Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
FUTURE TRENDS
Certainly, one of the current issues in IT education is the need to gain a better
understanding of the incoming skills of our students. Having a better understanding of what
IT skills students bring to class facilitates the move from teacher-centered instruction to
student-centered instruction. This movement should accommodate our student's diverse
learning styles, prior experience, and knowledge. We may, for example, want to look at CD-
based learning for computer application skills. Jeffries (2001) found significant differences
in cognitive gains and satisfaction for nursing students using a CD-ROM compared to
traditional lectures for learning oral medication administration. There are many CD-based
products available for teaching basic computer skills. Further investigation into their
usefulness, or the usefulness of other teaching approaches, could be beneficial.
Once we have a better understanding of the incoming skills of our students, we can
begin to look at the effectiveness of the learning that takes place in our course. We have
initiated an effort to measure our students' learning. At the end of the semester, students
participated in a second set of self-assessment and actual-assessment exercises. This data
may be useful to help us determine the extent of learning that occurred during the semester.
It may also help identify the gaps that exist in our curriculum. Further, analyzing our students'
self-perceptions at the end of the course will help to identify if students become more realistic
and accurate in predicting their actual skill levels related to information technology.
Specifically, we plan on reviewing the change between the pretest Assessment Index and the
posttest Assessment Index. Additionally, we would like to investigate student performance
for each of the detailed skills that comprised the major skills areas. This should help us focus
the curriculum to avoid covering skills that students already know, and should allow for more
time on difficult skills, or skills currently not covered due to time constraints.
We also anticipate conducting a longitudinal study of students' computer literacy and
to more fully explore the factors that influence a student's self-assessment of their computing
skills.
CONCLUSION
The objective of this research effort was to determine the incoming computing skills
levels of business students. We found that incoming students have the most skill with
Windows operating systems tasks; 94.7% of them performed at the Expert, Advanced, or
Intermediate levels. There was a marked drop between this skill area and all other areas tested.
No other area had greater than 21.8% (PowerPoint) of the students performing at the Expert,
Advanced, or Intermediate levels. The students demonstrated the least skill in the computer
concepts area; only 4.7% had an incoming skill level at the Expert, Advanced, or Intermediate
levels. By discovering what level of computer literacy our students actually have, and
pinpointing areas where students lack proficiency, we feel we are now in a better position to
develop curriculum to address the weaknesses.
The aspect of the research that measured the difference between students' self-
assessed computer skills and their actual computer skills should help us to develop an
effective and efficient solution for managing the ever-evolving technology that permeates
most, if not all, of the courses in the business curriculum. In this study, there was a consistent,
inflated, self-perception of computer literacy across all five of the topic areas. Students were
most accurate in self-assessing their Windows capabilities; only 6.9% of the students rated
