ERIC Number: EJ1080348
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2187-0594
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
To What Degree Are Undergraduate Students Using Their Personal Computers to Support Their Daily Study Practices?
Sim, KwongNui; Butson, Russell
IAFOR Journal of Education, v2 n1 p158-171 Win 2014
This scoping study examines the degree to which twenty two undergraduate students used their personal computers to support their academic study. The students were selected based on their responses to a questionnaire aimed at gauging their degree of computer skill. Computer activity data was harvested from the personal computers of eighteen students and video footage of the students personal study sessions was gathered from a further four students. Three core themes emerged: (1) Academic Use vs. Non-academic Use; (2) Computer Orientated vs. Paper Orientated; and (3) Self-reports of Practice vs. Actual Practice. Overall results suggested three fundamental behaviors relating to technology use: 1] they were more likely to engage in nonacademic work than academic work on their personal computer; 2] they were more inclined to use paper-based approaches compared to digital ones despite the high rate of personal computer ownership and internet access; 3] there was a disparity between students' self-reports of the degree to which they used their personal computers for academic purposes (high) and nonacademic purposes (low) to what we found from computer logs which showed academic use as low and non-academic use as high. From these results we conclude that for this group of students computers played an important role in their day to day lives, but the degree to which they were used in their academic study was lower than we had expected.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Computer Uses in Education, Study Habits, Questionnaires, Computer Literacy, Video Technology, Student Behavior, Internet, Diaries, Electronic Learning, Grounded Theory, Use Studies, Self Disclosure (Individuals)
International Academic Forum. Sakae 1-16-26 - 201 Naka Ward, Nagoya Aichi, Japan 460-0008. Tel: +81-50-5806-3184; Web site: http://iafor.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A