Research Archive

Has the computing competence of first year university students increased during the last decade?

Research Archive

Has the computing competence of first year university students increased during the last decade?

McLennan, Theresa J. ; Gibbs, Shirley F.
Type: Conference Contribution - Published (Conference Paper)
Permalink: https://hdl.handle.net/10182/3786
Originally published: 2008 by ascilite. Australasian Society For Computers In Learning In Tertiary Education.
Rights: Copyright © 2008 Theresa McLennan and Shirley Gibbs The authors assign to ascilite and educational non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to ascilite to publish this document on the ascilite web site and in other formats for Proceedings ascilite Melbourne 2008. Any other use is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.
Keywords: first year students; computing competence; computing knowledge; online computer literacy; offline computer literacy; skills perception level

Abstract:

Computers have become ubiquitous. The perception is that they are used effectively and with authority by much of the younger population. Previous generations used computers to manipulate data, mainly in employment. The current generation considers use of computers to be part of their social life. This paper reports on the results of a longitudinal study of students in an introductory computing class at Lincoln University. Results from 1999 were compared with results from 2008 to see if there were any differences in the overall computing confidence reported by students from both cohorts. The computing activities of the 1999 and 2008 students have been compared. Results show that the current students are more likely to be computing online and their overall confidence is higher than in the earlier study. This confidence is not matched by increased skills in offline computing. There is some evidence that the 2008 students are less competent users of productivity software such as spreadsheets and databases than the 1999 students.

Show full item record

Files in this item

[PDF]
Name: computing_compete ...
Size: 1.806Mb
Format: PDF
Description: Full Conference Paper

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Search Research Archive


Browse

My Account

Statistics