1. ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007
Brian Nielsen, Bob Taylor, Bob Davis
February 20, 2008

2. Overview Design and execution of the overall study Survey findings
How is Northwestern different than larger aggregated results?
Discussion: IT policies, longitudinal perspective, …

3. The Study Sponsor: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research
Web-based survey, 103 institutions and 27,846 respondents
Some qualitative data (focus groups and open-ended responses)
Prior surveys in 2005 and 2006

4. Northwestern Participation
1,000 sample of Freshmen and Seniors
Response rate .256, available from March 15 through April 18 ( solicitation, one reminder, participation in drawing for $50-$100 gift certificates)
No options for local questions, nothing other than selected summary data from results

5. General Findings: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
M. Prensky, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”
Uses and attitudes regarding IT devices and systems
Course Management Systems (CMS) features
Faculty use issues

6. Hardware All 86% 76% 74% 60% 56% 12% NU 89% 87% 94% 35% 7% 12%
Cell phone
Mp3 player
Laptop
Desktop
Gaming
Pda
Cell + pda

7. Use of Technology in Learning
All
96%
71%
61%
50% NU
100%
65%
94%
52%
44%
Presentation
CMS
Course web site
Spreadsheet

8. Satisfaction with CMS All 5% 19% 76% NU 3% 14% 84%
Very negative/negative
Neutral
Positive/very positive

10. How Useful was Sharing in CMS?
All
14%
19%
36%
31% NU
15%
19%
26%
45%
Not/somewhat useful
Useful
Very/extremely useful
Did not use