Of the overwhelming majority of faculty who use a computer, 88% reported that they use it for word processing, 80% for the World Wide Web, 48% for statistical analysis, and 40% for database management or information retrieval.

How is the Internet used?

Most faculty (87%) reported having activated an Access Account, a user ID and password combination that allows faculty, students, and staff to access many computer resources and services, send and receive electronic mail, and explore worldwide Internet resources such as the World Wide Web.

70% of faculty reported they "frequently" access the Internet or World Wide Web. Most use it to gather information relevant to their research, for personal use, or to gather information for their classes. 38% of faculty responded that they had a personal Web page, and 30% said they had a home page for one or more of their courses.

What is the impact of computing on education?

We asked about the impact of computing on their students' education. Interestingly enough, 37% of faculty responded that computing had a "very positive impact" and 57% said "some positive impact" on undergraduate education.

In regard to graduate education, 67% of faculty believed that computing had "very positive impact" with 30% answering "some positive impact."

Should the amount of computer use required in their department's courses be increased?

19% thought it should be significantly increased while 44% thought it should be increased slightly.

Faculty also reported that computing has been extremely important to their own professional work (60%).

37% of faculty believed that the use of a computer for classroom presentation greatly enhanced learning.

Fig. 2. Importance of computing to professional work

World Wide Web Skills

While faculty rated their skills at navigating the Web positively (18% reported that they have "excellent" skills, 33% have "good" skills, and 31% have "fair" skills); they are less skilled at creating Web materials.

Only 4% reported having "excellent" skills, while 9% report having "good" skills and 15% "fair" skills.

To help meet the need for better technology skills, the CAC offered a large number of seminars to faculty, TAs, and staff last summer. Over 800 people attended at least one workshop. Future seminar offerings will include "Winter-Fest 98," which will be held from January 5 to 9, 1998.

Pulse Survey of Students at University Park

A Student Computer Experience Survey was conducted in November 1996 to find out what computer training students had before coming to Penn State, how they rated their current skills, their use of computers to fulfill class requirements, and their attitude toward computer competence as related to current and future goals. This survey focused only on students at University Park. The sample includes both graduate students and undergraduates.

The majority of students indicated that they had computer training before entering Penn State. Many students rated their word processing skills as very good or excellent and indicated they were comfortable learning new computer programs.

Nearly all students had activated their Access Account provided to them by the University.

Three fourths of students surveyed had a class that required them to use computers for word processing.

Students answered that in the past three weeks they had used a personal computer most often to access their e-mail or to do word processing:

Just less than half (49%) of students said that they owned a computer when they came to Penn State while 63% currently own a computer. Only a small percentage of these computers are notebooks. Most students (75%) use a Windows-compatible computer.

Comparison of student computing at University Park and the CES

A second Students Pulse Survey was done in April 1997 to learn about the computer experience of students in the Commonwealth Education System (CES).

This study reported that most students from the seventeen CES campuses said they had computer experience before coming to college. Younger students were more likely to have used computers, have activated their Access Accounts, and felt more confident about their computer skills than older students. Size of the campus was less important than gender or the age of students. CES students reported that computer use was required for about half of their courses.

University Park students were more likely than CES students to rate themselves as skilled using computers, but both groups anticipate that the use of computers will be very important or extremely important to their work after graduation.

More CES students (61%) than University Park students (48%) indicated that they felt information technology had added "much" or "very much" to the quality of their Penn State education.

Future Directions

We anticipate that faculty use of Internet resources such as the World Wide Web will continue to expand in keeping with world trends. Over 900 faculty have Web space on the CAC's personal Web server. In addition, many faculty maintain Web pages related to courses and research on other servers in the colleges and departments.

Over 800 staff are also using the Web for personal and professional purposes. As more staff learn how to publish Web pages, Penn State's Web site is better supported. The Web is fast becoming the primary means of information distribution. In some cases, such as the University policies and some academic journals, it is now the sole means of distribution.

Over 9,100 students are now taking advantage of the free Web space offered by the CAC. This gives the students an opportunity to show their resumés and Web skills to future employers, complete assignments for courses, and have fun putting their favorite links on their home page.

According to "Campus Computing, 1996," a national survey of higher education institutions, "over one-fourth (27 percent) of the 660 institutional respondents to the 1996 Campus Computing Survey identify 'assisting faculty integrate technology into instruction' as the 'single most important' information technology issue at their institution in the coming years. Another fourth (24 percent) report that 'providing adequate user support' is the top technology challenge confronting their campus. Still important but less frequently cited technology issues include 'enhancing/expanding the campus network' and 'financing the replacement of aging hardware and software."

According to Dr. Margaret Smith, Editor in the Center for Academic Computing, "Web pages created by faculty, students, and staff have opened new ways of learning never before imagined. This new technology alone brings individual creativity to the forefront because it allows everyone to self-publish. From year to year it's interesting to analyze surveys of computer use, as you can easily see the progression to increasing integration of technology into the academic environment."

Professor Harwood, Director of Education Technology Services in the Center for Academic Computing, comments, "Faculty expect to see some surprising new opportunities as research and teaching opportunities are revolutionized. In a few short years, with the upgrades to the campus network completed, one will be able to send a variety of data to classrooms, computer labs, and individual computers. Instructional video, multimedia, virtual reality. . . how will these staggering improvements in the Internet change teaching and learning?"

By Margaret Smith, Center for Academic Computing.

The principal investigator of the CAC's faculty survey was John T. Harwood, Director, Education Technology Services, Center for Academic Computing. He was assisted by Margaret Smith, Ph.D., Editor and Survey Specialist, Center for Academic Computing.

The Pulse Student Computer Surveys were conducted by Dr. Betty Moore, Senior Research Analyst, Student Services Office.

The national survey, "Campus Computing, 1996," was conducted by Kenneth C. Green, Visiting Scholar, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA, in December 1996.

Survey Web Sites

CAC Faculty Survey: http://cac.psu.edu/surveys/facultysp97/

Pulse Student Survey for University Park:
http://blue.ue.psu.edu/psu/sa/vpsa/pa/pulse/compexp.html

Pulse CES Survey:
http://blue.ue.psu.edu/psu/sa/vpsa/pa/pulse/ces.html

National Survey:
http://ericir.syr.edu/Projects/Campus_computing/index.html