The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students

1
The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students IT

• Four Years of Data
• of Universities 13, 40, 65, 103

2
2007 Key Findings

• Virtually all own a computer (98)
• 74 own laptops (up by 7 over 2006)
• 61 agree or strongly agree IT in courses
  improves learning
• 56 say Convenience is the primary benefit of
  IT in courses
• 59 prefer moderate use of IT in courses

3
Key Findings, cont.

• Students report good IT skills overall.
• Only 26 say their institution needs to provide
  them more training.
• 92 have high-speed internet access wired or
  wireless
• They say they spend 18 hours per week doing
  online activities for school, work, and recreation

4
Key Findings, cont.

• Instructor skill with IT greatly impacts student
  perception of the value of IT in courses
• Face-to-face interaction with instructors is
  valued
• Students expect IT to be available

5
Differences from 2005/2006/2007

• Increased ownership of laptop computers 52.8
  68.3 75.8
• Increased primary use of wireless 12.4 19.3
  24.0
• Increased use of social networking (nr) 72.3
  80.3
• Increased number using learning management
  systems 69.7 72.5 82.9

6
Student Use

• Email 99
• Word processing for courses 98.6
• Online library access 94.7
• Software to create web pages 29.1
• Software to create audio/video 32.6

7
Cal Poly Students

• Our students are much more likely to own a
  desktop computer (78.6 vs. 59) and equally
  likely to own laptop
• Our students are less likely to go online to
  library resources (31.2 vs. 44.6)
• Doing less IM (40.5 vs. 49.3 do it daily)
• Less gaming, music/video downloads, wikis,
  blogging

8
Cal Poly Students

• Do a lot less social networking (29.8 vs. 50.3
  daily)
• Do more creation of audio/video, web pages,
  Blackboard, discipline-specific software
• 38 agree or strongly agree that we need to give
  them more training on technology required in
  classes

9
Cal Poly Students

• Are much more satisfied with university email
  2006 vs. 2007
• FRESHMEN Then 21 Now 66.8 of freshmen prefer
  CPP email
• SENIORS Then 35 Now 77.5 prefer CPP email

10
To Learn More

• Visit educause.edu/ecar
• Currently in Whats New section
• Always under Research Publications, Research
  Studies
• CPP data will be posted on our Blackboard site

11
Recommendation

• We participate again in spring 2008
• We invite all freshmen and seniors to
  participate, to increase our sample size
• We offer accommodation to students with
  disabilities
• We continue to participate in each future survey,
  if ECAR has made it accessible