Has the computing competence of first year university students increased during the last decade?
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.
Keywords
first year students; computing competence; computing knowledge; online computer literacy; offline computer literacy; skills perception levelDate
2008Type
Conference Contribution - published (Conference Paper)Collections
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.