Computer use
5.2 Students’ and staff use
Having used the conversational framework as a model for describing key teaching and learning events, it therefore follows that we discuss staff and students’ experiences together in this section. As with the conversational framework we believe that the roles of students and teachers in the learning process are intertwined. Whilst their experiences may be different they essentially participate together in the same teaching and learning event. Our
methodology echoes this view; our survey questions for staff and students regarding use were essentially the same.
For example, students were asked 18 questions about how often they used a computer to undertake different activities related to four teaching and learning events: discovery, dialogue, practice and creation. They were also asked five questions about how often lecturers used both computer- and non-computer-based media for the event of acquisition.
We did not ask students about their personal use of the computer for the event of acquisition as we view the use of computers in this event as forming part of teaching activity.
Staff were asked the same 18 questions about how often they asked students to use a computer to undertake different activities related to the same four teaching and learning events: discovery, dialogue, practice and creation. They were also asked five questions about their own practice using both computer- and non-computer-based media for the event of acquisition. Our assumption with regard to the use of technology was that as educators, academic staff would Source: Adapted from Laurillard (2002)
be responsible for the design of the learning experience.
This was why we asked them about what they required (or requested) of students in terms of computer use.
In this section, we begin by examining how students and staff are using computers for general computer-based tasks.
We then look at the extent to which computers are being used for teaching. Upon establishing the basis of student and staff use, we then draw implicitly on our theoretical framework and examine which teaching and learning events are most supported by computers. We examine the different types of activities for which computers are used
Table 5.1: Conceptual framework: teaching and learning events, teaching strategies, learning experiences and educational media
Teaching &
learning event
Teaching strategy Learning experience video, audio clips and animations Discovery Create, set up,
find or guide or Web resources including Dialogue Set up, frame,
moderate,
Practice Model Experimenting,
practising, Creation Facilitating Articulating,
experimenting, Source: Adapted from Laurillard’s Rethinking university teaching (2002)
in each teaching and learning event and the extent of this use. Specifically, we look at the differences in use between what staff and students report, how computers are used differently across different years and levels of study and what differences may occur in computer use across different disciplinary areas.
5.2.1.1 Extent of student use of a computer for general tasks
When we examine how often students use a computer to undertake general tasks, we see that most say they are regular users. The highest reported daily use is for study (45%) and to access information (45%).
The purposes for using computers cover all four possibilities in quite a similar fashion, especially when considering weekly use. Daily use of computers for recreation is the lowest, a point which counters those who are concerned that institutional resources might be being sidetracked for leisure activities.
Interestingly, comments from the qualitative data make the unsolicited argument that recreational use makes a contribution to learning and general well-being.
I will encourage people to make use of computers for learning research and playing games in computers. This will help them to develop much skills for using of computer.
(UWC, Natural Science, 3rd year undergrad, male, 21–25 years, isiXhosa)
Please use the mouse without the bells and fix all the computers in room 3:12. All computers should have a mouse.
We must be able to play games so that we can release stress of the studies.
(CTech, Business, 1st year preliminary, male, <20 years, isiXhosa)
There are others, however, who regard recreational activities, specifically games, as counterproductive. They express frustration, saying they need to use computers for other purposes.
It would great if we could eradicate games on the network. I don’t know how but it is hopeful thinking.
(CTech, Business, 2nd year undergrad, male, 21–25 years, English)
Yes more computers available for students & to restrict students who use the computers for playing games while others need it to work.
(CTech, Management, 3rd year undergrad, male, 21–25 years, Angolan)
In addition, comments from the open-ended questions make the case for extending the use of computers to support student studies. Thus:
Lecturers should make more use of computers for lecturing purposes. Lecturers should put their lectures on a local info network to make it avail to students over and over again.
(UWC, Dentistry, 1st year undergrad, female, <20 years, English)
and
i see computers as being just a part of a whole set of information acquiring tools to obtain and integrate data/info relevant to one’s field of study. Ancillary thereto, computers are vital for putting the knowledge acquired, as well as the experimental.
(SU, Chemistry, postgrad, male, 41–50 years, Afrikaans)
Our findings regarding the general use of computers show that the most frequent use is for purposes related to studying, rather than for recreation.
5.2.1.2 Extent of staff use of a computer for general tasks
When asked how often they used computers to undertake various activities, staff respondents report most often using
Table 5.2: How often students use a computer
Never Monthly Weekly Daily
To communicate
with people 9% 15% 38% 38%
For study 4% 12% 39% 45%
For recreation 13% 20% 36% 32%
To access
information 1% 13% 41% 45%
n = 6147
Table 5.3: How often staff use a computer
Never Monthly Weekly Daily To communicate with
people 7% 5% 38% 50%
To teach 8% 10% 49% 33%
For recreation 17% 17% 50% 16%
To do research 8% 11% 55% 26%
For work-related
administration 6% 7% 41% 46%
n = 507
a computer daily to communicate and for work-related administration (50% and 46% respectively). This is followed by teaching (33%) and research (26%), tailed by recreation (16%).
