Keywords: technology adoption, technology usage, student behaviour, higher education. Technology evolves rapidly, and it is vital that educational institutions monitor students’ attitudes and opinions on a regular basis.... [ view full abstract ]
Keywords: technology adoption, technology usage, student behaviour, higher education.
Technology evolves rapidly, and it is vital that educational institutions monitor students’ attitudes and opinions on a regular basis. Institutes must provide resources to students who struggle with Information and communications technology (ICT) and to understand how students are using and accessing ICT for academic purposes, technology is an important medium of delivering content (Ladyshewsky and Pettapiece, 2015).
Online learning has seen huge growth in the past number of years due to its easy access and flexibility for learners, and more educational institutions are introducing online programmes to target the demand for distant education. Mike Jennings, General Secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, highlighted the problems arising from online learning including the rise in plagiarism, and the naïve belief that supervision, interaction and dialogue can be done away with due to technology (Humphreys, 2015).
To ensure educational outcomes are being met, the pros and cons of technology in education must be examined from a student’s perspective (O’Brien 2016). Educators must be aware that students who are regular users of technology for social purposes such as using Facebook, are not always as comfortable with technology for academic purposes.
The research carried out in this study examines how technology impacts on students in higher education focusing on the Institute of Technology Tralee but results are of interest to other small to medium institutes. The methodology is based on an original study funded by Evaluation of Learners’ Experiences of e-learning Special Interest Grant (ELESIG) and carried out by the University of Edinburgh, A Survey of Undergraduate Technology Use and Attitudes (Macleod and Paterson, 2011).
An online survey distributed to all students was used as the data collection method. Results were analysed using descriptive methods and predictive analysis was carried out to determine predicted behaviours and factors that influence student usage of technology.
Findings from the research indicate that 39% of students spend more than 5 hours a day online with 78% of students accessing Facebook on a daily basis. 17% of students reported themselves to being very or a little apprehensive in their ability in using ICT in their studies and only 31% of students surveyed, reported to accessing the colleges’ Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), on a daily basis. 86% of students access their Student Email on a daily basis and 34% of students rarely or never access the Library Catalogue online.
This research can help institutions regarding decisions related to Improving IT services and prioritising IT investments to areas of value to students. It also gives insight into understanding student’s competence of technology which can often be overestimated.
Selected References
Baradwaj, B. and Pal, S., 2012. Mining educational data to analyze student’s performance. Internation Journal od Advamced Computer Science and Applications, [online] 2(6), pp.63–69. Available at: .
Humphreys, J., 2015. Rush to e-learning may fuel online plagiarism, warns lecturers. [online] The Irish Times. Available at: [Accessed 10 Mar. 2016].
Ladyshewsky, R. and Pettapiece, R.G., 2015. Exploring Adult Learners usage of information communication technology during a virtual peer coaching experience. Online Learning, 19(2), pp.107–121.
Macleod, H. and Paterson, J., 2011. A Survey of Undergraduate Technology Use and Attitudes.
Sherman, W.H. and Beaty, D.M., 2007. The use of distance technology in educational leadership preparation programs. Journal of Educational Administration, 45(5), pp.605–620.
Learning trends & technologies , Data analytics for learning
