Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
educational benefits of the Internet for students than for institutions. More respondents saw
their use as providing more information and improving quality more on average than the
administrative uses.
Administrative Uses
This section discusses the results for the Administrative uses. Table 1 shows the level
of Administrative usage of the Internet by respondents. The “information provision” usages
were the most commonly used (Important notices, schedules/timetables, assignment and
grade distribution). Less common were the more “interactive' options, assignment collection,
and student enrollment.
Most of the benefits for each particular administrative use are fairly close for students
and the institution, except for instances where the benefits save money. In most of these
instances, more respondents saw the benefits flowing to the institution than to students.
Assignment collection is an interesting administrative use of the Internet. Few respon-
dents saw benefits in relation to more information or the quality of information being provided
to institutions or students. This would be expected, as the task of submitting an assignment
would generally add little useful knowledge to the student or the staff member.
Around 80% of respondents that had implemented these last two features indicated that
they saved time. This was the highest recognition of “time saved” benefits of all of the
administrative uses.
The key here may be the level of difficulty involved in setting up the two features. It
is extremely easy to set up the distribution of assignments and student grades on the Internet.
Educational Uses
This section discusses the results for the Educational uses. As with Administrative
usages, the easiest features to set up were the most commonly used (Distribute Course/
Subject Notes, Provide External Links). Less common were the more “interactive” options,
discussion lists, and online chat groups. About three quarters of respondents used the
Internet to answer student queries (probably by email). As with Administrative uses, most
of the benefits are similar for students and the institution, with (again) some differences for
instances where the benefits save money more for the institution than students.
However, in contrast to administrative benefits, more respondents saw the differences
in the benefits of educational uses flowing to students than to institutions. In three of the
uses, saving time
was not
the most common benefit identified. These were the provision of
external links to additional resources, discussion lists and online chats, where improved
quality of information and more information were more commonly identified.
Discussion
All respondents to the survey identified as least one type of Internet usage to assist
them. Approximately seven out of ten adopted Administrative uses, and roughly the same
proportion adopted Educational uses. This supports the notion identified in the literature that
the technology would be accepted in the tertiary education field. The following findings
support the notion that educators identify the value-added uses of the Internet in tertiary
education.
The most common benefit for administrative uses was to save time for the institution
and for students. Most administrative benefits were similar for both groups, except for “save