These finding did differ across institutions (Table 5.3).
Respondents from CTech and PenTech use computers more often than their university counterparts for communication (daily 89% and 76% respectively), teaching (daily 58%
and 55%), and work-related administration (daily 83% and 74% respectively), whereas at the universities the majority of respondents use them weekly for these activities. Use of computers for research is more regular at PenTech (38%
daily), although the majority of respondents use computers at least weekly for research. Also, more UCT respondents use a computer daily for work-related administration (47%
daily) than the other two universities do.
When we examine how often staff use a computer to undertake general tasks, we see that most say they are regular or frequent users, with the highest frequency of use being for teaching and to access information.
5.2.2 The extent of computer use
Before ascertaining how computers are being used as part of teaching and learning events in higher education, we first examined the question of take-up in the region.
The answer to the question as to whether computers are being used as part of teaching and learning in the region is unequivocally “yes” (97% of staff and 98% of students).
As Table 5.5. demonstrates, only 3.33% of staff and 2.15%
of students indicated in all their responses that they never or rarely used a computer to undertake any of the computer-based learning activities listed in the survey (see questions B6 to B18 in the survey in appendix 1).
We therefore conclude that despite the difficulties being experienced in terms of access in higher education in our region – and noted in this report and elsewhere (Brown and Czerniewicz 2004) – academic staff and students report that computers are indeed being used for teaching and learning.
In addition, it is evident that there have been real changes with regard to teaching and learning. This is notable when considered against the backdrop of the descriptions of computer usage in higher education in the first and second decades of use (as explained in section 2.2). In the early days computers were used almost entirely to support administration, and indeed this continues to be a frequent practice. Teaching and learning usage was occasional and fragmented. Our findings show that overall there is significant and widespread use of some kind for teaching and learning in the Western Cape.2
Although from now on we focus on computer use for teaching and learning, it is interesting to consider computer use generally in relation to overall use for teaching and learning. Academics use computers most frequently for work-related administration and to communicate; in contrast, students use them most frequently to study and to access information. Overall we see that students generally
Table 5.4: Daily use of computers by staff for general tasks across institutions
To communicate with people
To teach For recreation To do research For work-related administration
CTech 89% 58% 12% 24% 83%
PenTech 76% 55% 17% 38% 74%
UCT 55% 31% 15% 32% 47%
UWC 17% 17% 17% 17% 17%
SU 23% 22% 19% 22% 24%
n = 496 246 129 163 225 76
Table 5.5: Number of academics and students who make infrequent (never or rare) use of a computer for all of the 18 teaching and learning activities listed in the sur vey
1Valid n Never Rarely Both %
Staff 480 6 10 16 3.33%
Students 5826 48 77 125 2.15%
46% report using computers more frequently than staff (Figure
5.2). For example, 45% of students say they use a computer daily for study and to access information whereas 33%
of staff say they use it daily for teaching and only 26%
daily for research. It is interesting that the reported use of computers for recreation is lowest for both staff and students;
presumably this has to do with the nature of the context and the kinds of respondents we had.
Another observation of note is that even though staff do not report using computers frequently for their own practice, they expect their students to do so. For example, only 26%
of staff say they use computers daily for research (Figure 5.2), yet 90% ask students to use a computer to find information (Figure 5.3), and 53%3 of staff ask students to do so frequently. This disjuncture might be explained by a distinction between the two processes. Asking students to use a computer for information-seeking activities is part of the teaching process for an academic and not part of their research process, hence the high rate of request.
Table 5.6 shows minimum use of all media forms by students.
However, despite overall similarities of staff and student use of computers for teaching and learning, there is some indication that students report using computers even when not required to do so. For example, 75% of students report using some form of communicative media occasionally or more frequently in their courses (Table 5.6), yet only 55%
report being asked to use communicative media as part of their courses (Figure 5.3).
5.2.3 The breadth of computer use
In addition to the extent of use, we were also interested in the breadth of use of computers across a range of teaching and learning events in the region. We therefore examined how many students were required to use a computer across the teaching and learning events. Overall, 27% of students said they were required to use a computer for all four teaching and learning events of discovery, communication, practice and creation – this indicates that they had a breadth of use of computers (Table 5.7). The majority of students (51%) were required to use a computer for at least two or more events, and 18% for one event only. Only 4% were not required to use a computer for any event at all. This indicates that the majority of students are required to use a computer for more than one teaching and learning event, although only a quarter of students are required to use a computer across the whole range of events.
Note that when answering the questions about use of computers for teaching and learning, students and staff were asked to think about their overall experience studying or teaching courses in their institution. So this data reflects their overall experience at an institution rather than their experience of a particular course in a particular year.