users use WebCT in
  different ways.

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How Versus Why

• Colleges need both Technical Support and
  Pedagogy Support
• Both Students and Teachers use technology when
  they think it will benefit them.
• Students wont use technology without
  professors.

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Technical Support

• Cabrini has done an excellent job of making
  Instructional technology available to faculty
• Bb Vista
• Many Smart Board enhanced classrooms
• Partnership with Drexel University
• But Pedagogy Support is more difficult to
  provide college-wide.

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Pedagogical Support

• Train faculty how to effectively integrate Bb
  into their existing courses.
• To the millennial student, Instructional
  technologies are as important as textbooks
• Enhanced interaction/collaboration among
  teacher-student and student-student
• Efficient course content management (syllabus,
  PPTs, readings, assignments, projects)

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Thank You.