Assessing Students Computer Skills

1. Assessing Students Computer Skills Lessons Learned From a Survey Used in Science 100 © 2002 Karin E. Readel

2. Initial Purpose of Survey • SCI 100 students spend about 50% of course working in same group (4-5 students) • I needed some basic information from students in order to form “balanced” groups early in semester • Who were my students?

3. Evolution of Survey • Some questions unclear or redundant • Early versions of survey made me realize I wanted more information • Purpose of survey changed • I became interested in students’ “perception vs. reality” • Survey also provided me with information about topics I need to cover in further detail

4. Survey Administration • Students asked to fill out survey during first lab • Students are told information will be used in group formation • I use hardcopies of survey to assign groups based on series of criteria • Data entered (eventually) into an Access database for analysis • Overall Trends • By Computer Ability • By Class

5. Survey • 2 Pages Long; Fill in the Blank and Rankings

6. The Students • Total Sample Size of 638 from Fall 2001 through Fall 2002 • 280 (44%) are commuters • 358 (56%) live on campus

7. Number of Students in Each Class

8. Number of Students in Each Major

9. Computer Access • Have Internet Access at Home vs. Campus • Have Printer Access at Home vs. Campus (only Fall 2002 data)

10. Self Ranking of Overall Computer Ability • Students asked to rank themselves as “beginner”, “intermediate” or “advanced” computer users. • A numerical scale (1-10) was added to the survey in Fall 2002.

11. Self-Ranking of Computer Ability

12. Self-Ranking of Computer Ability by Class

13. Operating System? • “What operating system do you use most often?” • My interpretation of whether or not it is plausible • 473 Correct • 165 Incorrect • Out of the “correct” responses • 454 MS Windows • 17 Mac OS • 2 Unix • 2 Linux

14. Correct OS by Computer Ability

15. Research Experience on the Internet

16. Average Internet Research AbilityFall 2002 Data

17. Word Processing Software • Students were asked the name and version of the software they use

18. Converting Files to Rich Text Format • Students were asked if they knew how to convert a file to rich text format • 239/638 students answered yes

19. RTF Conversion By Class

20. Virus Checking • Students were asked if they knew how to scan a file or disk for viruses • 373/638 answered yes

21. Virus Checking By Class

22. Web Page Experience • Number of students with prior web page experience • Students’ rankings of their web page experience

23. Most Commonly Used Software

24. Do Students REALLY HaveWeb Page Experience?

25. Web Page Ability by Class

26. Do Students Know How to FTP? • Students were asked if they knew how to FTP a file • 185/638 answered yes

27. Do Students Know How to Use Excel? • 405 of 638 students have experience using Excel

28. Excel Ability By Class

29. Average Excel Ability Fall 2002 Data

30. Prior Blackboard Use? • Students were asked if they had used Blackboard in another course

31. Blackboard Use by Class

32. Students’ Ranking of Blackboard • In Fall 2002 students were asked to rank experience on scale of 1- 10 • Average Ranking = 6.6

33. Ranking of Blackboard by Computer Ability

34. Overall Trends • Students think of themselves as Intermediate Computer Users • Probably overestimating their abilities • 25% don’t know what OS they use • 32% don’t know how to convert a file to RTF • 45% don’t know how to scan for viruses • 6% don’t know what Word Processing program they use

35. Overall Trends cont’d. • Less than half of students have experience creating web pages • Further, many students who say they have experience, are very limited • Mostly beginners and intermediates • Most students don’t know how to FTP files

36. Overall Trends cont’d. • Approximately 60% of students had used Blackboard before • More upperclassmen vs. freshmen • Satisfaction level about the same between upper and lower classmen • Correlation between computer ability and satisfaction with Blackboard?

37. Group Roles • Students were asked to rank their preference in potential group roles • Leader • Researcher • Computer Guru • Facilitator • Artist • Field Person • Writer/Editor (added in Fall 2002)

38. Group Role Preferences • Leader • Researcher

39. Group Role Preferences • Computer Guru • Facilitator

40. Group Role Preferences • Artist • Field Person

41. Group Role Preferences • Writer category was added in Fall 2002

42. Group Roles by Computer Ability

43. Group Roles by Major • Leader • Researcher

44. Group Roles by Major • Computer Guru • Facilitator

45. Group Roles by Major • Artist • Field Person

46. Group Roles by Major • Writer

47. Overall Trends in Group Roles • Researcher and Facilitator are most popular first choices • Leader and Field Person fall in the middle • Computer Guru and Writer are least popular overall • Artist at either top or bottom

48. Overall Trends cont’d. • Advanced users/ POLI majors more likely to choose Leader role • Advanced users no more likely to choose Computer Guru role • (desire does not mirror ability?)

49. Future Changes • Incorporate early assignment to asses Excel abilities (particularly graphing skills) • Add post assessment at end of semester • Have computer skills improved? • Which ones? To what extent? • Expand database to incorporate grades on different assignments • Do students with certain skills do better or worse in SCI 100?