Students' Perceptions of Technology Use in College Courses

Abstract

Seven hundred twenty-eight undergraduate and graduate students completed a questionnaire on the use of technology in one of their courses. Twenty courses, representing a wide range of academic disciplines, that used computer-based technologies in some way were included in the sample. Likert and open-ended items were used to assess the students' perceptions of the relative benefit of various types and uses of technology on their learning of course-related materials. Students were generally very positive about the use of technology, with no major differences across class-level (freshman to graduate). Although still positive about the use of technology, females rated the use of technology for learning and classroom instruction somewhat lower than their male peers. Several interesting connections were found between learning preferences of students and their evaluation of various uses of technology. Responses to the open-ended items corroborate and elucidate these general findings.