Faculty Directions, Fall 2003 - Surveys of Laptop Faculty and Students Provide Insight

Barbara Weaver
Educational Technology Services

To assess the Laptop Faculty Development Program and find ways to improve the support offered to laptop faculty, surveys were conducted at the end of fall and spring semesters last year. The results provide insight into the challenge of integrating laptop technology with teaching and learning:

• A clear relationship exists between faculty participation in development workshops and their student outcomes.
• Teaching with laptops demands a willingness to change how we teach; the studio format appears to be the most successful.
• In general, give a laptop to a good teacher and you still have a good teacher. Rarely does giving a laptop to a struggling teacher make a difference in the teacher's success.
• Student engagement is the key to successful laptop pedagogy.
• It takes a lot of time to develop online course materials and pedagogically sound laptop assignments.

Laptop Survey Results

Sixty-two percent of the students said they felt more engaged in their laptop class than in their traditionally-taught classes. Only six percent said they felt less engaged in their laptop class. Faculty were more positive with 86 percent saying they felt students were more enged in laptop classes.

Forty-nine percent of the students said the laptop helped them learn more while only 11 percent said the laptop did not help. Again faculty were more positive with 75% believing students in the laptop class learned more.

Twenty-seven percent of the students said the interaction in laptop classes was better, 61 percent saw no difference, and 12 percent felt the interaction was worse. 48 percent of faculty said interaction was better, and 33 percent found no difference.

Twenty-two percent of students said they worked harder in their laptop class, while 16 percent said they did not.

Ninty-one percent of faculty said they taught differently in their laptop classes.

Sixty-nine percent of the students said they were adequately prepared for laptop assignments, while 13 percent said they were not. Seventy-seven percent of faculty said they were adequately prepared to teach laptop classes.

The surveys of laptop faculty and students will be administered again this year. For more information on the surveys and other aspects of the Laptop Faculty Development Program, please email me or call me at 650-8238.