Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 12. Actual skills score — Windows
Windows
Pre-Test Actual Skill
s
Score
Rating
Count
%
Average
88.8%
Expert
338
68.7%
Standard
Deviation
91
18.5%
12.3%
Advanced
Minimum
30.0%
Intermediate
37
7.5%
Maximum
100.0%
Some Skill
26
5.3%
0
0.0%
Beginner
Count
492
100.0%
The results of the actual test of the students' PowerPoint skills yielded 78.3% of the
students at the “Beginner” or “Some Skill” categories. In their self-assessment of PowerPoint
skills, 49.6% of the students estimated their PowerPoint skills to be at the lowest levels (Not
at all or Not very well) relative to the PowerPoint tasks they later attempted on the actual skills
test.
The skill area in which the participants tested highest was the operating systems area,
specifically the Windows operating system. Only 5.3% tested at the “Some Skill” level, with
no students testing at the “Beginner” level. This compares favorably to the students' self-
assessment of their operating system skills, where only 1.6% said they had no (Not at all) or
little (Not very well) operating system skills. This result suggests that an operating system
topic in the introductory computer course may soon become a relatively small skills
component of the course.
Self-Assessment Compared to Actual Skills
The preceding section represented an
aggregate
analysis of the students' self-
assessed computer skills and their actual computer skills. We thought it would also be
interesting to look at individual student's self-assessment compared to their actual assess-
ment for each of the five areas to determine how accurate they were in assessing their actual
skill level. Tables 13 through 17 below reflect the results for each of the five skill areas
(concepts, spreadsheets, etc.) that compare each student's self-assessed ability for complet-
ing the topic tasks (All of the time, Most of the time, Sometimes, Not very well, Not at all) to
a five-point rating of their actual skill (Expert, Advanced, Intermediate, Some Skill, and
Beginner). In terms of mapping the self-assessment rating to the actual skills rating, the
following pairings were used:
•
All of the time
Expert
•
Most of the time
Advanced
•
Sometimes
Intermediate
•
Not very well
Some skill
•
Not at all
Beginner
