PBA Home > Institutional Research & Analysis > FCQ > FCQ Related Studies > Results from Instructional Technology Items

Results from Instructional Technology Items
on the Spring, 1999 FCQ

• Correlations
• Overall Results
• Undergraduate vs Graduate
• By College

In spring, 1999, four items concerning course use of instructional technology (IT) - specifically,e-mail and the World Wide Web - were added to the FCQ on the B side, in the spaces reserved for instructors, departments, and colleges to add additional items. The four items were:

1. Course use of email - individual or a group email list
2. Course use of the Web (Internet), OTHER THAN email
3. Effect on learning experience of course email use
4. Effect on learning experience of course Web use

The scale for the first two questions was "very heavy=A B C D F=none," and for the last two was "helped lots=A B C D F=hurt lots." An "NA" (not applicable) response was also provided on all four items. Responses were converted to a 5-point numerical scale, with A=4 and F=0, before analyses.

The four IT questions were included on virtually every FCQ administered in spring, 1999, including lecture, lab, and recitation sections alike - over 3,200 sections in all. The section mean was the unit of analysis in the results below.

Results:

Correlations
One could almost say that to a large degree, students consider heavy use and effective use of IT to be the same thing:

• E-mail use with e-mail effect: .77
• Web use with Web effect: .76

Instructors that make use of one form of IT tend to use the other as well:

• E-mail use with Web use: .56

Ratings do not appear to be affected by a halo effect, where instructors with high overall ratings are rated highly on everything, including IT use:

• Overall course and instructor ratings with IT use: -.05 to .06
• Overall course and instructor ratings with IT effect: .10 to .17

Overall results
The table below shows overall results for all course sections.

Table 1: Mean Ratings for IT Use and Effectiveness
(Scales -- Use: 4=very heavy use, 0=no use; Effect: 4=helped lots, 0=hurt lots):

Undergraduate vs. graduate level courses
E-mail use was higher among graduate level classes; Web use was about the same across the two levels. Effectiveness ratings for both e-mail and the Web were somewhat higher at the graduate level.

Table 2: Mean Ratings for Graduate and Undergraduate Sections
(Scales -- Use: 4=very heavy use, 0=no use; Effect: 4=helped lots, 0=hurt lots):

By College
The table below shows results for the four items broken down by college, separately for graduate and undergraduate levels. Results vary to a degree, but in general, the Colleges of Engineering, Business, and Journalism rated higher for IT use and effectiveness than Arts and Sciences, Architecture and Planning, Music, Education, and Law.

Table 3: Mean Ratings by College, in Graduate and Undergraduate Sections
(Scales -- Use: 4=very heavy use, 0=no use; Effect: 4=helped lots, 0=hurt lots):

PBA: - l:\ir\fcq\itopt\adbrd.doc

Last revision 10/31/03